Amphigorey Again

Book Description

This latest collection displays in glorious abundance the offbeat characters and droll humor of Edward Gorey. Figbash is acrobatic, topiaries are tragic, hippopotami are admonitory, and galoshes are remorseful in this celebra- tion of a unique talent that never fails to delight, amuse, and confound.

Amphigorey Again contains previously uncollected work and two unpublished stories—"The Izzard Book," a quirky riff on the letter Z , and "La Malle Saignante," a bilingual homage to early French silent serial movies. Rough sketches and unfin- ished panels show an ironic and singular mind at work.

Customer Reviews:

Edward Gorey does it again.......2007-09-18

There's only one master of the macabre. Edward Gorey. This is a fantastic collection for those who find everything he did captivating and a joy to read. I love this. Hunker down with this tome in the Fall.

Distant, mysterious, and disjoint.......2007-09-08

If that description matches something enjoyable, it has to be Edward Gorey's work. This poshumous collection proves that even death can't stop a creative mind of his kind.

Like the other Aphigorey collections, this presents over two dozen short pieces. Some, like "Cat[e]gory", arrive wordless, leaving the reader to assign meaning. Others, including "The Deadly Blotter" and "The Izzard Book," involve wordplay of some kind. In others, "The Admonitory Hippopotamus" in particular, the words seem to clutch theirs meanings closely as they fly by, without dropping those meanings where the reader can find them.

But, even more than his stories (if the term 'story' in fact applies), Gorey's fame derives from his art. Fans of public television's "Mystery" know his style, whether or not they know that they know it: heavily textured pen drawings, people gazing off to the place where they might remember something terribly important, and amorphous little animals doing something mysterious and just a little desperate.

This collection includes an unfinished piece, showing some of the progression from Gorey's pencil sketches to his nervous, distracted cartoons. It's a wonderful addition, and possibly the last, to any collection of this cult-favorite illustrator's work.

-- wiredweird

Gorey's last breath - Rate ***1/2.......2007-07-22

Amphigorey Again is a wonderful addition to the now classic Amphigorey series (the others being Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too and Amphigorey Also).
Said that this fourth volume is by far the weakest, but that's not to
say it's bad (remember we're not talking about hacks):Gorey in his less inspired moments is still worth buying.
There are a number of very short pieces here as well as some wonderful ilustrations but the most interesting pieces are the lenghty ones, even
though some of them seems like an incomplete draft.
Amphigorey Again is not the best introduction for those who wants to
immerse for the first time in Gorey's demented genius but if you are a
a Gorey addict this volume is ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE.

AMPHIGOREY AGAIN:
The Galoshes of Remorse (illustration) ==========
Signs of Spring ================================= ***1/2
Seasonal Confusion ============================== ***1/2
Random Walk ===================================== ***1/2
Category (illustration) =========================
The Other Statue ================================ ****
10 Impossible Objects =========================== -
The Universal Solvent =========================== -
Scénes de Ballet ================================ ***1/2
Verse Advice ==================================== ***
The Deadly Blotter ============================== ***
Creativity ====================================== ***
The Retrieved Locket ============================ ***
The Water Flowers =============================== ***1/2
The Haunted The-Cosy ============================ ***1/2
Christmas Wrap-up (illustration) ================
The Headless Bust =============================== ****
The Just Dessert ================================ **1/2
The Admonitory Hippopotamus ===================== ***1/2
Negected Murderesses ============================ ***1/2
Tragédies Topiaries ============================= ****
The Raging Tide ================================= ****
The Unknown Vegetable =========================== ****
Another Random Walk ============================= ***1/2
Serious Life: A Cruise ========================== ***1/2
Figbash Acrobate (Illustrations) ================
La Malle Saignante ============================== ****
The Izzard Book ================================= ***

Gorey just gets Better and Better.......2007-01-12

Surely this could not be the last of Gorey whose illustrations highlight television shows, books, and stories better than any other weird, offbeat or just plain strange artist.

Yet Another Amphigory.......2006-12-26

The two most pressing questions I had about this book were 1) was it "new" (not previously published) work, and 2) how incomplete is the art.

