Edgar Allan Poe’s The Conqueror Worm (one-shot)

In the scorching desert, the proud Colonel Mann has tracked down his treacherous wife and her lover, his own cousin and guns them down in cold blood. Leaving their bodies to rot under the blistering sun, Colonel Mann comes across the decomposing body of the lovers servant. His corpse his squirming with flesh eating worms and one of them bites him on his cheek. After disposing of the vile creatures, the Colonel encounters a pair of travelling puppeteers and offers to entertain him for a late show. Later that evening and with a few of his closest friends, the Colonel arrives at the show and what seems like a simple puppet show turns into a night of horror when the Conqueror Worm returns with a vengeance.

The Team

Written by Edgar Allan Poe & adapted & illustrated by Richard Corben (Ragemoor, Hellboy : House of the Living Dead HC) , Creepy, Eerie). Published by Dark Horse Comics.

The Pros & Cons

This is a good two for one deal. Not only to you get a creepy ass Richard Corben comic book adaptation by Edgar Allan Poe, but you also get Poe’s Conqueror Worm poem as well. Not sure if it’s the entire poem or simply a passage, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Now I’m not going to pretend like poetry’s my bag, I’ve read a few from Robert Frost and my knowledge of Poe comes from The Simpsons’ The Raven episode “Nevermore! Nevermore! Why you little…” and some quotes from The Crow movie, but that’s about it.

What’s interesting about the worms themselves, is that the poem doesn’t spell it out for you. You make your own interpretations of what The Conqueror Worm represents, lovers crying out for vengeance from beyond the grave? The devil himself trying to seduce mankind? Or is it simply a tale of good vs. evil? You decide. Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Richard Corben’s work, his disturbing and always beautiful illustrations have a way to make your skin crawl like no other penciller. His images are almost like caricatures of themselves, just look at some of his other fine work from the pages of Eerie, Creepy & most recently Ragemoor (click here for the reviews of issue 1, 2, 3 & 4) to see what I mean.

The Outcome

As a fan of Corben’s work, it doesn’t get any better than this, sure it’s a short story, but then you can tell people you’ve read some poetry today.