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The Strange Tale Of Panorama Island (2012)

by Suehiro Maruo(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0867197323 (ISBN13: 9780867197327)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Last Gasp

review 1: Lovely book! It's a manga adaptation of a classic novel by Edogawa Rampo, known as the father of the detective novel in Japan. This book is intriguing enough to make me wonder if any of his work is available in English. (I also note that "Edogawa Rampo" can be sung to the opening bass line from "Gimme Some Lovin'". Good luck getting that out of your head.) The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. The lush vistas of the titular island are mesmerizing. This is not a book suitable for minors as there are some graphic--surprisingly so by manga standards--sex scenes. A frustrated writer in 20's Japan takes advantage of his resemblance to a recently deceased industrialist (they went to college together) and takes over his fortune, using it to construct the pleasure island of h... moreis dreams. The implausibilities of the tale don't really matter as the story sweeps the reader along. And the artwork, as I said, is staggeringly good. Definitely a book worth reading!
review 2: An exquisite adaptation of Japanese horror master Edogawa Rampo’s titular story, "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island," manga artist Maruo Suehiro grants this graphic novel retelling with lush details, brimming with surreal landscapes populated by realistic human characters. A tale of madness and dreams realized no matter the cost, the strange tale follows an impoverished writer with plans to realize by taking the place of a dead classmate who had an uncanny resemblance to himself and using his vast wealth to build a monument to beauty and extravagance. Maruo's art reflects this ascetic decadence, incredibly rendered and includes influences and references to other artists, particularly the Renaissance master of the surreal, Hieronymus Bosch, following Rampo's tribute to the literature of Edgar Allan Poe. The world of the transition between the Taisho and the Showa eras in Japanese history (the late 1920s) is wonderfully realized. A very worthy adaption of Ranpo's tribute to Poe and his gothic tales of mystery, horror, and artistic expression. less

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