The answers are 1) Yes it is all new work and 2) very few of the pieces are sketchy or incomplete.

I am very pleased with this volume. It completes my collection of all four of the Amphigory volumes.

Average customer rating:

Gorey is an american original
Amphiglorious!
The first Gorey collection
Brilliant ideas spoiled by tiny pictures
The Art of Visual Irony

Amphigorey
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: Perigee Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0399504338

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The title of this deliciously creepy collection of Gorey's work stems from the word amphigory, meaning a nonsense verse or composition. As always, Gorey's painstakingly cross- hatched pen and ink drawings are perfectly suited to his oddball verse and prose. The first book of 15, "The Unstrung Harp," describes the writing process of novelist Mr. Clavius Frederick Earbrass: "He must be mad to go on enduring the unexquisite agony of writing when it all turns out drivel." In "The Listing Attic," you'll find a set of quirky limericks such as "A certain young man, it was noted, / Went about in the heat thickly coated; / He said, 'You may scoff, / But I shan't take it off; / Underneath I am horribly bloated.' "

Many of Gorey's tales involve untimely deaths and dreadful mishaps, but much like tragic Irish ballads with their perky rhythms and melodies, they come off as strangely lighthearted. "The Gashlycrumb Tinies," for example, begins like this: "A is for AMY who fell down the stairs, B is for BASIL assaulted by bears," and so on. An eccentric, funny book for either the uninitiated or diehard Gorey fans.

Customer Reviews:

Gorey is an american original.......2007-07-24

Although AMPHIGOREY TOO and AMPHIGOREY ALSO are exceptionally
fine collections, AMPHIGOREY (the first in a series of four
handsome trade paperbacks collecting almost all Gorey's solo
works) is still the best introduction to the wonderfully demen-
ted world of the american cartoonist.
Here you'll find children facing death, strange creatures
disturbing the piece of families, a writer in crisis, a hungry
monster hunting innocent children etc.But remember, this is not an
ordinary book, it's not even a comic book, it's a Gorey book.
The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Hapless Child, The Listing Attic and
The Fatal Lozenge are my personal favorites but each one is a po-
lished gem of delicate confection, intricate beauty and stunning
wordplay.
Simply wonderful.

AMPHIGOREY:
The Unstrung Harp (1953) ========================= ****1/2
The Listing Attic (1954) ========================= *****
The Doubtful Guest (1957) ======================== ****1/2
The Object-Lesson (1958) ========================= ****
The Bug Book (1959) ============================== ***1/2
The Fatal Lozenge (1960) ========================= *****
The Hapless Child (1961) ========================= *****
The Curious Sofa (1961) ========================== ****1/2
The Willowdale Handcar (1962) ==================== ****1/2
The Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963) ==================== *****
The Insect God (1963) ============================ *****
The West Wing (1963) ============================= ***1/2
The Wuggly Ump (1963) ============================ ****1/2
The Sinking Spell (1964) ========================= ****1/2
The Remembered Visit (1965) ====================== ****

Amphiglorious!.......2006-12-03

The first and best of Gorey's wonderful anthologies. This one contains absolute classics such as The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Listing Attic, The Doubtful Guest, and The Curious Sofa.

The first Gorey collection.......2006-10-19

AMPHIGOREY was the first collection of Edward Gorey's books, rescuing from oblivion various small-press offerings that had fallen out of print. Edward Gorey's craft was tieing pen-and-ink scenes of Edwardian English with droll captions that altogether communicated a very individual sense of humour.

With these first fifteen works, ranging from THE UNSTRUNG HARP (1953) to THE REMEMBERED VISIT (1965), Gorey was still finding his footing. The text of THE UNSTRUNG HARP shows him already a master of weird humour, but his drawings were still in a state of flux, and the very dark and thickly-lined pictures of most books here contrast with the sparse textures of THE CURIOUS SOFA and THE SINKING SPELL. It isn't until the very last book that one sees at last the perfect balance that I find to be Gorey's best.

