Poe 1975, Pt.16

(Continued from Poe 1975, Pt.15)
 
ALTER LINUS  9
"EL CORAZON DELATOR"  /  "THE TELL-TALE HEART"
     (English translation)

I've been finding more and more foreign POE comics adaptations, many of them that have NEVER been published in America-- or even in English!  I've made it my goal to correct that situation.

Milano Libri Edizioni was the publisher of LINUS, the very first magazine in Italy devoted exclusively to comics.  After some years, a spin-off magazine was created, ALTER LINUS, which focused on adventure strips-- and occasionally, horror stories.

Alberto Breccia was a cartoonist who was born in Uruguay, at a young age moved to Argentina, and who really started to make headway in his career by being published in Italy.  Why an Italian magazine published a a story in Spanish is beyond me, but I've also seen it in French.  And on THIS page, for the first time anywhere, with the help of "Google Translate", you're going to see it in English.

The story in question...  "THE TELL-TALE HEART".

     This was the 14th comics version of this story, following...
Charlton's YELLOWJACKET COMICS #6 (Dec'45),  
EC's THE HAUNT OF FEAR #15 [1] (May-Jun'50), 
Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #84 (Jun'51),
EC's SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES #8 (Apr-May'53),  
EC's THE HAUNT OF FEAR #20 (Jul-Aug'53),
Charlton's WIN A PRIZE #1 (Feb'55),  
Warren's CREEPY #3 (Jun'65),  
Taika's ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR #7 (1968), 
Gino Sansoni's I CLASSICI A FUMETTI #17 (Sep'69),
Marvel's CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #3 (Feb'70),

Mundial's MAESTROS DEL TERROR #5 (1970)
Skywald's SCREAM #8 (Aug'74), and  
Marvel's CRAZY #7 (Oct'74).
     With the last one only 11 months earlier, and the previous one only 2 months before that, you can see how popular this one is.

I've learned, via some intensive online research, that this turned out to be the  
1st of 6 POE adaptations Breccia did over the years.  It's also the ONLY one done in traditional comics line-art style; all the others were done as full-color paintings (and in a rather bizarre, expressionistic style, to boot).

I've decided that from here on out, any foreign stories I do English translations of, I will be skipping the originals and only post them in English.  Also, unlike a few I've done lately where I colored something that was in B&W, I decided this one deserved to remain in B&W.  You'll see why!

ALTER LINUS  9
cover by LUIS GARCIA MOZOS  (??)    
(Milano Libri Edizioni  /  Italy  /  September 1975)

"EL CORAZON DELATOR"  /  "THE TELL-TALE HEART"  /  Version 14
Adaptation & Art by ALBERTO BRECCIA   (done in 1974)
Title page

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Page 11

As I worked on this, it slowly started to dawn on me that this single 11-page story is probably the very thing that "inspired" Keith Giffen to imitate, BADLY, from the panel layouts, to the miminalist drawing, to the lighting, to the repetitive panels and their "timing", when he was working on the infamous "Five Years Later" run of DC's LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES.  I cannot for the life of me envision anything LESS appropiate for a utopian future science-fiction series.  Would to GOD he had never done such a horrible, misguided thing.  It's over 25 years ago, and the wretched horror of those issues still haunts me.  Oh well.

But, back to Breccia...  This story is considered by some to be his "Masterpiece".  Therefore, it's no surprise it's been reprinted at least 8 times over the years!!  I'm posting the covers I've been able to find...

CHARLIE MENSUEL  88   (CHARLIE MONTHLY)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   (Editions Du Square  /  France  /  May 1976)

BRECCIA NEGRO
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   
(Ediciones Record  /  Buenos Aires, Argentina  / 1978)

EL ETERNAUTA y otros cuentos   (THE ETERNAUTA and other stories)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   
(Biblioteca TOTEM  /  Editorial Nueva Frontera  /  Spain  /  November 1979) 

EL CORAZON DELATOR
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   (Liveria Pioneira Editora  /  Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

     & Escola Panamericana De Arte  /  Buenos Aires, Argentina  /  1979)

LA PARDA   (BROWN)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   
(Editorial La Quema  /  Argentina  /  January 1989)

This one reprinted 4 earlier Breccia POE stories, and included a brand-new version of a 5th one.

