Poe #4 (of 4) (Boom! – Mitchell / Kotz)
He created Horror. Find out how horror created him… as our intrepid author Edgar Allen Poe delves into the dark side of man. It’s the final showdown between the Red Death and Poe, time begins to run out! Will Poe live to tell the tale? Supernatural adventure for fans of books like HELLBOY!
Poe is historic fiction that de-emphasizes the historic and takes quite a few liberties with the life of one of the greatest and haunted writers of all time. J. Barton Mitchell (writer) puts a twist on it and takes the “haunted” life of the famous author literally. And you know what, that’s okay unless of course you are using this comic as source material for a biography that you are writing for you English class… and if that’s the case you might have other issues to attend to.
Poe is a supernatural mystery-action story that works very well. So well in fact, that to me it really felt like a Sherlock Holmes tale or a what if Fringe was told in the 19th century type yarn – and in case you are wondering, that means pretty high praise from me. What I would suggest is sitting down, and not unlike Poe’s own stories, and reading all four issues at once and being able to take it all in as one big tale rather than four parts. While the story is filled with meticulous details, the action is never stymied by it. From cover to cover, a grande read! And if all I got was the story alone, I would be thrilled. But, this is drawn by Dean Kotz which pushes me from thrilled to estatic! Dean Kotz, who also is working on The Black Coat (yet another historic action book that is phenominal!). Kotz’s use of shadow and line makes his work stand out. His ability to capture all the drama and action of an entire scene and not make it look like a staged splashpage or designed to be a cover (hmmmm… wonder if I’m talking about DC) makes him destined to be recognized as one of the greats of tomorrow.
Poe #4 is out today and is well worth your time and money and I hope the trade comes soon!
Issue grade: A