The subjects of the books vary. THE UNSTRUNG HARP is an amusing tale of a novelist trying to stay motivated while writing and to avoid disgust at his creation. THE CURIOUS SOFA is Gorey's infamous pornographic novel, an obliquely-worded text that would be unthreatening to any child who came upon it, but which for adults is one of the filthiest things ever penned. THE DOUBTFUL GUEST is Gorey's popular tale of a monster/creature from outer space/bird species inviting itself into a manor. The most popular theme, however, is that of children meeting a grim end. In THE HAPLESS CHILD, a poor orphan suffers all her life and then is hit by a car, in THE INSECT GOD the daughter of a wealthy family is abducted by giant bugs, and in THE FATAL LOZENGE and THE LISTING ADDICT innocents are done in by various madmen. And of course we have Gorey's THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES, an alphabet book where twenty-six children die horribly ("A for for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil assaulted by bears..."). It's curious indeed that Gorey manages to make this theme hilarious, though his macabre humour isn't for everyone.

For me, Gorey reached his height with his work after the books of this collection. Nonetheless, none of the material here is anything less than entertaining. If you're a Gorey fan, I'd certainly recommend buying the Amphigorey collections. While some books, such as THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES, THE CURIOUS SOFA, and the DOUBTFUL GUEST have remained in print separately, there's a rich array of lesser-known books here that are sure to please.

Brilliant ideas spoiled by tiny pictures.......2006-03-23

The books in this series (Amphigorey Also, Amphigorey Too and this one) benefit from the warped wit of Gorey, but the size of the images is so small that it becomes difficult to make out the fine details. I like to read them to my kids (ages 9 and 12) but we have to be all scrunched together to make out the visuals.

The Art of Visual Irony.......2005-08-18

The late Edward Gorey is a man sorely missed. His frequently twisted works were delicious studies in irony, and none moreso than in this collection. In a culture bereft of appreciation for subtle, intelligent illustrations, Gorey has thus far had no heir or replacement, and we are the worse for it.

Gorey's illustrations (probably best not to term these "cartoons") fly in the face of modern American knee-jerk reactions to the comic strips found in the daily papers. With those we react as programmed, with a laugh. While reading Amphigorey we might on occasion break out with a grim chuckle, and more frequently with a smile, but just as often the reader will pause to ponder what she sees and invest the action on the page with a past to explain what set in motion the odd event we behold before us in two dimensions. Being compelled to use our brain because of what we see in an illustration is a refreshingly rare event in life, though common when one reads Gorey. His depictions of Edwardian and Victorian peoples and their misfortunes, all commited to paper awash in tones of varying gray and stark black, are visual feasts for the centers of our minds that deep down delight in the disturbed, deranged, and even the offensive.

When one reads this collection of Gorey's output, the most overpowering feeling is that while what one is seeing may not be "nice" it is certainly a thing of grim magnificence.

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The contents of Gorey's collections
WONDERFUL IN EVERY WAY
Glorious Too!
Playfully Warped
More Gorey Stories

Amphigorey Too
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: Perigee Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0399504206

Customer Reviews:

The contents of Gorey's collections.......2007-07-24

The contents of Gorey's collections with personal rates for each work:

AMPHIGOREY:
The Unstrung Harp (1953) ========================= ****1/2
The Listing Attic (1954) ========================= *****
The Doubtful Guest (1957) ======================== ****1/2
The Object-Lesson (1958) ========================= ****
The Bug Book (1959) ============================== ***1/2
The Fatal Lozenge (1960) ========================= *****
The Hapless Child (1961) ========================= *****
The Curious Sofa (1961) ========================== ****1/2
The Willowdale Handcar (1962) ==================== ****1/2
The Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963) ==================== *****
The Insect God (1963) ============================ *****
The West Wing (1963) ============================= ***1/2
The Wuggly Ump (1963) ============================ ****1/2
The Sinking Spell (1964) ========================= ****1/2
The Remembered Visit (1965) ====================== ****

