I had high hopes for Snifter of Terror Volume 2 and sadly, I was disappointed. It had a very pulp feel to it, from the cover, to a lot of the content. Whilst some of this might be intentional, overall it felt somewhat of a cop-out and very disjointed.
In my original notes, I wrote, “bizarre smorgasbord of poetry, flash fiction and comic strips” and this opinion does stick.
The stories range in style and setting from futuristic to ye olde worlde and the artistic styles reflect this. Each individual piece has its own merit — Voodoo Burger was a nice appetiser between the longer pieces, for example — but as a collection it just didn’t work for me.
There are some great twists on the Poe tales and the ethos is carried through, but as a reader, I felt I had to work to recognise it, rather than it being present and that, I think, is its biggest downfall.
There are some great moments — The Black Cat was thoroughly enjoyable a story, and small details such as the table of contents were beautiful, but I wouldn’t buy this, sadly.
Book Details
Publication Title: Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror: Volume TwoAuthor: Multiple authors, artists and creators
Publisher: Ahoy Comics
Publication Date: 6th October 2020
Synopsis:
AHOY Comics' snarky anthology-slash-desecration of Edgar Allan Poe returns for a second volume, featuring more of the popular "Monster Serials" by Mark Russell (SECOND COMING) and Peter Snejbjerg (The Books of Magic), as well as Dean Motter and Alex Ogle's ultimate Poe mashup, "The Tell-Tale Black Cask of Usher." Plus more than a dozen additional comics stories, a generous selection of short "Poe and the Black Cat" strips by Hunt Emerson, and horrific bonus prose stories and poetry, too.
"A must-buy book for fans of Edgar Allan Poe or a good laugh." - SciFi Pulse
"The first series of this title had some pretty amazing stories. They were funny and incredibly inventive...this [volume] picks up quality wise right where the last one left off!" - Forces of Geek
"Genuine love for the literary giant." -Villain Media
"To anybody who ever said horror needed to be serious, we can simply point to EDGAR ALLAN POE'S SNIFTER OF TERROR... [It] shows that there is no limit to what horrifying stories can be made absolutely ridiculous." -Screen Rant