Edgar Allan Poe in Black & White comics is a tale of two rival publishers. Warren and Skywald, both used the public domain stories of Edgar Allan Poe, largely at the same time in the early 1970s. Warren did it first in the early days of their black & white magazines, when Archie Goodwin was editor/writer. He had Reed Crandall, Jerry Grandenetti and Tom Sutton for artists. Warren would reprint some stories but also re-did several later as well.
Skywald jumped in 1973, using the same style of Spanish artwork that made Warren so great. For 1974, in particular, two men adapted competing version of the Poe’s tales, Rich Margopoulos at Warren and Al Hewetson at Skywald. Warren finished off this rivalry with two issues dedicated entirely to Poe alone, Creepy #69 and #70.
Here are those many adaptations side-by-side.
The Tell-Tale Heart
“The Tell-Tale Heart” (Creepy #3, 1965) adapted by Archie Goodwin.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” (Scream #8, August 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
The Cask of Amontillado
“The Cask of Amontillado” (Creepy #6, December 1965) adapted by Archie Goodwin.
“The Cask of Amontillado” (Scream #5, April 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“The Cask of Amontillado” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
Hop-Frog
“Hop-Frog” (Creepy #11, October 1966) adapted by Archie Goodwin.
Berenice
“Berenice” (Eerie #11, September 1967) adapted by Archie Goodwin.
“Berenice” (Scream #7, July 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“Berenice” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Masque of Red Death
“The Masque of Red Death” (Eerie #12, November 1967) adapted by Archie Goodwin.
“The Masque of Red Death” (Psycho #20, August 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
The Fall of the House of Usher
“The Fall of the House of Usher” (Eerie #20, March 1969) adapted and drawn by Tom Sutton. Truly one of Tom’s masterpieces.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” (Scream #3, December 1973) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Rich Margopoulos.
The Premature Burial
“The Premature Burial” (Nightmare #12, April 1973) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Rich Margopoulos.
The Conqueror Worm and The Haunted Palace
“The Conqueror Worm and The Haunted Palace” (Scream #5, April 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
The Black Cat
“The Black Cat” (Creepy #62, May 1974) adapted and drawn by Berni Wrightson
“The Black Cat” (Nightmare #20, August 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
William Wilson
“William Wilson” (Nightmare #19, June 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
Ligeia
“Ligeia” (Psycho #19, July 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
Metzengerstein
“Metzengerstein” (Scream #9, September 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
The Raven
“The Raven” (Psycho #13, July 1973) was adapted by Al Hewetson. Just two pages, Hewetson would expand it for Scream #11.
“The Raven” (Creepy #67, December 1974) adapted by Richard Margopoulos. The art by Richard Corben was in color, part of Warren’s special interior section. I have not included it here. There were several great Ken Kelly covers as well that I have not used because I wanted this to be about black & white.
“The Raven” (Scream #11, March 1975) adapted by Al Hewetson.
Ms. Found in a Bottle
“Ms. Found in a Bottle” (Scream #6, June 1974) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
“Ms. Found in a Bottle” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”(Psycho #21, October 1974) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Pit and the Pendulum
“The Pit and the Pendulum” (Scream #2, October 1973) adapted by Al Hewetson. Hewetson did not like the happy ending of Poe’s tale so he has the protagonist fall down the pit.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos. Margopoulos doesn’t like that ending either and has the dude devoured by rats. What’s a Poe character to do?
The Oval Portrait
“The Oval Portrait” (Creepy #69, February 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Oblong Box
“The Oblong Box” (Scream #4, February 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“The Oblong Box” (Vampirella #49, March 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
Man of the Crowd
“The Man of the Crowd” (Psycho #23, January 1975) adapted by Al Hewetson. This tale is one of the worse to adapt since nothing really happens. Still, I’m glad Poe wrote it because it inspired Conan Doyle’s Moriarty.
“Man of the Crowd” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Scream #10, October 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
A Descent Into the Maelstrom
“A Descent Into the Maelstrom” (Psycho #18, May 1974) adapted by Al Hewetson.
“A Descent into the Maelstrom” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
Shadow
“Shadow” (Creepy #70, April 1975) adapted by Richard Margopoulos.
The Imp of the Perverse
“The Imp of the Perverse” (Creepy #76, January 1976) adapted by Doug Moench.
Annabel Lee
“Annabel Lee” (1994 #27, October 1982) adapted by Richard Margopoulos. Poe wrote some early Science Fiction, so I think he’d approve.
Conclusion
By January 1975, Skywald was gone and Warren continued to use Poe’s famous works up to 1982 (with a futuristic version of “Annabel Lee”), when they, too, became extinct. In the final counting we can see the popular tales, like “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Berenice” got three versions while both Warren and Skywald did the only adaptations of the more obscure stuff like “Metzengerstein” or “The Oval Portrait”.
Edgar Allan Poe in Black & White is a fantastically Gothic display of the best of the Spanish school of comic illustrators (along with some great underground artists like Corben) and the widest explosion of pure Poesqueness since Harry Clarke’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1919). We won’t see another one until 1983 when Berni Wrightson illustrated Frankenstein.
Outstanding post. TY!! Steve (a lifelong Poe and comics [especially Wrightson] fan.
PS- Bernie almost adopted The Pit and the Pendulum. I used to own a fully-penciled (but not inked) original page. He decided to adapt The Black Cat instead.