Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor

Rating:
Summary: "...a jolt to the brain and a feast for the eyes!"
Review: Ellison once wrote that there are "five native American art forms that we've given to the world: Jazz, of course. Musical comedy as we know it today. The detective story as crafted by Poe. The banjo. And comic books." On display between these covers are some of the finest examples of comic book art and writing. "Dream Corridor" sprang to life after Showtime and HBO (having solicited him for an ongoing series) balked at paying Ellison for typing up proposals for a cable TV show. Still intrigued with the thought of having his tales transformed into the visual medium, Ellison came up with the idea for this ongoing series of quarterly comic books. Then he had them adapted by some of the finest writers and artists working in the medium (Faye Perozich, Peter David, Max Alan Collins, Doug Wildey, John K, Snyder, Mike Deodato, etc.). And to make the package twice as enticing, each issue of "Dream Corridor" included an original piece of cover artwork (beautifully drawn by the likes of Leo and Diane Dillon, Stephen Hickman or Sam Raffa)around which Ellison would write a brand new story. Not a few of those stories are already considered some of Ellison's best work in recent years: "Pulling Hard Time" is a hard-hitting, futuristic tale which begs a closer examination of our penal system and the often lopsided scales of justice. "Chatting With Anubis," a recent winner of the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers of America, is a sly rumination on gods and what happens when the believers stop believing. And "Midnight In the Sunken Cathedral" is a haunting story about a son who transcends time and space to confront the father he never knew. This collection of the first year's output from "Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor" is a jolt to the brain and a feast for the eyes! It's sure to attract new fans to a much maligned form of art.

Rating:
Summary: This book is borring dribble
Review: If the reader wants a series of borring, unimaginative, and childish "stories" this is the book for you. Harlan has a way of boldly stating facts and ideas in this book as though they are his own when in reality, they are the same tired old stories, ideas, and viewpoints you have heard from many many other people over the years. In the end you kind of feel sorry for the guy. Doesn't Harlan know what this makes him look like?

Rating:
Summary: Quite a treat
Review: One of my favorite comic books. I read it weekly. Anything by Ellison is worth buying and this collection is definily worth it. The best story is probably Rat Hater.

Rating:
Summary: Could be much better
Review: This collection has so many problems - mainly, the selection of stories. These tales are by no means his best, or even his better ones. They seem like second-hand-twilight-zone stories: extremely predictable, and might I say... amateurish? Also, the artists chosen for these adaptations could have used some reconsideration. "Knox" has some interesting (?), abstract work, and "On the Slab" is beautiful, but the rest can go. Plus, several prose pieces are included, and if I wanted that, I'd buy one of his novels! Finally, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", part of the original comic series, and probably the most well-done, is not included. Boo, hiss.

Rating:
Summary: Not good, not bad ...
Review: What we have here is Harlan Ellison having some of his short stories (of which he has written over two thousand) adapted into being graphic stories.

An illustrated character (Ellison himself) takes the reader into his "corridor of dreams" where all the stories he ever wrote are stored in departments. He guides us through the humungous building and opens a department every now and then. Everytime he does the tour is interrupted and we get to read a selected short story ( a window-tale if you will), adapted into comicdom by different people (Len Wein, Michael T. Gilbert and others).
In this particular book are five of those short-stories which vary in quality. I definately want to point out "Rat-hater", a story about a guy taking revenge in the most gruesome way he can think of on a guy who is responsible for his sisters death. To my taste this is the best story in the book (both the story as the painted art are not to be missed). Some of the others are nice (The Len Wein story and something called "On the Slab") but there's also a story done by Phil Foglio about which you'll probably feel sorry you took the time for it afterwards.
Between the several short stories, in the sequences where Ellison takes the reader from one department to another, Ellison uses some pages to take some personal shots at people who in his eyes wrongfully criticezed his work, in a pretty chauvinistic way.
The last two pages contain part of a new never-printed-before piece of proze by Ellison.

All in all the conclussion I must come to is that this is not a spectacularly good book. There are some nice (not great) stories in here and there are some lesser ones.... As it is it's quite enjoyable but only worth the money for true Harlan Ellison fans who can't get enough of him.