AMPHIGOREY TOO:
The Beastly Baby (1962) =================== *****
The Nursery Frieza (1964) ================= -
The Pious Infant (1966) =================== ****1/2
The Evil Garden (1966) ==================== ****1/2
The Inanimate Tragedy (1966) ============== ****
The Gilded Bat (1966) ===================== ****
The Iron Tonic (1969) ===================== ****
The Osbick Bird (1970) ==================== ****1/2
The Chinese Obelisks (Sketch) (1970) ====== ***
The Chinese Obelisks (1970) =============== ****
The Deranged Cousins (1970) =============== ****1/2
The Eleventh Episode (1971) =============== ****
The Untitled Book (1971) ================== ***1/2
The Lavander Leotard ===================== ***
Direspecful Sermons ======================= ****1/2
The Abandoned Sock (1972) ================= ****
The Lost Lions (1973) ===================== ****
Story for Sara ============================ ****
The Salt Herring ========================== ***
Leaves for a Mislaid Album (1972) ========= ***
A Limerick (1973) ========================= ****1/2

AMPHIGOREY ALSO:
The Utter Zoo (1967) ======================== *****
The Blue Aspic (1968) ======================= ****1/2
The Epileptic Bicycle (1969) ================ ****
The Sopping Thrusday (1970) ================= ****1/2
The Grand Passion (1976) =================== **1/2
Les Passementeries Horribles ================ ***
The Ecletic Abecedarium ===================== ***
L'eure Bleau ================================ ***
The Broken Spoke (1976) ===================== ****
The Awdrey-Gore Legacy (1972) =============== ****
The Glorious Nosebleed (1975) =============== ****
The Loathsome Couple (1977) ================= ****1/2
The Green Beads (1978) ====================== ****
Les Urnes Utiles ============================ ***
The Stupid Joke (1980-1982) ================ ****1/2
The Prune People (1983) ===================== ****
The Tuning Fork ============================= ****1/2

AMPHIGOREY AGAIN:
The Galoshes of Remorse (illustration) ==========
Signs of Spring ================================= ***1/2
Seasonal Confusion ============================== ***1/2
Random Walk ===================================== ***1/2
Category (illustration) =========================
The Other Statue (1968) ========================= ****
10 Impossible Objects =========================== -
The Universal Solvent (1989) ==================== -
Scénes de Ballet ================================ ***1/2
Verse Advice ==================================== ***
The Deadly Blotter (1997) ======================= ***
Creativity ====================================== ***
The Retrieved Locket (1994) ===================== ***
The Water Flowers (1982) ======================== ***1/2
The Haunted The-Cosy (1988) ===================== ***1/2
Christmas Wrap-up (illustration) ================
The Headless Bust (1999) ======================== ****
The Just Dessert (1997) ========================= **1/2
The Admonitory Hippopotamus ===================== ***1/2
Negected Murderesses (1980) ===================== ***1/2
Tragédies Topiaries ============================= ****
The Raging Tide (1987) ========================== ****
The Unknown Vegetable (1995) ==================== ****
Another Random Walk ============================= ***1/2
Serious Life: A Cruise ========================== ***1/2
Figbash Acrobate (Illustrations) ================
La Malle Saignante ============================== ****
The Izzard Book ================================= ***

WONDERFUL IN EVERY WAY.......2007-04-10

I don't care if you've never in your life read Edward Gorey, I don't care if "it's not your thing," I don't care about any silly excuse. If you haven't read this book than you are not complete, and there's only one way to fix the problem.

Edward Gorey is satiric genius, and when he isn't being sarcastic and whimsical then he is beautiful and poetic (although come to think of it, he's always poetic, isn't he?). Being an Amphigorey, this book has loads or nonsense stuff crammed together with some of his best work. I can't imagine that anyone with any kind of imagination could read through it without finding at least one thing that they adored.

Glorious Too!.......2006-12-03

This excellent follow-up anthology contains such classic Gorey works as The Beastly Baby, The Pious Infant, The Gilded Bat, The Chinese Obelisks, The Deranged Cousins, and The Disrespectful Summons.