LE COEUR REVELATEUR
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   (??  /  France  /  1992)
     (cover not found yet)

This one reprinted the same 4 earlier Breccia POE stories, but replaced the 1992 story with the earlier 1982 version of the same tale.  (You can see how this kind of thing could get confusing.)

 LE COEUR REVELATEUR
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   
(Les Humanoides Associes  /  France  /  September 1995)

EL ETERNAUTA y otros cuentos   (THE ETERNAUTA and other stories)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   
(Ediciones Colifue TOTEM  /  Buenos Aires, Argentina  /  September 1998)

INFORME SOBRE CIEGOS   (REPORT ON BLIND)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA   (Colihue  /  Buenos Aires, Argantina  /  2007)

This latest collection has the same 5 stories as in the 1995 book.  (Incredibly, there are 2 different Breccia versions of "Valdemar";  so far, nobody has collected them both in the same place.)

EL GATO NEGRO y otras hisgtorias   (THE BLACK CAT and other stories)
cover by ALBERTO BRECCIA
(Doedyeeditores  /  Buenos Aires, Argentina  &  Editoria A4  /  Spain  /  2011)

Copyright (C) Alberto Breccia
English Translation Copyright (C) 2015 Henry R. Kujawa 

Scan of ALTER LINUS #9 cover from the eShop site.
Scans of ALTER LINUS #9 interiors from the Puroshuesos blog 
     (El Blog De La Muerte).
Scan of CHARLIE MENUEL #88 from the Bulledair.com site.
Scan of BRECCIA NEGRO from the Alberto Breccia Bibliografica site.
Scan of EL ETERNAUTA y otros cuentos (1979) from the Booklikes site.
Scan of EL CORAZON DELATOR from the ML Static.com site.
Scan of LA PARDA from the Todocollecion site.
Scan of LE COEUR REVEATEUR from the Alberto Breccia Bibliografica site.
Scan of EL ETERNAUTA y otros cuentos (1998) from the Lectura Salazar site. 
Scan of INFORME SOBRE CIEGOS from the Mercaco Libre site.
Scan of EL GATO NEGRO from the Laduendes site.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allen Poe at The Poe Museum site.

Read about Alberto Breccia at the BDZoom site.
Read about Alberto Brecchia at the Comics Of The Avante-Garde blog.

Read about THE TELL TALE HEART at Cliff Notes.
Read the complete short story at the Poe Stories site.
See the TELL-TALE HEART Gallery of Illustrations.

      Audio:
Hear the Boris Karloff INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY episode!
Hear the WEIRD CIRCLE radio episode!
See the James Mason cartoon short!
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
See the Vincent Price performance!
Hear the Fred Gwynne CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!

     Comics:
Read the Rudy Palais TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Johnny Craig TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Jim Lavery TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the George Evans TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Graham Ingels TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!

Read the Jack Kirby / Jerry Robinson TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Reed Crandall TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Nico Rosso TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Gino Dauro TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Tom Palmer TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!

Read the Francisco Blanes TELL-TALE HEART illustrated story!
     (coming soon)
Read the Ricardo Villamonte TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Mike Ploog TELL-TALE HEART parody!
Read the Alberto Breccia TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Guido Del Carpio Rivera TELL-TALE HEART illustrated story!
     (coming soon)

Read the Don McGregor / Yong Montano TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the Vilmar Rodrigues TELL-TALE HEART illustrated story!
Read the Pablo Marcos TELL-TALE HEART illustrated story!   (coming soon!)
Read the Steve Bissette / Rich Veich TELL-TALE HEART parody!
Read the Jesus Blasco TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!

See my Edgar Allan Poe overview at this very blog!

(Continued in Poe 1976, Pt. 1)