Literature and the visual arts have fed off of each other for as long as the two have existed. It should be no surprise to anyone reading this that the evocative imagery of the works of Edgar Allan Poe have been complemented with illustrations numerous times in their publication history. This includes several of his short stories collected as Edgar Allan Poe’s World of Fear in a 1969 issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine, a Japanese comic anthology (note the Japanese toy ads at the bottom of the image).
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The most iconic illustrations, however, come from the edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination illustrated by Harry Clarke (the Providence Athenaeum has a copy). Both of the illustrations included depict the climax of Poe’s short story The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar which, while not the most well-known of Poe’s works, is visually distinctive, and really shows the difference in the two art styles.
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January 19th 2013, Happy 204th Birthday, E.A.P.
