NOW AGE BOOKS 64-2693 / THE BEST OF POE
"THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE"
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.
The 4th and final story in the Pendulum Press book was the classic mystery...
"THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE"
This was the 10th version of the story, following...
Gilberton's CLASSIC COMICS #21 (Jul'44),
Marvel's LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #10 (Oct'49),
Milano Libri's LINUS #39 (Jun'68),
Gino Sansoni's I CLASSICI A FUMETTI #7 (Jul-Sep'68),
Ibero Mundial's DOSSIER NEGRO #41 (Oct'72),
Skywald's SCREAM #10 (Oct'74),
ILLUSTRATED CLASSICS (Jan'75),
Warren's CREEPY #70 (Apr'75),
and Maisal's TERROR CLASICO MAISAL #? (1977)
...the last a few months earlier.
At 31 pages, this clocks in as the second-longest adaptation of this story yet.
(Yes-- it's going to take 3 whole blog pages.)
The artist for this one is E.R. Cruz. Though never a favorite of mine, he must be the most ubiquitous of the 4 Phillipine artists represented in this volume. In the 1970s, it seemed you couldn't read comics without tripping over his work. Apart from several issues of DC's THE SHADOW, he also did a TON of stories for Warren.
NOW AGE BOOKS 64-2693
cover by ?? (Pendulum Press / 1977)
Adaptation by Naunerle Farr / Art by E.R. CRUZ
Page 31
Copyright (C) Pendulum Press & Saddleback Publishing.
Scan of 1977 THE BEST OF POE cover from the Open Library / Archive.org 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 The Poe Museum site.
See more of E.R. Cruz's work at the Comic Art Fans site.
Visit the Saddleback Publishing website.
Read about THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE at the Spark Notes site.
Read about THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE at the Britannica site.
Read the complete story at the Poe Museum site.
See the RUE MORGUE Gallery of Illustrations.
Audio:
Hear the WEIRD CIRCLE radio episode!
Hear the Paul Hecht CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!
Comics:
Read the Arnold L. Hicks RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Sam Gross RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Guido Crepax RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Gino Dauro RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Miguel Gomez Esteban RUE MORGUE adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Cezar Lopez Vera RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Illustrated Classics RUE MORGUE adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Jose Ortiz RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Ediciones Maisal RUE MORGUE adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the E.R. Cruz RUE MORGUE adaptation!
(Coming soon:)
Read the Moises Cespedes RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Howard Priestley RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Mark A. Nelson RUE MORGUE sequel!
Read the Silvio Camboni RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Matt Brooker RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Reno Maniquis RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Emerson Dimaya RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Ola Skogang RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Richard Corben RUE MORGUE adaptation!
Read the Leandro Fernandez RUE MORGUE 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!!!
Don't miss the 2nd PART of this... coming up next!!!
(Continued in Poe 1977, Pt.10)
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