Poe's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
(A Movie Classic / Conclusion)
Dell Comics were, for many years, the single BIGGEST comics publisher in the country. Their material was so aggressively family-oriented, that they never even got involved with the Comics Code (and had no problems with distribution, apparently). Much of their output was in "licensed" characters and series, as well as movie adaptations. Which brings us to this one.
We come now to the 3rd of 5 Dell "Movie Classics" devoted to American International Pictures' POE series, which features an adaptation of the 7th of 8 films in that series directed by Roger Corman. (Confused enough?) This also happens to be the 5th comics adaptation-- more or less-- of another of Poe's most famous short stories...
"THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH".
As with the 2 of the earlier comics versions, this one could be described as "loosely" adapted-- although, in many ways, the feature film is closer to the original story than either of those comics were. It also included "HOP FROG" as a sub-plot, meshing seamlessly with the main story, and making this comic also the 2nd adaptation of that story as well.
Poe's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
photo cover (Dell / August-October 1964)
(including "HOP FROG" / Version 2)
Adaptation by ?? / Art by FRANK SPRINGER
Page 22 / "And now... the EPIC conclusion!"
Some of the "edits" (for the sake of the Comics Code, no doubt) are a bit maddening. For example, we don't see Ludovico getting run through with a sword-- instead, only a short dagger is shown, some distance from his body, and with no blood on it. Later, Juliana is seen in a "Pit And The Pendulum" situation, rather than being attacked by Prospero's hunting falcon.
The comic was reprinted in Mexico...
CLASICOS DEL CINE 146
Photo cover (Editorial Novaro / Mexico / 1964)
Vincent Price as Prince Prospero by artist Mark Redfield.
by a company called "Distinctive Dummies". No kidding!
Scan of Poe's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
from the Heritage Auction site.
Scan of Poe's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH interiors
from the Comics Reading Library site.
with special thanks to Jon K.
Scan of CLASICOS DEL CINE #146
supplied by Cecilio A. Jacobo Glez with special thanks!
Photo of Masque action figure from the Monsters In Motion site.
I'd just like to add that I had a LOT of inexplicable trouble downloading some of the images from the CRL site, no doubt due to their being linked to "Flickr". It's a good thing I've been doing this as long as I have, as I was able to come up with a way around the problem.
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
For more:
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at The Poe Museum site.
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at the Biography site.
Read about Dell Comics at Don Markstein's Toonpedia.
Read about Frank Springer at Lambiek Comiclopedia.
Read an interview with Frank Springer at the Nerd Team 30 site.
See more Frank Springer art at the Romitaman site.
See more Frank Springer art at the Comic Art Fans site.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH:
Read about Vincent Price at the IMDB site.
Read about Skip Martin at the IMDB site.
Read about THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH at the Spark Notes site.
Read about THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH at the Crime Reads site.
Read about THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH at the Slate site.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the RED DEATH Gallery of Illustrations.
Audio:
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
Hear the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!
Comics:
Read the Bill Everett RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Bob Forgione RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Manoel Ferreira RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Steve Ditko RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Frank Springer RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Tom Sutton RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Nico Rosso RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Don Heck RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Robert Inwood RED DEATH illustrated story!
Read the Dino Battaglia RED DEATH adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Miguel Calatayud RED DEATH adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Ricardo Villamonte RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Richard Corben RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Wayne Howard RED DEATH adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Esteban Maroto RED DEATH adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Francisco Agras RED DEATH adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Flavio Colin RED DEATH adaptation!
(Coming soon:)
Read the John Lawn RED DEATH illustrated story!
Read the Auraleon RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Enrique Alcatena RED DEATH illustrated story!
Read the Phillipe Cazaumayou RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Alfonso Martinez RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the A.L. Pareja RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Alberto Breccia RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Daryl Hutchinson RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Steve Leialoha RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Eric Stanway RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Ted Naifeh RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Horacio Lalia RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Gris Grimly RED DEATH illustrated story!
Read the Stanley Shaw RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Erik Rangel RED DEATH adaption!
Read the Wendy Pini RED DEATH adaptation at the Masque Musical site!
Read the Julio Azamor RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Jean-Louis Thouard RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Alineromero9 RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Sabaku-No-Sarri RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Eric Stanway RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the David G.Flores RED DEATH illustrated story!
Read the Richard Corben's 2nd RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Turner Mark-Jacobs RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Edu Molina RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Terrance Lindall RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Pete Katz RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Gareth Hinds RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Uka Nagao RED DEATH adaptation!
HOP FROG:
Read about Hop Frog at the Interesting Literature site.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the HOP FROG Gallery of Illustrations.
Read the John Prentice HOP FROG adaptation!
Read the Frank Springer HOP FROG adaptation!
Read the Reed Crandall HOP FROG adaptation!
Read the Ignacio Justo HOP FROG adaptation!
See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
(Continued in Poe 1965, Pt. 1)
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