There’s something to be said for good adaptations. They can--through a different medium--reveal something about a work. Haunt of Horror is a bunch of Poe poem adapted by Richard Corben. Some of them are straight adaptations, some of them are modernized or simply homages. It doesn’t really matter. When the first homage one showed up, I thought it would turn out better than the straight adaptations and, while it does, it still doesn’t turn out good. Haunt of Horror is an interesting proposition: taking something intended to be read language and turning it into something visual. Unfortunately, Haunt is an abject failure and not even an interesting one.
The poems Corben adapts are in summary and Corben adapts them faithfully. I’m just not sure clear on the purpose of taking something meant to be read and changing it into something meant to be looked at. It’s the kind of project a fourth grade class caps off the year with. Corben isn’t revealing anything about Poe’s poems, nor is he doing anything particularly special with his art. The Corben art is nice and, initially, I thought that niceness would be enough, but it’s not. Since the stories are all done in summary form, with a scene at the end--except when Corben’s really transfiguring them into his own--Corben’s pacing is totally thrown. There’s emphasis in the scenes and little in the summary. It’s all nice to look at, but it’s not engaging.
At four dollars an issue (three issues), I hoped Haunt of Horror would at least be fun to look at. Rewarding to see. But it isn’t. It perplexes me, who Corben intended to have as readers. Poe poetry people would prefer to read the poems and I’m not sure comic book people are Poe fans. So, either it’s for dilettante Poe readers or people who are able to turn off all reasoning when considering something. Because there’s no good reason for Haunt of Horror, unless Corben sells his pages. If Corben sells his pages, someone could buy and sell them at a profit. But that logic’s a real stretch....