Playfully Warped.......2005-09-20

This second mass-market anthology of Gorey's assorted works holds its own against the first collection, Amphigorey, and presents pieces previously found in a number of his once hard to locate, highly-sought shorter books. This volume concentrates on the more obscure among Edward Gorey's output, and in fact several of the tales here I had never heard of before I acquired Amphigorey Too. The irony in the fact so many of these illustrated tales are humorous (in addition to being ironic, strange and disturbing) is that Gorey balanced their intentional comic value with the concept that he was not trying to provide his readers with unalterated amusement. In fact an editor once challenged Gorey by saying, "Edward, this isn't funny." To which Gorey replied, "Sir, isn't it best that it not be?" Amphigorey Too is a wonderful compiliation and a must-have for any Gorey fan.

More Gorey Stories.......2003-04-14

Though not quite so wonderful as "Amphigorey" (q.v.) (if nothing else, there is nothing to equal the brillint "Gashleycrumb Tinies" nor "The Unstrung Harp"), the first Gorey omnibus volume, if only because the very best was skimmed off for that volume, this is still very high class whimsey indeed.

Like Gahan Wilson (q.v), Gorey looks at the world in a slightly skewed manner; much of his work consists of showing or telling us something that sounds perfectly rational but does not, in fact, quite compute, leaving our own minds to struggle with the cognitive dissonance he creates.

Probably my favourite bit in this collection is "The Gilded Bat", which is a sadly perceptive story of perception and reality in the life of a prima ballerina -- even after litle Maudy Splaytoe has progressed to being enigmatic star Miriella Splatova, her life is still pretty much the same as it always was, a round of rehearsal, performance and boredom. (In a wonderful example of something or other, there was a ballet based on this work; i have never seen it, but heard an interview on PBS with the choreographer, who had had to create excerpts from three OTHER, fictitious, ballets referred to in the text...)

The two versions of "The Chinese Obelisks" present us with an opportunity to see the author's mind at work, comparing sketch and draft of text to the finished work.

Book Description

Drawings (including thirty-two pages in color), captions, and verse showcasing Gorey’s unique talents and humor. “The Glorious Nosebleed,” “The Utter Zoo,” “The Epiplectic Bicycle,” and fourteen other selections.

Customer Reviews:

Great, Also.......2006-12-03

This compilation, being the third in the series, is naturally the weakest of the lot, but it still contains some absolutely enchanting bits of morbidity, including The Blue Aspic, The Glorious Nosebleedand The Loathsome Couple.

Deadworry.......2006-04-03

Edward Gorey is probably best known for the animations that precede Mystery, on PBS. His cartoons have appeared in a wide variety of magazines, and he has published a massive number of books. His Amphigorey series (Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, Amphigorey Also) collects his works in omnibus form.

Amphigorey Also is the third in the series. It is a perfect introduction for those not familiar with Gorey's work. The book contains seventeen chapters, which are as follows:

The Utter Zoo
The Blue Aspic
The Epileptic Bicycle
The Sopping Thursday
The Grand Passion
Les Passementeries Horribles
The Eclectic Abecedarium
L'Heure bleue
The Broken Spoke
The Awdrey-Gore Legacy
The Glorious Nosebleed
The Loathsome Couple
The Green Beads
Les Urnes Utiles
The Stupid Joke
The Prune People
The Tuning Fork

Each section is comprised of Gorey's lovely, macabre and often startling cartoons, and his brilliantly clever captions. Gorey has a dark sense of humor. We are talking here about gallows humor. Death pervades his work. Subjects that run through his oeuvre are infanticide, madness, murder, death in general, rain, umbrellas, revenge, and endless word play.

Gorey seems obsessed with his own name. I find it fascinating that he constantly plays about with creating anagrams of Edward Gorey. A few that I counted in Amphigorey were: Dogear Wryde, G.E. Deadworry, Awdrey Gore, E.G. Deadworry, Waredo Dyrge, Deary Rewdgo. There are also near anagrams such as Regera Dowdy. But then, these shouldn't really count.

