3. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven And The Red Death by Richard Corben (Dark Horse)
Ah, Halloween! The time of year when we bust out the treats, awaiting the costumed kiddies (but mostly eating all of the Haribo ourselves) as we watch horror movie after horror movie, and curl up with a classic Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe story in a dimly lit room. If you're a comics reader, Dark Horse is the de facto publisher to look up for the dark and spooky - the Hellboy books alone make them THE Halloween publisher. This Halloween sees the release of classic horror artist and Eisner Hall of Fame Inductee Richard Corben's comic book adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's classics The Raven and The Masque of the Red Death. For those who haven't read the wonderfully singsong poem or saw the Simpsons unforgettable rendering, The Raven is about a haunted man who loses his beloved woman Lenore and is one night - upon a midnight dreary - visited by a demonic raven who sits atop a bust of Pallas chanting "Nevermore!". Rather than repeat the poem stanza by stanza Corben shows us the poem with his legendary artwork, presenting it as much more like a story, occasionally inserting a line from the poem. Corben also gives his own interpretation of the ending in a visually striking, gory and original way that I'm not sure readers of the poem will likely have thought of before - but it's amazing! The Masque of the Red Death is about Prince Prospero who holds a decadent party within his castle walls as all outside his kingdom, his people die from the Red Death. In the party he colours each room a separate colour and commands that no guest may wear red - and then a strikingly red figure appears in their midst. The Red Death is upon them after all! Corben's unique art style is often very bloody and while the end scene of the Raven is very Corben-esque, the Red Death is Corben unleashed as he gruesomely delights in showing us the effects of the Red Death on Prospero's guests. The Red Death itself is suitably horrific and as scary as its true visage is, the mask it wears is especially terrifying. Richard Corben's art is really well suited to Poe's macabre tales and there's no better comic to read this Halloween than the coupling of these two masters of horror as they present two ghoulishly good stories that'll have you happily afraid. What is that rapping on your door - is it trick or treaters or... nevermore?