Rating: 
Summary: Dark Americana
Review: A noir classic that has received classic treatment under the pen of Spain Rodriguez, one of America's foremost under/above ground cartoonists. I first became fascinated by this book & William L. Gresham, by realizing that his ex-wife Joy, became a Christian and took off to England with the intention of meeting that best known Christian apologist of the 20th century, CS Lewis. They later married in the midst of her terminal illness from cancer. What would have made Joy flee the communist esoteric pleasures of living with Mr. Gresham to the arms of a rather sexless University Don?This is the great novel of the American underbelly. A society that has it's own culture both inside and out of the norm. I often see "Nightmare Alley" as the progenitor to the later fantasies of Wm. Burroughs. The grotesque & arabesque of the seemingly mundane American landscape is explored with a naked eye in this. And this Fantgraphics edition is your best bet for becoming aquainted to this lesser known masterpiece. For a couple of rants of mine related to "Nightmare Alley": why is the film version with Tyrone Power & Joan Blondell not available on VHS or DVD? ...
Rating:
Summary: Dark Americana
Review: A noir classic that has received classic treatment under the pen of Spain Rodriguez, one of America's foremost under/above ground cartoonists. I first became fascinated by this book & William L. Gresham, by realizing that his ex-wife Joy, became a Christian and took off to England with the intention of meeting that best known Christian apologist of the 20th century, CS Lewis. They later married in the midst of her terminal illness from cancer. What would have made Joy flee the communist esoteric pleasures of living with Mr. Gresham to the arms of a rather sexless University Don? This is the great novel of the American underbelly. A society that has it's own culture both inside and out of the norm. I often see "Nightmare Alley" as the progenitor to the later fantasies of Wm. Burroughs. The grotesque & arabesque of the seemingly mundane American landscape is explored with a naked eye in this. And this Fantgraphics edition is your best bet for becoming aquainted to this lesser known masterpiece. For a couple of rants of mine related to "Nightmare Alley": why is the film version with Tyrone Power & Joan Blondell not available on VHS or DVD? ...
Rating:
Summary: Grotesque, Repulsive, and Fascinating
Review: Although largely forgotten today, Gresham's NIGHTMARE ALLEY was one of the great bestsellers of the 1940s--a grotesque tale of the rise of a Stanton Carlisle, a carny worker who moves up from bilking rubes at a traveling ten-in-one show to become a fake spiritualist bilking the rich and famous in an church elaborately rigged to support his fake senances. But success is fleeting, and Stan falls prey to the very insecurities that have driven him to success. When it comes, his fall has all the horror of being dropped into a blast furnace. Gresham writes in a tough-voiced pulp fiction tone that lingers over the most unsavory aspects of the story--sometimes to the point of nausea--and the result is a harsh vision of the world as a "nightmare alley," a one-way run with unseen hounds hell after you and death when you meet the brick wall at the end. The characters are memorable: the glib-tongued Stan, embroiled in his own Freudian hell; the hardknocks but likeable Zeena, a carny psychic who starts Stan on his career; the pretty but stupid Molly, who becomes Stan's unwilling partner in crime; and, always lurking somewhere in the background, the carny geek, the ultimate portrait in degredation and desperation, a monsterous man-made grotesque whose image frames the novel. The novel is deliberately disorienting, and each new section of the book is heralded by the use of a Tarot card to remarkable effect. NIGHTMARE ALLEY is powerful stuff, and it shouldn't be read on an empty stomach. Recommended, but brace yourself: when you pick up the book you'll find yourself on an express elevator, and it's straight down all the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing adaptation of a fine novel
Review: As a fan of the original novel and the film, I was very much looking forward to this graphic novel (or comic book) version. Unfortunately, this misses the mark. Rodriguez's style, which is great for "underground" comix, doesn't feel right for this material: everything looks sleazy, which is fine for the Carnival stuff, but the overall look needs a veneer of class as the main character's odyssey advances. The biggest problem is that there is not enough visual storytelling here. Some of the scams that are clear in the novel are completely incomprehensible here; if you've never read the novel you won't understand some of them (I had to go back to the novel myself to refresh my memory). The page layouts are basically all the same -- 4 equal size panels per page -- so there's no use of the medium to create interesting layouts and compositions to enhance the story. Small panel closeups and smaller multiple panels to break up incredibly long speeches would have helped tremendously. Everything is line drawings -- no use of wash and few attempts to create interesting lighting. The novel is considered "noir," and it would have benefited from a Frank Miller or Alex Maleev type of approach. If you've never read the novel, pick up the excellent collection "American Noir: Crime Novels of the 30's and 40's" and read it in its original form. This adaptation just doesn't work.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing adaptation of a fine novel
Review: As a fan of the original novel and the film, I was very much looking forward to this graphic novel (or comic book) version. Unfortunately, this misses the mark. Rodriguez's style, which is great for "underground" comix, doesn't feel right for this material: everything looks sleazy, which is fine for the Carnival stuff, but the overall look needs a veneer of class as the main character's odyssey advances. The biggest problem is that there is not enough visual storytelling here. Some of the scams that are clear in the novel are completely incomprehensible here; if you've never read the novel you won't understand some of them (I had to go back to the novel myself to refresh my memory). The page layouts are basically all the same -- 4 equal size panels per page -- so there's no use of the medium to create interesting layouts and compositions to enhance the story. Small panel closeups and smaller multiple panels to break up incredibly long speeches would have helped tremendously. Everything is line drawings -- no use of wash and few attempts to create interesting lighting. The novel is considered "noir," and it would have benefited from a Frank Miller or Alex Maleev type of approach. If you've never read the novel, pick up the excellent collection "American Noir: Crime Novels of the 30's and 40's" and read it in its original form. This adaptation just doesn't work.
