Dream Corridor, Vol. 2, Harlan Ellison

Dream Corridor, Volume 2 is finally a reality. It was ten years of waiting since Volume 1. Now for the bad news, it is the final volume. No more will highly skilled comic artists draw their visions of the imaginative, sometimes provocative fiction of Harlan Ellison. This is so not good.

In the pages of Dream Corridor, Volume 2 you go "down here, beneath the sinking pyramid, descending the silent staircase, here to the Dream Corridor." Ellison and Eisner Award winning artist Eric Shanower get together to introduce each story.

"The Silver Corridor" is drawn by Gene Ha; Paul Chadwick (Concrete) illustrates "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty"; and Richard Corben (Den) brings the characters of "The Man on the Juice Wagon" into view.

"Opposites Attract" is the story of a geriatric man and woman who find true love. They also discover the hobbies they pursue are perfect for each other. Artist Rags Morales bombs the pages with his meticulous and detailed style.

Jay Lynch's underground comic pencilling is perfect for "Djinn, No Chaser". Newlyweds purchase a magic lamp and a jammed Djinn. Harlan Ellison delivers a trademark humorous ending.

Put a frustrated jock and stoned gnome together and "Gnomebody" wins. The late Martin Nodell (1915-2006) was the co-creator of All-American Comics Green Lantern. His art visually sets the story in the 1950s when the story was written.

Seven other tales of the dark and humorous side of humanity await readers in this graphic novel. Comic artists like Ken Bash, Bret Blevins, Gene Colan, Curt Swan (Superman), Neal Adams, Rafael Navarro and Terese Nielsen illustrate what came from the mind of Harlan Ellison.

His fantasy and science fiction works have won most of the speculative fiction awards that have been thought of. The Hugo, Nebula (1969 for A Boy and His Dog that became a movie in 1976. It had the young Don Johnson, from Miami Vice as Solo.), Locus, British Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jupiter, World Fantasy, Saturn, Asimov Readers and others.

Harlan traveled with the Rolling Stones and used the experience to write "Spider Kiss". His work has been a staple of science fiction and mystery television for years. The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Babylon 5 and Star Trek have all benefited from Harlan's storytelling. "City of the Edge of Forever" is one of the most watched Star Trek episodes.

Ellison has written over 1700 novels, essays, stories, newspaper and magazine columns, screenplays and some stuff so ethereal it is hard to quantify. All that and they are only doing two Dream Corridors. Did they read his bibliography?

Dream Corridor, Harlan Ellison, Edgeworks Abbey, Dark Horse, 2007, 167 pages