Gorey's word play builds itself into the structure of some of the chapters. Several chapters are odd alphabets. The first of these is "The Utter Zoo". Each panel and caption describes an animal, whose name begins with a successive letter of the alphabet. These animals exist only in the warped mind of our author. He has imagined animals much stranger than anything to be found in a real zoo. These creatures range from the neat Ampoo to the tragically extinct Zote.

The best of Gorey's alphabets is "The Glorious Nosebleed". Each caption contains a different adverb. The illustrations are glorious, dark, and sinister. The captions are often strikingly funny, and a bit weird: "The creature regarded them balefully", "He exposed himself lewdly", "It was in the trunk presumably". These little vignettes are beautiful, and stunning, as well as being likely to offend a large section of the public.

"The Prune People" is a strange little series of drawings, sans captions, which depict people who have prunes in place of their heads. I honestly can't think of more to say about except this: you will find yourself drawn back to these drawings again and again. I least, I was.

The best of the chapters is "The Loathsome Couple". In this macabre tale Harold and Mona kill children for amusement. The couple were both abused as children. They find each other as adults. They find themselves incapable of sexual relations, and instead turn to murdering children for recreation. This is not a tale for everyone. Most will find themselves deeply offended by this story. But, for those who can recognize the stark beauty, and the deeper meaning in Gorey's words, this is a gem. It is a story to rival anything from the Brothers Grimm (I speak here not of the sanitized fairy tales, but of the gore soaked original's). Gorey's drawings are at their best here. One panel depicts Harold luring a child to his doom. Gorey has no sympathy for any of the characters in this picture (of course, he does have sympathy for all of his characters, it is simply that he chooses not to portray it in this drawing). He creates them was worn, lined, ugly beings who are part of a dreadful and ugly world.

Another story of note is "The Blue Aspic". It is the story of Jasper Ankle. Jasper is an opera fan. Perhaps too much of a fan. He murders to place his favorite singer in a starring role. He ignores his responsibilities until he losses his job. He is placed in an asylum, where he has no access to a turntable on which to play his beloved opera records. As he escapes, his beautiful records are broken. It ends badly. We would expect no less. And, it rains a lot.

Those are the only hints I will provide. I fear that I may be spoiling the stories that I have discussed, and do not wish to spoil the rest. This is a book that must be discovered page, by lovely page. Gorey manages to amaze, surprise, and shock again and again. Most people will, I fear, close this book after the first few pages. They will shudder, restrain revulsion, and try to wipe it from their memories. But for a select few of us, this book will delight for years.

I highly recommend Amphigorey Also. However, I offer this caveat: those with weak stomachs, puritanical outlooks, prudish demeanors, and easily offended sensibilities should beware. If you can't laugh at death, then don't bother* You have been warned.

Brilliant ideas spoiled by tiny pictures.......2006-03-23

The books in this series (Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too and this one) benefit from the warped wit of Gorey, but the size of the images is so small that it becomes difficult to make out the fine details. I like to read them to my kids (ages 9 and 12) but we have to be all scrunched together to make out the visuals.

Perhaps the most consistently entertaining of the Gorey anthologies.......2005-11-29

AMPHIGOREY ALSO is another compendium of Edward Gorey's stories in the form of pen-and-ink drawings with pithy captions. While it doesn't contain his most notorious book--THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES in the first AMPHIGOREY, I found this to be the most consistent amusing of his three anthologies.

The works here are of several different styles. You have relatively substantial stories, such as THE BLUE ASPIC. This tells the tragic love of the deranged fan Jasper Ankle for the diva soprano Ortenzia Caviglia and is full of jokes that will delight opera cognoscenti while probably eluding all else. Also in this category is THE LOATHSOME COUPLE, a delightfully droll tale of a man and woman who fall in love and discover their mutual passion is murdering children, and THE GREEN BEADS where an impoverished child meets a madwoman who turns out to be his long-lost grandmother.

Another style is that of drawings on some theme. The first book in the anthology, THE UTTER ZOO, is such a work, a collection of twenty-six drawings of imaginary creatures somewhat in the vein of Borges' BOOK OF IMAGINARY BEINGS. Then there's THE BROKEN SPOKE, purporting to be a collection of postcards about cycling, which is wickedly funny.