Rating:
Summary: An unsung classic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: By far, one of the finest novels to come from one of the most memorable 'literary' eras of American History.Fans of Cornell Woolrich and James Cain will surely find this novel, set amid a band of carnies, as involving as I Married a Dead Man or Postman Always Rings Twice. Gresham, like his contemporary, Horace McCoy, is regarded as a peripheral writer within the era. After reading this novel, however, one finds this assumption faulty. Gresham has a keen sense for writing effective and elegant prose. This book is NOT like the film "Freaks", for it is a deeper analysis of the disaffected temperment of one man, Stanton Carlisle, whose need for domination and power takes precedence over his sense of humanity. He tramples over that which blocks his path, resulting in his moral deevolution and eventual fall from grace. This novel, Nightmare Alley, represents the finest of the truly American literary art form, the Hard-Boiled crime novel.
Rating: 
Summary: moxie@wa-net.com
Review: Follows the 20-or-so year career of Stanton Carlisle, from carny sleight-of-hand artist, to vaudeville mentalist, to (in)famous spiritualist, as he squares his broad shoulders and strides proudly through life, taking what he wants - and revenging some old injuries - until, in search of that one really big score, he falls in with a partner even more ruthless than himself. The title refers to the key to any good con, every man's flight from his innermost fears. Carlisle learns early to "find out what they're afraid of." Supporting characters are (mostly) colorful and real. The narrative changes moods at times, from straight journalistic style to stream-of-consciousness a-la the young John Dos Passos, all used effectively. This novel is available with five others of its kind in "Crime Novels, American Noir of the 30s and 40s," published by Library of America, and worth every cent of the $35 list price.
Rating:
Summary: Cool Thriller
Review: Gresham writes a suspenseful and "not so nice" story about Stanton Carlisle -- a young man who starts his working career in freak / carnival show. Stanton and his friends travel around the country bilking people into believing that Stan can predict the future. Gresham reveals the tricks of the trade as he shows how fortunetellers and mind readers conduct their business. Stanton wants the big time action and he has the ability to go far. He is glib, charismatic and a skilled cold fortuneteller. After marrying fellow carnival worked Molly, he and she go to work acquiring larger targets. After becoming a mail-order minister, they conduct seances and allow rich people to communicate with the dead. Stanton and Molly and rewarded handsomely. However, even that isn't enough as Stan pushes his luck and goes after a major capitalist in order to clear huge amounts of money. The gritty writing is similar James M. Cain's (Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice) and is unafraid to reveal the characters' seedier nature. The format of the book is also clever -- showing Stanton's rise to power (and ultimate demise) through the use of tarot cards at the start of each chapter. My only complaint was that it was sometimes hard to follow. I found that at the start of almost every chapter I felt a sense of disorientation until I figured out what was going on. The continuity was weak. However, I liked the book tremendously -- especially when it revealed Stanton's ruses.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent and interesting view of carnival life
Review: I read this book recently and I also saw the movie with Tyrone Power. In my opinion the book is far superior. It is tough and unapologetic, and in my opinion represents the character of Stanton Carlisle as it really would be given his upbringing and interests. Carlisle is a mean carney, always on the lookout to better himself whether at someone else's expense or through his own cleverness. He takes what he wants when he wants it, and his rise and fall is honest and interesting. On the other hand, the movie version of "Nightmare Alley" has too many Hollywood touches and comes across as dishonest. In the movie Carlisle is truly in love with his wife and does what he does for her benefit as well as his own. This is nice and all, but it comes across as very, very phoney since we already know quite a bit about Carlisle's ruthlessness and selfishness. And there's a happy ending in the movie. The book ends unhappily but honestly, and the ending is foreshadowed by earlier events. The one thing to recommend the movie is Tyrone Power's performance, which is only bettered, in my opinion, by his wonderful role as the rich aristocrat in "Son of Fury."
Rating:
Summary: An excellent and interesting view of carnival life
Review: I read this book recently and I also saw the movie with Tyrone Power. In my opinion the book is far superior. It is tough and unapologetic, and in my opinion represents the character of Stanton Carlisle as it really would be given his upbringing and interests. Carlisle is a mean carney, always on the lookout to better himself whether at someone else's expense or through his own cleverness. He takes what he wants when he wants it, and his rise and fall is honest and interesting. On the other hand, the movie version of "Nightmare Alley" has too many Hollywood touches and comes across as dishonest. In the movie Carlisle is truly in love with his wife and does what he does for her benefit as well as his own. This is nice and all, but it comes across as very, very phoney since we already know quite a bit about Carlisle's ruthlessness and selfishness. And there's a happy ending in the movie. The book ends unhappily but honestly, and the ending is foreshadowed by earlier events. The one thing to recommend the movie is Tyrone Power's performance, which is only bettered, in my opinion, by his wonderful role as the rich aristocrat in "Son of Fury."
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