Review: ‘Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter Of Death’ #1 Entertains With Two Tales Of Gothicism And Gags

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Death #1 carries two new tales of horror and humour with the return of Mark Russell and Peter Snejberg’s The Monster Serials and Stuart Moore and Frank Cammuso’s Evermore, recounting the origins of the titular Edgar Allan Poe. 

The Monster Serials have clearly proven to be a big hit with readers and the return of the Marquis De Cocoa is a welcome return. These characters, all ripped from the cereal boxes of our collective youth may have started off as a satirical strip but as this series has progressed it has taken on a more gothic sensibility and this latest instalment manages to balance the gothicism and humour perfectly. The Count is a prisoner of the local villagers who have him tide to a stake awaking the morning’s sunrise and his death. But then a Quaker intervenes with the suggestion that the Count may not be a vampire, Absurd indeed, and another character ever reader will immediately recognise too. It’s this Quaker that infuses the script with humour, while the Count’s narration brings tines of classic gothic literature to the fore. And Snejberg’s certainly helps to solidify this whole affair as something more than simple pastiche. The main cats may have once been merry mascots for an unhealthy breakfast, but they are all recast as more realistic looking folk in a world not too out of step with that once imagined by Poe himself.

Backing up this strip is Moore and Cammuso’s Evermore, the adventures of Edgar Allan Poe when he was a boy with a script that mimics Poe’s own prose perfectly. Just with more laughs and swearing. It’s a far more cartoon like affair thanks to the art of Cammuso; something akin to the Saturday morning cartoons of our youth, but with a more adult sensibility.

Poe, and his pet raven, meets a girl named Lenore who’s a rather wicked young girl to say the least, locking up the young boy in a creepy, corpse-laden cell. A situation that results in a spark in the young boys mind that Moore and Cammuso imply led the lad to a life of macabre writing and turning the lad to the demon drink as well. Pure nonsense, of course, but nonsense of the highest order. One part E.C. horror comics and another MAD magazine. Great, goofy, gothic stuff!

A string opening issue for this third volume of this cheeky, creepy comic and a strong statement of intent too. And out now from AHOY Comics