Poe's TALES OF TERROR
"THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR"
(A Movie Classic)
REMASTERED
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.
Having skipped the first 3 Corman Poe films, Dell finally got into doing adaptations of them with the 4th-- TALES OF TERROR. As the title suggests, this was an "anthology" film that featured 3 short stories. All 3 had Vincent Price playing different roles.
The last of the 3 film segments was an adaptation of Poe's story involving hypnotism...
"THE FACT IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR".
As he had done with Corman's "THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER", screenwriter Richard Matheson made some substantial changes which added extra levels to the story. For one thing, he added a loving wife to the elderly Valdemar, in order to add a romantic entanglement-- as the man's loyal friend & doctor is in love with her. But in addition, the hypnotist, Mr. Carmichael, becomes a genuine villain, as he has his own ambitions toward Valdemar's wife, which have nothing to do with love.
Once again, the artist was one of the best in the business-- George Evans.
This was his 4th of 4 Poe adaptations.
(This story was originally posted here on November 25, 2014. As of October 2018, I'm reversing the order of the 3 stories to now reflect the order they were seen in the movie. Also, I'm moving it to a new location to make it easier to modify in the future. And finally, I've done a major upgrade with brand-new, high-res scans from my own collection, lovingly cleaned up to make them look better than the actual comic-book!)
Poe's TALES OF TERROR
photo cover (Dell / February 1963)
Adaptation by ?? / Art by GEORGE EVANS
CLASICOS DEL CINE 97
photo cover (Editorial Sea / Novaro / Mexico / August 1963)
cover by JORDI PENALVA (Nordisk Forlag / Norway / March 2, 1974)
George Evans.
Scan of TALES OF TERROR inside front cover from the
Killer Kats From Beyond The Grave blog.
Scans of TALES OF TERROR interiors from The Catacombs blog /
Special thanks to Chuck Wells !
NEW scans of TALES OF TERROR from my collection!
Scans from the film from the Annyas.com / Movie Title Stills Collection site.
Scan of CLASICOS DEL CINE #97 cover from the Guri Gibi blog.
Scan of SERIES BLADET #3 (1974) from the GCD site
with Special Thanks to Morten F. Thomsen.
Photo of George Evans from the Wikipedia site.
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 George Evans at Lambiek Comiclopedia.
Read an interview with George Evans at the Words And Pictures blog.
Read about THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR at Study.Com.
Read about THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR at Grade Saver.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the VALDEMAR Gallery of Illustrations.
Audio:
Hear the WEIRD CIRCLE episode!
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
Hear the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre PREMATURE BURIAL episode!
(including THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR)
(thanks to "Quote Away")
Comics:
Read the Graham Ingels VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the George Evans VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the "Edegar" & Ignacio Justo VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the Carlos Moro VALDEMAR adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Carlos Gimenez VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the Jose Cardona VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the Isidro Mones VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the Julio Shimamoto VALDEMAR adaptation!
Read the Alberto Breccia VALDEMAR adaptation! (coming soon!)
Read the Joan Boix VALDEMAR adaptation! (coming soon!)
Misc.:
Read the George Evans TELL-TALE HEART adaptation!
Read the George Evans SPACE CONQUERORS! run starting in 1953!
Read the George Evans USHER / PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!
Read the George Evans MORELLA adaptation!
Read the George Evans VALDEMAR adaptation!
See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
(Continued in Poe 1963, Pt. 3A)
Wow, THAT's an *eerie* coincidence! Only a couple hours earlier today, I happened to read (for the first time) an E.C. reprint of the George Evans story "Frank Luke" (from FRONTLINE COMBAT #13), and now the very same day I'm looking at a picture of Evans himself working on the splash page! What are the odds?
ReplyDeleteWhat!? And you have scans of SPACE CONQUERORS, too! I haven't seen that since I was a kid and briefly had a gift subscription to Boys' Life.