Cheap Nightmare Alley (Book) (Spain Rodriguez, William L. Gresham) Price

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Customer Reviews of Nightmare Alley

Mister, I Was Made for It
The excellent movie with Tyrone Power isn't currently available -- too bad. It was written by the greatest Hollywood writer, Jules Furthman, who trimmed away some of Gresham's more baroque touches and flatulent moralizing (and gave it a great last line, until Darryl Zanuck softened the ending). As for the book itself, it's a blistering portrait of hubris and its consequences, and some of the writing (the early description of the geek at work) is as tough and uncompromising as any American writing ever. An unforgettable experience.

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Dark Americana
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? ...

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Disappointing adaptation of a fine novel
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.