The Pull List – Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror #4
Slam down a triple shot of Poe’s stories with three new tales of morbid dark comedies. In the first story, Some Words with a Mummy, three men awaken an Egyptian mummy in modern-day America. Angered by the disruption of his eternal rest, the mummy does not believe America to be the greatest civilization made. To prove the mummy wrong, the three men and their new guest go on a cross country tour to see all the wonders that make the USA great. In the second story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, C. Auguste Dupin teams up with Edgar Allan Poe to solve a mysterious double murder that left one woman without a head and another found stuffed in a chimney. Dupin and Poe venture to Paris to inspect the crime scene, but the clues point to a suspect that may not be human at all. The third story starts the first chapter of Le Duc de L’Omelette where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is haunted by Satan until a strange hero appears to his rescue. Now Johann is caught between two figures battling it out for his soul.
Some Words with a Mummy is based on Poe’s 1845 piece of the same name, updated to reflect the contemporary culture of America. Writer Bryce Ingman takes an ancient mummy on a grand expedition to learn about the contributions America has given to society. From the intricate rules of the stock market, the traditions of mall shopping and the leaders with too much power, the mummy will find out why modern times are the best of times. Greg Scott and Felipe Sobriero provide great visuals that show America as a cluttered beautiful mess. Which somehow makes a resurrected and decaying mummy appear less upsetting to see wandering around.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue falls into more in the offbeat narrative to Poe’s 1841 short story. The original has been recognized as the first modern detective story as C. Auguste Dupin was an early example of detectives in fiction, laying the foundations for future private investigator archetypes like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, and even Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. The story begins with a murder scene that has many confusing clues, but there’s a twist to the story that many people would not see coming. Mark Rahner keeps many details of the original story in place and greatly expanding Dupin’s deduction skills. Ever footstep, scratch mark or uncomfortable smile gives Dupin a clue to analyze. Alan Robinson and Michael Garland add in their comical artwork that accents the unusual tones of the story.
Le Duc de L’Omelette brings a different take on Poe’s 1832 short story. The original story was about a man that was died while eating an ortolan, a delicacy where the eater has to consume the bird while blocking their head and mouth so God does not witness it. The man is sent to hell for his sins and he challenges Satan to a card game to win back his soul. In this new version, Kek-W tosses in a dashing omelet headed hero named Le Duc de L’Omelette to fend off Satan from capturing Johann. It’s a wildly imaginative task on the story and it seems bizarre enough to work. Lee Carter provides fun illustrations, especially when it’s an omelet man giving Satan a flying boot kick to the chest.
Also included in this: The cat-and-writer game continues in Poe and the Black Cat by Hunt Emerson. The line between facts and fictions get blurred in Just the Facts by Kek-W and Dan Schoeneck. And a young girl becomes aware of the bureaucracy control of her life in Smile by Carol Lay.