• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

POE RETURNS TO BOSTON IN GRAPHIC NOVEL FORM

Written by M.J. TIDWELL Posted September 20, 2017 Filed Under: A+E, Books

 

Boston’s prodigal son returns home with a new Edgar Allen Poe graphic novel adaptation by Gareth Hinds. Acclaimed for his adaptations and illustrations of the likes of Beowulf, The Odyssey, and Macbeth, Hinds now takes on Poe’s dark and twisty world. He will discuss his book, Poe Stories and Poems, at several Boston-area events in the next week, including a stop at the Brookline Booksmith on Sept 26.

 

Each of the seven stories and poems brought to life in the book receives its own special treatment, style, and mood. A sepulchral raven with wings of skulls looms here; there, a glistening eye shines through a sliver of lantern light.

 

For the illustrator, he says he saw an opportunity to use different styles to reflect the moods of the writing. On the last page, there is an elegant pencil drawing of Poe’s grave with a smudged raven perched atop.

 

One of the most difficult parts of the adaptation process with this book for Hinds was that Poe often wrote with first-person narration.

 

“That presents a challenge in that Poe leaves the narrator ambiguous,” he said. “And that’s one of the things that’s lovely about it, is that the narrator sort of could be anybody. But I had to actually choose.”

 

To find the right visual pairings, Hinds made test pages and played with color and tone, sometimes digitally but in large part still using traditional graphic novel techniques. He said his favorite to adapt was “The Telltale Heart.” For the one person in North America who hasn’t read it, the story involves some slightly gruesome dismembering and the undulations of its titular telltale heart.

 

“He describes the narrator dismembering this body, which is horrifying enough, but when you do that visually, it becomes over-the-top grisly,” Hinds said. “I had to strike the right balance, which actually was to show very little and leave a lot to the reader’s imagination.”

 

Leaving a lot to the reader’s imagination does involve the careful laying out of various saws and tools, however, so don’t expect to escape with a clear mind’s eye.

 

Though Poe left his Boston birthplace with no love lost, and indeed took to calling its residents “Frogpondians,” his eerie prose has resonance as the first leaves begin to change around the Frog Pond. Coupled with Hinds’ exquisite renderings, Poe Stories and Poems is a haunting welcome into autumn.

 

GARETH HINDS: POE STORIES AND POEMS GRAPHIC NOVEL ADAPTATION.

FRI 9.22. 6:30PM/FREE. BLUE BUNNY BOOKS, 577 HIGH ST., DEDHAM. BLUEBUNNYBOOKS.COM

SAT 9.23. 2PM/FREE. AN UNLIKELY STORY, 111 SOUTH ST., PLAINVILLE. ANUNLIKELYSTORY.COM

MON 9.25. 7PM/FREE. PORTER SQUARE BOOKS, 25 WHITE ST., CAMBRIDGE. PORTERSQUAREBOOKS.COM

TUE 9.26. 7PM/FREE. BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH, 279 HARVARD ST., BROOKLINE. BROOKLINEBOOKSMITH.COM

M.J. TIDWELL
+ posts
    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: A+E, Books Tagged With: Boston, Edgar Allan Poe, Fall, Frog Pond, Frogpondians, Gareth Hinds, poe, poems

WHAT’S NEW

State Wire: Funds Aim To Support Municipalities With Expanded Mail Voting

State Wire: Funds Aim To Support Municipalities With Expanded Mail Voting

Parks & Checks: Wasteful, Opaque Bookkeeping At Two City Of Boston Nonprofit Arms

Parks & Checks: Wasteful, Opaque Bookkeeping At Two City Of Boston Nonprofit Arms

Surf’s Upcycled: Meet The Bay State Surfers Conserving The Oceans Where They Ride

Surf’s Upcycled: Meet The Bay State Surfers Conserving The Oceans Where They Ride

State Wire: Public Supports Changes To High-Stakes Testing For Mass Students

State Wire: Public Supports Changes To High-Stakes Testing For Mass Students

State Wire: White Supremacist Gatherings, Incidents Hit All-Time High In New England

State Wire: White Supremacist Gatherings, Incidents Hit All-Time High In New England

State Wire: Protests, Construction Continue at East Boston Substation

State Wire: Protests, Construction Continue at East Boston Substation

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • Does Massachusetts Underestimate Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
  • The Most Expensive Massachusetts City For Car Insurance (No, It’s Not Boston)
  • If You Find A Mini Felted Animal Around Boston, This Is Where It Came From
  • Photo Dispatch: “Ukraine Day” Rally In Boston’s Copley Square
  • As Prices Soar, Fossil Fuel Industry Looks After Its Interests On Beacon Hill

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com