ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 7
"O CASO DO SENHOR VALDEMAR"
(IN COLOR w/ English Translation)
REMASTERED
Editora Continental / Outubro / Taika were 3 names used by the same small publisher in Brazil. The work of artists Jayme Cortez & Miguel Penteado, they produced some wonderful comics, many of them in the horror genre, each doing many gorgeous, stunning cover paintings!
I have discovered, between my own researches and the IMMENSE help of artist and fellow fan Toni Rodrigues, that Continental / Outubro / Taika during their run produced at least 25 POE adaptations-- MORE than Skywald or Warren !! It's my intention to compile, clean up, TRANSLATE and COLOR every one of these for my POE blog project!!
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR #7, as it turns out, and not counting issue-long stories, was the 4th ALL-POE comic anthology, following Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #40 (Aug'47), CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #84 (Jun'51), and Dell's Poe's TALES OF TERROR (Feb'63), the last one 4 years earlier. The next such book would be Gino Sansoni Editore's I CLASSICI A FUMETTI #17 (Sep'69), some 2 years later, followed by until Warren's CREEPY #69 (Feb'75), some 5-1/2 years after that!
Once again, the cover was by Nico Rosso, one of the most high-profile artists in his time, working for many publishers and doing both cover paintings and interior stories. This is only one of his MANY painted covers.
First up, and 17th in line from the publisher, that perennial favorite...
"THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR"
This was the 3rd comics adaptation of the story, following...
EC's TALES FROM THE CRYPT #24 (Jun-Jul'51), and
Dell's Movie Classic, Poe's TALES OF TERROR (Feb'63),
...the last one 4 years earlier!
This was one of 8 POE stories that Toni Rodrigues e-mailed me hi-res scans of, all at the same! I wasn't even aware of its existence until it arrived in the e-mail, along with the others. Wow.
Meanwhile... here's a case where we're not really sure of the identity of the artist. Myself, I believe it's the work of Ignacio Justo (or one of his assistants). I say this because I had already processed one of his stories, "BERENICE", and the style reminded me somewhat of that-- but more so, the sheer level of sloppiness involved. For the 2nd time here, I find myself actually re-drawing all the panel frames, to make this thing look more "professional" and acceptable for my blog. The last time I did that was on "BERENICE".
Additionally, I also have an adaptation of "MAELSTROM", and my friend Toni Rodrigues has identified that as being by "Ignacio Justio's assistant".
However, Toni had the following to say...
"I'm guessing here, ok? But it looks like this had lots of bad retouches, take for instance the third panel and you can see that is was enlarged and the head completed. So, I believe this is a story that Talo did for a small format edition like O Corvo and that somebody on Taika decided to adapt it. Who did this? That is the mistery since it was not Talo, clearly. Probably an art direction assistant did it, like Toninho Duarte, who had been an assistant to Jayme Cortez and was still working for Taika untill the end of the 1960's. We cannot ask because he passed away about 20 years ago, but he did lend a hand to many artists when they got behind schedules. He WAS NOT a talented artist, he was mainly a production hand, but he was a nice guy and everybody loved him."
So, if this was Talo, it would be his 2nd of 8 POE adaptations.
On the other hand, if this was Justo, it would be his 3rd of 6 POE adaptations. TWO more are coming up in this SAME issue!
Since initially setting this up back in September 2015, I ran across another story which was clearly by the same guy, only this one WAS signed-- "Edegar & Justo". I guess that cliunched it. Toni had this to say: "It is the same guy, Henry. He did some work for Taika by the end of the 1960's and beginning of the 70's. I do not know his full name. He never did anything else."
At any rate, this is currently the longest version I have found of this story, at 15 pages beating out the George Evans movie adaptation by 1 page. It appears to be quite possibly the most authentic to the original POE short story ever done (which makes me all the more thrilled to be able to share it with a much wider audience). For example, it's the only one I've seen so far to feature the hypnotist's assistant, Theodore. In translating it, I wound up using more of POE's original words than in any other I've done.
It's also the one story in this entire massive POE project for which I have been compelled to do the MOST amount of fixes and changes to the art, to try to bring it up to an acceptable standard. Despite this, I find the visual storytelling in this to be just about the most monotonous and boring I've seen! Oh well. It's no wonder this thing has taken me so long to do.
I originally set this up on 3-16-2016. 3-1/2 years later, I upgraded the lettering, word balloons, skin tones and a lot of the linework. The "remastered" version was finished on 12-7-2019.
ENJOY!
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 7
cover by NICO ROSSO (Editora Taika / Brazil / 1968)
("THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR") / Version 3
Adaptation by Francisco De Assis / Art by "EDEGAR" & IGNACIO JUSTO
Page 9
Copyright (C) "Edegar", Ignacio Justo,
Editora Taika & the various artists.
English Translation & New Color
Copyright (C) 2015 & 2019 Henry R. Kujawa.
Scans of ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR #7 from Toni Rodrigues
with special thanks!
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.
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