Poe
Trade Paperback Edition
Written by J. Barton Mitchell
Art by Dean Kotz
Colors by Digikore Studios
Letters by Marshall Dillon & James Dashiell
BOOM! Studios
Price: $16.99
Release Date: April 14, 2010

When I first heard that there was going to be a book where Edgar Allan Poe was going to help his policeman brother solve crimes, I was on board. I really enjoyed this exploration of the invention of detectives and detective stories through the eyes of the original inventor of the genre.

The story follows Edgar Allan Poe, who is dealing with his wife’s passing, and his brother William, the cop who is having trouble solving the murders of local citizens. While Edgar is with William at one of the crime scenes, he points out clues to the murderer, so William realizes he could use Edgar’s skills to help him solve the question of who the killer is. Of course being a story involving the Poe family there is a supernatural twist to the tale.

J. Barton Mitchell does a great job at capturing the character of Poe throughout the story. He includes references to Poe’s own work to make it more realistic and true to the feel of Poe. Mitchell uses Poe’s detective stories to build this wonderfully interesting premise of what if Poe was thrown into an actual situation where detective skills would be useful and runs with it in a big and interesting way. This is something that can be used to get a teenage audience interested in Edgar Allan Poe’s wonderful prose with smooth transition.

You also get Dean Kotz‘s wonderful pencils all the way through. I really enjoy the art all the way through. The colors, by Digikore Studios, are very fitting to the mood. Nice and dark colors, but not rough at all but nice and smooth. The pencils take the approach that most BOOM! Studios books do by using a close to realistic take on the person in real life and also mixing in enough cartoon into the character not to bother you if it isn’t close to the actual picture of the person.

My only complaint is that there is not enough sketches in the back. I really enjoy the couple that are in there, but I wish there was a lot more. Otherwise you get to see all of the covers in the back of the book, which are really well done.

Overall, I really enjoy this story as much as I enjoy any work from BOOM! and all of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. I recommend anyone who is a fan of either of those things or just of detective stories in general to pick this up and give it a try.

I give Poe TPB a 4 out of 5.