{"id":23701,"date":"2021-02-13T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=23701"},"modified":"2021-02-12T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T18:19:13","slug":"corpse-talk-dead-good-storytellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2021\/02\/13\/corpse-talk-dead-good-storytellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Corpse Talk: Dead Good Storytellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Adam & Lisa Murphy<\/strong> (David Fickling Books)
\nISBN: ISBN: 978-1-78845-125-3 (PB)<\/p>\n

The educational power of comic strips has been long understood and acknowledged: if you can make the material memorably enjoyable, there is nothing that can’t be better taught with pictures. The obverse is also true: comics can make any topic or subject come alive\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or at least – as here – outrageously, informatively undead\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The fabulous and effective conceit in Corpse Talk<\/strong> is that your scribbling, cartooning host Adam Murphy (ably abetted off-camera by Lisa Murphy) tracks down (or rather digs up) famous personages from the past: all serially exhumed for a chatty, cheeky This Was Your Life<\/strong> talk-show interview that – in Reithian terms – simultaneously \u00e2\u20ac\u0153elucidates, educates and entertains\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. It also often grosses one out, which is no bad thing for either a kids’ comic or a learning experience\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Another splendid album release culled from the annals of The Phoenix<\/strong>, this authorially-themed collection is dedicated to not-so-private audiences with a succession of legendary and\/or unsung wordsmiths, in what would almost certainly not be their own words\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Catching up in order of date of demise, these candid cartoon conferences begin by digging the dirt with ‘Enheduanna: Priestess-Poet 23rd<\/sup> century BCE’<\/em>, who has a claim to inventing poetry with her religion themed anthems in ancient Sumeria. As always, each balmy biography is accompanied by a side-feature examining a key aspect or artefact of their lives such as here with ‘Inanna and the Mountain’<\/em> (The Corpse Talk version) <\/em>illustrating the power and short temper of the primal goddess\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Moving on in time – and perhaps into fiction rather than fact – comes an intimate investigation into the truth behind Greek epic poet ‘Homer’<\/em> (8th<\/sup> century BCE – possibly) supplemented by a vivid and truncated Corpse Talk version of ‘The Odyssey’<\/em> which could get you a passing grade if schools and exams weren’t another thing of the past\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Astounding female and unconventional Mandarin’s daughter ‘Li Qingzhao – Lyric Poet 1084-1155’ <\/em>discusses <\/em>her fortunate career in the Song Dynasty: accompanied by her translated, illustrated ode ‘Like a Dream’<\/em>, after which a Sufi poet spanning 1207-1273 takes centre stage.<\/p>\n

‘Jalaluddin Rumi’<\/em> details his transformation from acerbic scholar to impassioned love poet and is backed up by his illustrated poem ‘The Guest House’<\/em> before we head into more familiar territory with Medieval poet ‘Geoffrey Chaucer – 1343-1400’<\/em> who relates the tale of his times, backed up by the pertinent facts of ‘The Canterbury Tales’<\/em> plus a Corpse Talk adaptation of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Playwright ‘William Shakespeare – 1564-1616’<\/em> tells it like it was, accompanied by the (fun) version of ‘Macbeth’<\/em> after which we go gothic by chatting with Romantic Poet ‘John Keats – 1795-1821’<\/em> and get acquainted with ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’<\/em> and double down with dark fantasy courtesy of Gothic Novelist ‘Mary Shelley – 1797-1851’<\/em> who candidly discloses how and why her groundbreaking novel came about, supplemented by a cartoon adaptation of ‘Frankenstein’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sticking with Gothic Novels, the life of ‘Charlotte Bront\u00c3\u00ab – 1816-1865’<\/em> is explored, with definitive classic ‘Jayne Eyre’<\/em>enjoying a Corpse Talk make-over, after which ‘Charles Dickens 1812-1870’<\/em> reviews his amazing career and endures a comics interpretation of ‘Great Expectations’<\/em>, whilst Adventure Novelist ‘Alexandre Dumas – 1802-1870’<\/em> details how the son of French plantation slaves rose to pre-eminence in the literary world, accompanied by a rousing rendition of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Epic Novelist and spiritual questor ‘Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy – 1828-1910’<\/em> comes under the necroscope next, with a serviceable truncation of ‘War and Peace’<\/em> in his wake, before horrorist ‘Bram Stoker – 1847-1912’<\/em> tells his life-story while the Murphys deftly adapt his undying masterpiece ‘Dracula’<\/em> and Crime Writer ‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – 1859-1930’<\/em> examines his serried career and influences, with Sherlock Holmes short story ‘The Speckled Band’<\/em> leading us to final interviewee Children’s Author ‘Beatrix Potter – 1866-1943’<\/em>; describing a life well-lived, and a splendid legacy, backed up a fresh take on the tale of ‘Peter Rabbit’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And just when you think it’s all over, up pops an extra item: a cracking adaptation of ‘All the World’s a Stage\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’<\/em>, rounding out the fun and whimsy before ushering all and sundry back to their biers and sepulchres for now.<\/p>\n

Clever, cheeky, outrageously funny and formidably factual throughout, Corpse Talk <\/strong>unyieldingly tackles history’s more tendentious moments whilst personalising the great, the grim, the good and especially the greatly entertaining for coming generations.<\/p>\n

It is also a fabulously fun read no parent or kid could possibly resist. Don’t take my word for it though, just read and enjoy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\nText and illustrations \u00c2\u00a9 Adam & Lisa Murphy 2021. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam & Lisa Murphy (David Fickling Books) ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-78845-125-3 (PB) The educational power of comic strips has been long understood and acknowledged: if you can make the material memorably enjoyable, there is nothing that can’t be better taught with pictures. The obverse is also true: comics can make any topic or subject come … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Corpse Talk: Dead Good Storytellers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,102,122,125,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-british","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6ah","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}