Poe 1977, Pt. 8

(Continued from Poe 1977, Pt. 7)

NOW AGE BOOKS  64-2693  /  THE BEST OF POE
"THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO"

Since Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED went belly-up in the late 1960s,
a few other publishers had decided to fill the void.  First you had Editorial Bruguera in Spain with their marvelous JOYAS LITERARIAS JUVENILES ("Literary Youth Jewels"), which ran some 270 titles between 1970-83.  The only problem there was, only 32 out of those 270 comics were ever translated into English.

Then you had Pendulum Press and their NOW AGE BOOKS, edited by Vincent Fago, which did at least 20 books between 1971-77, some of which, like their Spanish counterparts, had begun life as serials in children's magazines before being reprinted in book form.  The only "problem", from my point of view, is that although these books originated in New York, every single one of them was illustrated by artists from the Phillipines.  (Can you say... "OUT-SOURCING" ??)  All 3 of these lines (Gilberton, Bruguera, Pendulum) have been reprinted multiple times over the years.

Since Marvel began doing their own versions of Classics, it may have seemed like a race to see which publisher would do POE first.  They each wound up doing one book apiece; Marvel's had 3 stories, Pendulum's had 4.  Versions of 2 of the stories appeared in BOTH books!

3rd up was "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO".

     This was the 13th version of this, following...
EC's CRIME SUSPENSTORIES #3 (Feb-Mar'51),
Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #84 (Jun'51),
Continental's CLASSICOS DE TERROR #1 (1960),  
Dell's Movie Classic TALES OF TERROR (Feb'63),
Warren's CREEPY #6 (Dec'65),
Taika's ALBUM CLASSICS DE TERROR #4 (1967),
Mundial's MAESTROS DEL TERROR #1 (1970),
Skywald's SCREAM #5 (Apr'74),  
Warren's CREEPY #70 (Apr'75),
Novaro's CUENTOS DE EDGAR ALLAN POE (1975),
Marvel's MARVEL CLASSIC COMICS #28 (May'77), and
Argumento's MINI TERROR #570 (Oct'77),
     ...the last one, right around the same time as this one.

At only 6 pages, this clocks in as the 2nd-shortest adaptation of this story.
(The 1960 version was only 4 pages!)

The artist for this one is Noly Zamora.  His resume includes work in the Phillipines, for DC, and storyboarding several animated feature films.  His versions of Montressor & Fortunato remind me a lot of Vincent Price &  
Peter Lorre-- reversing their roles from the Corman film.

NOW AGE BOOKS  64-2693
cover by ??   (Pendulum Press  /  1977)

"THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO"  /  Version 13
Adaptation by Naunerle Farr  /  Art by NOLY ZAMORA
Page 25

Page 26

Page 27

Page 28

Page 29

Page 30

I can see why this one is so short.  Do you really want to give KIDS the idea that CALCULATED MURDER is something you can do and GET AWAY with???  (But then, why do THIS story at all?)

And again, the reprints...

THE BEST OF POE  PC33
cover by GERRY TALAOC   (Academic Industries, Inc.  /  1984)

THE BEST OF POE  SP-8840
cover by ??   (Saddleback Publishing, Inc.  /  2007)

Copyright (C) Pendulum Press  &  Saddleback Publishing.

Scan of 1977 THE BEST OF POE cover from the Open Library / Archive.org site.
Scan of 1984 THE BEST OF POE cover from the My Comics Shop site.
Scans of 2007 THE BEST OF POE covers from the Saddleback Publishing site.
Scans of the 2007 THE BEST OF POE interiors from the Slideshare site.

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allen Poe at Wikipedia.

Read about Pendulum Press at Wikipedia.
Read about Vincent Fago at Wikipedia.
Read about Noly Zamora at the Lambiek Comiclopedia site.
See more of Noly Zamora's work at the Comic Art Fans site.
Visit the Saddleback Publishing website.

Read about THE WEIRD CIRCLE radio show at Wikipedia.
Read about the SUSPENSE tv series at Wikipedia.
Read about Bela Lugosi at Wikipedia.
Read about Romney Brent at Wikipedia.
Read about Ray Walston at Wikipedia.
Read about Basil Rathbone at Wikipedia.
Read about THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER at Wikipedia.
Read about Richard Kiley at Wikipedia.
Read about Frances Sternhagen at Wikipedia.

Read about THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO at Wikipedia.
Read the complete story at the xroads.virginia.edu site.
See the AMONTILLADO Gallery of Illustrations.

     Audio:
Hear the WEIRD CIRCLE radio episode!
Watch the SUSPENSE TV adaptation!
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
Hear the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!

     Comics:
Read the Graham Ingels AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Rudy Palais AMONTILLADO adaptation!
      Read the Iger Shop AMONTILLADO sequel!
Read the Gedeone Malagola AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Fran Matera AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Reed Crandall AMONTILLADO adaptation!

Read the Osvaldo Talo AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Juan J. Aguilar AMONTILLADO illustrated story!   (coming soon!)
     Read the Frank Brunner AMONTILLADO sequel!
     Read the Cirilo Munoz AMONTILLADO sequel!   (coming soon!)
Read the Maro Nava AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Martin Salvador AMONTILLADO adaptation!
Read the Guido Del Carpio Rivera AMONTILLADO illustrated story!
     (coming soon!)

Read the Don McGregor / Mike Golden AMONTILLADO adaptation!     11
Read the Arturo Cassilas AMONTILLADO adaptation!   (coming soon!)
Read the Noly Zamora AMONTILLADO adaptation!
     (Coming soon:)
Read the Pablo Marcos AMONTILLADO illustrated story!
Read the Ann Toulmin-Rothe AMONTILLADO illustrated story!

Read the Editorial Proyeccion AMONTILLADO adaptation!     16
Read the Walter James Brogan AMONTILLADO adaptation!

See my Edgar Allan Poe overview at this very blog!

Saddleback Publishing's CLASSICS are currently in print--
     go to the SADDLBACK PUBLISHING site to BUY your own copies!!!

(Continued in Poe 1977, Pt. 9)