As a lover of comic art since I was a wee lad, I’ve always loved the work of Richard Corben, even when my mom didn’t want me ogling at his work.
Sure, he drew incredibly beautiful women with big breasts, but even if he was painting an ad for Q-Tips it would still be a magnificent work of art.
I can still vividly recall looking through the incredible fantasy artwork of Heavy Metal magazine, Marvel even had a short-lived imitation called Epic Illustrated, and in 1981 there was the animated movie adaptation of Heavy Metal, including a story created by Corben called Den.
It didn’t quite bring Corben’s work to life as much as I’d hoped, but his work would make a great animated film today. (Yes, there’s been talk of making another Heavy Metal film, again with a different director doing each installment).
Where fantasy has been Corben’s primary domain, he’s now turning to horror with the Edgar Allan Poe story The Conqueror Worm, which Corben’s working on for Dark Horse comics. As a recent press release promises, Corben’s also going to be contributing for more Poe stories, which should be amazing.
The Conqueror Worm comic will be available November 21, and I’m dying to see what Corben will do with Poe – both in this issue and in the future. Poe’s been adapted well in comics before, (Bernie Wrightson did a great version of The Black Cat I loved when I was a kid), and Corben’s another great choice to bring Poe to life.
As one critic remarked in the Dark Horse press release, “Richard Corben doing Edgar Allan Poe. If I have to say more than that, I worry about your tastes in comics. He excels at it.”
In the meantime, if you haven’t seen Corben’s work before, he’s done many great comics and illustrations over the course of his career.
Try digging up some old issues of Heavy Metal with his work, also check out his Fall of the House of Usher Poe adaptation, his adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog, which is called Vic and Blood, and much more. No fantasy fan should be without at least one Corben graphic novel on the shelf.
