Broken Frontier

The inimitable Edgar Allan Poe squeezes a hero out his backside, and what comes next is, unbelievably, a brilliant fantasy epic on par with Mouse Guard.

What’s in a name? In the case of The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, the title is a literal one, an absolute, pinpoint, accurate explanation of what you’ll find inside, as the historical E.A. Poe, taking care of business in an outhouse latrine, ejects a Mini-Me version of himself, a miniature little tin-type that falls down the toilet hole and into a world that’s one part surrealism a la Alice in Wonderland, two parts high fantasy anthropomorphism a la Redwall, and three parts dark epic danger in the vein of Lord of the Rings. Perhaps Little Nemo in Slumberland is the closest, stand-alone comparison to be made, although even then -- in case my flailing from classic to classic in desperate attempt to explain this magnificent bastard of a graphic novel hasn’t already clued you in -- the work in question is plainly unique, and stands on its own, a story well worth the read no matter how overexposed to past fantasy standards one may or may not be.

Writer Dwight L. MacPherson (of Markosia’s Dead Men Tell No Tales and Silent Devil’s Jim Reaper fame) has crafted an astonishingly good fantasy comic, utilizing the much loved through-the-looking-glass narrative structure of moving between real world to fictional world and then back again, and via this, weaves a complex, though wholly undemanding heroic quest comic. Basically, when the aforementioned ejected Edgar Allan Poo falls into the land of Terra Somnium, he befriends many a curious character there, all impossibly conceived, and they in turn lead him on a journey to discover his origins, his importance to this fantastical locale, and how both of these relate to a veritable cavalcade of nightmarish villains. Toss in a main baddie as quintessentially evil as Sauron or the Storm King, a story as caringly crafted and intellectually intriguing as it is random and damn-the-torpedoes, let’s make Edgar Allan Poe a piece of poop, TSAEAP is one lovable, enchanting gem.

Though -- story aside -- does the art sell it? Does it enhance it, suit it, make it all that it sounds to be? Oh, baby…the art is phenomenal. If ever I write a comic book, whatever the subject matter, whatever its desired aesthetic, tone, and tint, I am hand-selecting Thomas Boatwright to illustrate it, because he is bloody amazing. Handling all pencils, inks, and colors, he delivers a style like Scott Morse as trained by Don Bluth, a ridiculously well-matched blend of figurative art and crystal-clear animation. His protagonists are winsome and his villains fierce and his backgrounds deserve a gallery show of their own. Even better, his chosen color palate for Edgar Allan Poo is bar none; it evokes all the proper shades of atmosphere at all the right times, an exactingly painted portrait of a true gothic fantasy.

Now, this here book, it’s from Image, so no one’s got any excuse to blah blah blah my comic shop won’t blah -- your comic shop’s got it, and they can easily get more of it, so you get on and get it! At $9.99 for 96 gorgeously rendered pages of well constructed high-weird fantasy, you cannot, under any circumstances, go wrong with this book. It’s only "Book 1," too, so much more to come from these guys. The first outing comes to a decent enough close, though it’s largely a cliffhanger, with many questions left unanswered, nearly all the problems left unresolved. Still, I’ve rarely read so much actual event inside a mere 96 page GN (slim, for a collection), and here again I’ll stroke Mr. MacPherson’s ego by claiming his script to be the densest damn use of a sparse, nearly decompressed style I’ve ever experienced. So check it out, and let a long line of Edgar Allan Poo books rain from the heavens (so you can spend all those pennies that come from the same)!