Paging Alan Parsons
MacPherson, Boatwright and Mauer’s The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo
reviewed by Anthony R. Cardno
When I first joined Drunkduck to read my friend Scott’s now (hopefully temporarily) defunct webcomic, one of the first comics I saw advertised was “Edar Allan Poo.” I think I may have checked out one page (randomly, of course, because when browsing random webcomics, it would be too sensible to start at the beginning) and for some reason never went back. Not because it was bad or wasn’t my thing, but because I sort of got caught up in a bunch of other comics, kept forgetting to take a second look at Poo, and eventually it slipped my mind. So I’m actually grateful that our beloved Moderator put Poo on the reviewing list for September, because he reminded me to go back and finally take that second look. A second look that was well worth it.
First of all, what’s not to love about a story that starts out in an outhouse, with a loud splash? And not just any outhouse. It’s an old wooden campground-style outhouse in the shadow of a grand Gothic mansion – sort of reminded me of the way Steve Bissette and John Totleben drew The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets in those classic issues of DC’s “Swamp Thing”written by Alan Moore.
Aside from the running joke about the main character’s name (WE know he’s been flushed from the real Edgar’s subconscious, even if he doesn’t), there is some other toilet imagery that recurs. For instance, in an encounter with the sea serpent Jormungandr the creature is dispatches with what certainly seems like a flush; and SpindleTown at least looks like something built in a London sewer.
The story quickly moves beyond that, though. In the tradition of writers like Moore and Neil Gaiman, the creators are not at all concerned about mixing eras or mythologies. The Norse Jormungandr is a minion of the Greco-Roman god Poseidon. SpindleTown is largely Dickensian, but the Temple of The Maghi sounds Middle-Eastern. Thetis and her Water Nymph Warriors at one point make an entrance reminiscent of an old MGM Esther Williams musical. This just makes the adventure all the more surreal; the reader has to at some point opt to accept this odd mixture or to stop reading. I obviously opted to accept it. The journey of Edgar Allan Poo to discover who he is, and what happened to his “Daddy,” takes some unexpected turns. The author has obviously got it all (or at least, most of it) planned out into several volumes, the first of which has just ended as we write these reviews.
The art absolutely matches the intentions of the story. It’s a scratchy, nightmarish style that maintains equal weight whether drawing the human Poe and Poo, the ghostly Virginia, the anthropomorphic Irving the Rat and his fellows, or the entirely unreal Nightmare King and his minions. Full credit to artist Boatwright for “getting” the author’s intended mood and bringing it across visually. One of my favorite pages, artwise, has to be the one with the ravens, creatures that have to show up in every story dealing with Mr. Poe.
“The Surreal Adventures” absolutely gets 5 stars from me. Definitely my kind of story. Rating: 
The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo
http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Surreal_Adventures_of_Edgar_Allan_Poo
by Dwight L Macpherson
art by Thomas Boatright
lettered by Thomas Mauer
Review by Anthony R. Cardno
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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September 15th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
*taps on face of pocketwatch*
Well, SOMEONE has a good sense of timing.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Also… a reference to an Esther Williams musical? Why do I get this weird sense that Takelyn remembers when you could get gas for a nickel a gallon?
September 15th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Wow. Another 5 stars.
It really ought to be raining….
September 15th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Hey, to my credit, I did miss the deadline because I was evacuating from Houston on Thursday night … *grin*
Not only an Esther Williams reference, but Alan Parsons as well. Or at least, it was in the original draft. I can’t believe I forgot to put it back in after I cut-and-pasted stuff. I was listening to “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” on the laptop as I was reading this webcomic. I love it when Orson Welles intones “When all that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream …”
September 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Great, Talekyn, way to make me feel like an awful, awful man.
Eh heh, just kidding. Hope the homestead is OK, man.
For the record, I kinda got the Alan Parsons reference, but only because it was used as a gag on Mystery Science Theater. I have no idea what they were all about (or what the heck it had to do with a Baltimore area poet and his poo-based spawn).
September 16th, 2008 at 11:00 am
The Alan Parsons Project (who did songs such as “Eye in the Sky,” “Don’t answer me,” and some others) did an album of music - I think you’d call it a theme album (and if I’m wrong, please don’t correct me with the appropriate term - it’s not THAT big of a deal), entitled “Tales of Mystery and Imagination;” lyrical and musical re-tellings of some of Poe’s stories and poetry. The album came out in 1976, originally, to mixed reviews and acclaim. Very avant-garde stuff for the time.
