Poe’s Shadow

“From the start, I should confess to the urgency with which I write, for I am about to die, this I predict.”

TITLE:

IN THE SHADOW OF EDGAR ALLEN POE

WRITER:

by Jonathon Scott Fuqua

ARTISTS:

by Steven Parke (digital illustration)
and Stephen John Phillips (photography)

PUBLISHER:

DC Comics/Vertigo Inprint

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror, Gothic Horror

DESCRIPTORS:

Edgar Allan Poe, Death, Insanity, Pact with a Ghost, Ghosts, Demons, Alcoholism, Drug Use, Creativity

SUMMARY:

Sterling Tuttle was once a leading scholar specializing in Edgar Allan Poe studies at Johns Hopkins University and recently forced to go on sabbatical. His reputation is in some disrepute and he has suffered a loss that has set him drinking. It is late at night when he opens a diary that was sent to him which purports to be an account of Edgar Allan Poe’s life written by him while hospitalized in the last weeks of his life.

The diary details the pact Edgar made with the ghost of his biological father offering literary brilliance in exchange for harboring the ghosts and demons within his body. Edgar accepts. It turns out to be an ill-considered agreement for while he does write brilliantly, the fame and money he assumed would accompany brilliance eludes him. Nor does his writing career quell his passion for his kindly paternal aunt and the growing desire for her young daughter (his niece) who is soon to come of age.

In a bid for a better life, Edgar moves to Richmond — safely out of the range of the spirits who can no longer reside in him and therefore can’t hurt him — or so he thinks. However, they withdraw their gift of literary brilliance and soon begin to target the people he cares most about, his aunt and niece, to teach him the errors of his ways.

Can he save the people he loves or has he just doomed his world?

APPEAL:

This is a very memorable book.

The pacing is leisurely as the tale chronicles the downfall of Poe over a period of years. It is carried by the suspense, the brooding characterization and the stunning digital photography artwork.

Fuqua’s intense characterization of Edgar Allan Poe, a man undone by ghostly demons, his own self-doubt and avarice is superb. Less characterization for Maria, Virginia, and Sterling but they do stand out as unique people.

Told in first person past tense, Poe is the narrator as it is his written diary that we are reading, except when we break to Sterling and his disturbed thoughts about the diary, his life and loss. The narration and dialogue are in free-floating captions that sometimes make it a little hard to read. Look carefully for quotation marks to denote dialogue.

Sterling’s life hints at having many uncomfortable parallels to Poe’s life. The diary narrative and the dialogue of Poe and his contemporaries attempt to adhere to Poe’s literary style. The photo art depict old Baltimore and Richmond beautifully.

READALIKES:

Okay, I have to admit that I can’t think of any readalikes for this graphic novel. It has digitally enhanced photographic art and a gothic sensibility to the story