Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor
Dark Horse Comics, 1995
From March to August 1995, Dark Horse comics released a five-issue miniseries of comic books, titled 'Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor', that anthologized selected short stories by the renowned author.
The series featured comics, all-text pieces, and illustrated stories.
Each issue of 'Dream Corridor' led off with a one-page Introduction, rendered in graphical form, in which our hero indulges in raillery designed to remind readers that even though he's a Big Author, Harlan is excited about this, his latest foray into comics.......
Along with the venerable 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream', some older tales, and some newer ones, are serialized in the pages of 'Dream Corridor'.
One thing about 'Dream Corridor' that immediately is apparent is its modelling on DC's 'Vertigo' comic book imprint, which by 1995 was receiving lavish praise from the more intellectually inclined members of the comic book readership. The stylized, abstract artwork that was prominent in Vertigo's titles is self-consciously mimicked with 'Dream Corridor':
Most of the stories presented in 'Dream Corridor' are unremarkable. They usually have a twist ending, and are designed to impart some degree of comeuppance to their amoral protagonists. The one exception to this format is the story 'Cold Friend', which is serialized in issues four and five and as a more traditional sci-fi theme, and slicker artwork.
The text pieces featured in 'Dream Corridor' are disappointments, mainly because Dark Horse elected to print them in teeny-tiny, 4 pt font in order to accommodate them within the page count restriction for each issue. I didn't have the energy to pull out magnifying spectacles to read these stories, so I can't tell you if they are any good or not.........
Summing up, I really can't recommend 'Dream Corridor' to anyone other than those diehard Ellison fans who just have to have anything and everything that came from the hand of The Master. Along with the mediocre artwork and unremarkable stories, the imposition of cringey segments featuring Harlan's efforts to be a mensch tend to grate..........'Dream Corridor' simply doesn't live up to the standards set by Ellison's earlier foray into graphic art packaging, 1978's The Illustrated Harlan Ellison.
