I absolutely need to re-read this.

Alice Cooper’ın müziğini ve sahnedeki anlatı sanatını çok seven biri olarak bu kitabı okumaya heyecanla başladım. Hikâyesi 94 yapımı The Last Temptation albümüyle paralel ve birçok yerde bağlantısı var. Konu fazla dallanıp budaklanmıyor. İki ana karakter var. Hikâyedeki esas karakter olan Şovmen ise belki Alice Cooper’ı, belki ona olan hayranlığımızı ve belki de düşlerin tek gerçeklik olduğunu simgeliyor.

Kitabı okurken gerçekten çok fazla zevk aldım. Bundaki en büyük etken ise Michael Zulli’nin eşsiz, yaratıcı, sanatsal ve günah kadar kışkırtıcı çizimleri. Hikâyenin genel seyrini ve akıcılığını ise yeterince beğenmedim. Bunda gerek kimi yerlerin girift şekilde sunulmak yerine yüzeysel olarak anlatılması gerekse de okuyucu tahminleri doğrultusunda hareket etmesi etkili. Böylesine özel bir proje de, anlatımda ve kurguda kimi klişe unsurların olmaması çok daha iyi olurdu.

Kitap 160 sayfa yalnız bunun 100 sayfası hikâyeden oluşuyor. Geri kalan kısımda önsöz, sonsöz, mektup ve kitabın senaryosu yer alıyor. Tüm bu parçaların tek bir kitapta toplanması çok hoş olmuş. Özellikle senaryoyu okuyarak, çizimlerinde bunun dâhilinde nasıl şekillendiğini görmek ise büyük bir ayrıcalık.

Çizimlere 5 yıldız, hikâyeye ise 3 veriyorum. Bütünüyle ise gayet sıkı bir iş olduğunu düşünüyorum.

Ultimately, this wasn’t as tempting as I wanted it to be. There are some fantastic visuals and a pretty good set up but it seemed a bit too reminiscent of Stephen King’s IT replacing Pennywise with Alice Cooper. Nice short cut guys. Unfortunately, also like IT, the ending seemed a little bit too simplistic (trying not to spoil either—loved IT by the way). I wouldn’t seek this out but it was fine because I had it around—local library used book sale.

For those of you who know me as "Cooper," this book was actually my first exposure to Alice Cooper (aside from Wayne's World, when he was just some rock star I didn't know). It is an amazing work which pays tribute to both the truthful unreality of the theater and the works of Ray Bradbury, two of my longtime passions.

I was actually underwhelmed when I first heard the accompanying album, though You're My Temptation remains one of my all time favorite songs.

Halloween is almost upon them when Steven and his friends discover an alley that wasn’t there before that leads to a theatre that wasn’t there before. The Theatre de Grand Guignol is for the more, shall we say, discerning patron and the showman (the only name he is ever given in the story), who bears a striking resemblance to Alice Cooper, is offering one ticket to any boy brave enough to enter. As much as he is terrified by the prospect, Steven is shamed by his friends into accepting the offer.

The manager offers Steven a deal - he can give up all of his fears and live forever as a child among the ghosts and spirits in this traveling show but there is a down-side, of course – he must also give up all of his potential. Steven is tempted by Mercy, the beautiful and seductive ticket seller, but, when he finally refuses, he finds that the showman isn’t one to take no for an answer and, as they say, our dreams are the portals to our soul.

The Last Temptation was a collaborative effort between Neil Gaiman and Alice Cooper originally designed as a tie-in to Alice Cooper’s album by the same name released in 1994. It was re-released by Dynamite to mark its 20th anniversary. This is a marvelously dark and macabre comiing-of-age tale and is great fun to read. However, what really makes this graphic novel worth revisiting after all this time is the visually stunning artwork by Michael Zuli.

Is there really more to say than "collaboration between Alice Cooper and Neil Gaiman"? This story had very Stephen King-esque qualities to it - definitely the nostalgia for youth and the allure of dark magic. The illustrations were so rich, it was easy to forget it's only black and white. From the decaying theater where you could smell the musty velvet curtains to the brisk fall small town streets where leaves and wind cut our protagonist's thin frame, this book managed to evoke the particulars of each place with enough realism to make the fantasy even more so. Great Halloween read.

Couldn't go wrong

It's is two of the most talented storytellers around, one of music one of written word. Ultimately it is a comic adaptation on Alice Cooper the last temptation, A story of a sideshow and it's unfortunate new victim. Gaiman wove a masterful tale with Alice's genius lyrics about a sideshow that only appears on a certain night and the show man's search for new blood. Couldn't stop reading it

What’s better than a Neil Gaiman graphic novel illustrated by Michael Zulli? How about one conceived by Gaiman and Alice Cooper? I can’t even relay how amazing this is but I have been singing Welcome To My Nightmare since I started reading it. So good!

Curioso tebeo, con muchos lugares comunes sobre el paso de la infancia a la madurez, los ritos de paso, los peligros del mundo, bellamente ilustrado por Michael Zulli.

Si se combina la lectura con la escucha del disco y se entiende el proceso creativo de Cooper y de Gaiman, estamos ante una obra que puntúa entre un 3.5 y un 4. Si escuchamos solo el album musical o leemos únicamente el cómic, la valoración baja porque se pierden matices. De todas las maneras, es disfrutable y se presenta como una muy buena opción para entrar de lleno en el espíritu de Halloween.

ENGLISH
If you combine reading with listening to the album and understand the creative process of Cooper and Gaiman, we are faced with a work that scores between a 3.5 and a 4. If we listen to only the musical album or read only the comic, the rating drops because nuances are lost. In any case, it is enjoyable and is presented as a very good option to fully get into the Halloween spirit.

As a big fan of Neil Gaiman and Alice Cooper I was a bit worried that this graphic novel could disappoint me, given the fact that I had very high expectations, however it has proven to be a masterpiece, both for the texts and for illustrations.

Come grande fan di Neil Gaiman e Alice Cooper ero un po' preoccupata che questa graphic novel potesse deludermi, considerato il fatto che avevo delle aspettative altissime, invece si é rivelata un capolavoro, sia per i testi che per le illustrazioni.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE PREVIEW!

Part of a multi-media collaboration between Alice Cooper and Neil Gaiman. From the basic outline of the story and continued collaboration, Cooper created an album and Gaiman a three-issue limited series, collected and reprinted here.
Something of a modern Something Wicked This Way Comes, but moved to one Halloween in the 80's. We follow a slightly sensitive pre-teen boy into the nightmare world of The Theater of the Real, whose impresario is the Showman, man of questionable origin modeled after Alice Cooper's stage persona. Perhaps we will follow Steven back out again...

Beautiful, sweeping artwork, but it occasionally fuddles the story. Really good storytelling, with occasional glitches and hiccups that obscure the message.