I got the reference right off, and, of course, I know about it. I am, after all, The Doctor.
And anyone who evacuates from a hurricane and STILL writes a review gets it rated 5 stars by me.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I think you’d call it a “concept album.”
Yeah, wow, hurricane. I’m glad you’re okay, and I hope your place is too.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
**Previous comment of mine removed, by me, for needless snarkiness.**
In its place I say “Thank you, Sly. I tried in vain to remember what to call it.”
September 16th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
All these great reviews make me feel like the village idiot around here, but don’t worry about my feelings. I’ll get myself a complex and just keep blethering on until one decent sentence turns up. Bound to happen eventually. Monkeys and typewriters and all that. You will tell me if I miss it?
September 16th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Great reviews? I KNOW he isn’t reading mine then
September 16th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Yours graciously excepted Doc!
September 16th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Thank you, thank you - and don’t call my reviews great again!
Wait….
September 16th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
What did we have this week? References to Musicals, Classic Mythology, Literary Analysis, Artist Angst…
I need a scorecard just to keep up.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Wow, that is high praise, Anthony! Thank you so much!
Dwight L. MacPherson
Creator Edgar Allan Poo
September 16th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Aye - he do write well, I’ll say
And he says nice things about my reviews, so you know, he can’t be all bad… (ahem)
September 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Does that mean you can edit or delete comments, Doc? Because more than once I’ve responded to one of yours only to find it seems to say something different now…
September 17th, 2008 at 4:56 am
He travels through time - whaddya expect?
September 17th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Actually I will comment on that, yes - and apologize right off the bat. Once upon a time (when he was going to be away, I believe) the Moderator gave me the ability to edit comments and such in order to help him with making sure the postings were done correctly and on time. I know the Moderator in real life, and his life is considerably more busy than mine. So yes, I can change or delete comments. I have, in the past, when another person has left a comment that was rude or deliberately flame-ish. I have not, however, ever edited a reviewer’s post or comment, save for spelling in the case of a post. I edit/censor myself - never others. That’s between us as reviewers if there’s a problem, or it’s the job of the moderator.
As for my comments changing, that happens because I realize either (a) something I wrote was going to come across as far more harsh/unkind than was intended, or that something I had posted simply wasn’t necessary and was either needlessly sarcastic or didn’t say what I wanted it to. Chalk that up, unfortunately, to not being able to see when someone is actually here responding to something I had said. I do not, however, change them after someone has responded. (Or at least I try my damndest not to, anyway - I’m not perfect after all) In the case above, the original comment was intended to be humorous but I realized it was far more snarky than it needed to be, so I edited myself and made it clear that I had. Contrary to what may be believed, I’m neither ill-tempered nor mean spirited
Of course, since I travel time, that makes it easier, but …
September 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I really need to check in more often! Thanks for the compliments on my review(s). You’re all great.
Except that El Santo guy …. sheesh. *Rowan Atkinson-style eye-roll*
Just kidding, El! Actually, I was not evacuating from my homestead, which is in New Jersey, but rather from the hotel I was at for work. Still an exciting thing, to be able to be called an “Evacuee from Ike.” Now, if the good Doctor could arrange to go back in time and edit five of the almost 9 hours it took me to get from Houston to Dallas out of the timeline, that’d be appreciated ….
September 18th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I would but that would violate one of the rules of my being a Time Lord - I can’t change what has already been, in most cases.
(Yes, yes, I remember trying to change the Daleks’ development but I didn’t actually do it - just delayed them)
September 18th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Damn. Ah well. Hours I will never get back.
A friend of mine is running a study for his psychology internship that he’s calling the TARDIS Study, because it’s analyzing how our perception of where an object is is influence by our expectation of where it will appear. (A sequence of five blinking squares, and you have to determine if the sixth square to appear is in the same exact position as the fifth, or if it is in fact even slightly different.)
September 19th, 2008 at 6:15 am
That sounds like an interesting study, actually - it reminds me of what Sherlock Holmes said to Watson in that you can “see” but not actually “observe.” Tell him that the Time Lords give him permission to use the name TARDIS, and we’d like a copy of the report when he’s done!