One will also find writings of totally random humour that explain the rumour that Gorey hit the bottle pretty hard. These include THE PRUNE PEOPLE, a collection of drawings where people go about their daily business and the only off thing is that they have prunes on their necks instead of heads. Also in this vein is LES PASSEMENTERIES HORRIBLES, where various people concentrate on some task unsuspecting that a gigantic passementerie is sneaking up behind them.

This is probably the best anthology to start with in uncovering Gorey's work--although I feel THE OTHER STATUE available on its out from Harcourt is the best introduction to this droll author. This anthology is certainly no collection of dead weight, and the quality of the reproductions is higher than in the other two.

Gorey and ghastly.......2004-05-12

The much-lamented Edward Gorey specialized in intricate, ominous pen-and-ink drawings. Doomed Victorian opera singers, alligators, time-bending bicycles, and plenty of creatures strange and grotesque fill "Amphigorey Also," a collection of Gorey's quirky work.

Included is the cute "Utter Zoo" ("The Ippagoggy has a taste/for every kind of glue and paste"), the tragic "Blue Aspic" (a crazed, impoverished man stalks an opera diva), the amusing "Sopping Thursday" (Bruno the dog looks for his master's umbrella), and the delicious revenge fairy tale "The Tuning Fork." The highlight is the "Awdrey Gore Legacy," a deliciously warped murder mystery.

Some of the offerings are kind of befuddling, like the disjointed conversation between a mustachioed man and a woman with a geisha hairdo, or the "Eclectic Abcedarium" with its too tiny pictures. But most of them, like "Les Passementeries Horribles" (in which embroidery and tassels act ominous) or "The Prune People" (which is pictures of people with prunes for heads) are amusing even if they make no sense.

Edward Gorey's delicate pen-and-ink illustrations would be fun even if he didn't possess the morbid whimsy that fills almost every story. Okay, if you are easily offended, then the "Loathsome Couple" will offend you with a pair of crazy killers lure, photograph and murder small children ("They spent the better part of the night murdering the child in various ways"). But he did so in the best of bad taste.

His slightly warped sensibilities were also shown in the chilly skies and barren-looking outdoors, cute children and haughty adults in Victorian attire. There are occasional splashes of color (like the blue backdrops of "L'heure Bleue"), but even then it tends to be a bit eerie and faded like old photographs.

The eerie whimsy of Edward Gorey's work is alive and well in "Amphigorey Also." A few of the works are duds, but overall it's a strange and wonderful ride.

Average customer rating:

Surreal comics

Amphigorey
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K7DAVO

Customer Reviews:

Surreal comics.......2007-01-16

Well, if you don't know who Edward Gorey is... Think surrealist comic book - surrealist like advertising art is surrealist: elegant models dancing with elephants, large everday objects falling on people and dogs doing clever implausible things.

The drawings are nicely done pen and ink illustrations. They are atmospheric above all else and have a distinctive flavor. The captions are matched to the drawings and may or may not relate directly to the scene shown. Together they build pretty little plots - surreal and without loose ends. Amphigorey is a bound collection of these short stories by Edward Gorey.

I recommend Edward Gorey to all. The drawings are excellent at creating an atmosphere and the stories are clever. (Obviously disregard my recommendation if you don't like surrealism.)

Average customer rating:

Surreal comics

AMPHIGOREY - FIFTEEN BOOKS

Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ICXQ9W

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Surreal comics.......2007-01-16

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Surreal comics

Amphigorey 15 Books

Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam/Berkley Windhover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HBMY10

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Surreal comics.......2007-01-16

Amphigorey : 15 obras ilustradas de Gorey

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Amphigorey : 15 obras ilustradas de Gorey
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: Valdemar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 8477023816

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Surreal comics

Amphigorey : Fifteen Books
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: Perigee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LNLUXM

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Surreal comics.......2007-01-16

Amphigorey además : 17 obras ilustradas de Gorey

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Amphigorey además : 17 obras ilustradas de Gorey
Edward Gorey
Manufacturer: Valdemar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 8477025304

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