Dead Stories by Mark Breyer

Mint copy in hardcovers, Water Row press, MA, 2000, scarce edition of 2000 copies.

Originally self-published by Mark Beyer in 1982 in stapled covers, offered here is the Limited Hardcover Edition published by Water Row Press in 2000. Beyer’s characters Amy & Jordan face attack dogs, hateful people, sickness, death and misery as they stumble through the pages of Dead Stories – one of Mark Beyer’s finest works.

“In terms Of style, Beyer creates the surreal dreamscape Of a nightmare and reveals the
elements of the dream (the images of snowmen, giant birds, a house crossing a road, attacking dogs) in the incipient forms Of a child’s caricatural rendering Of reality.
The effect is simultaneously eccentric and amusing, and Beyer’s extravagantly formal-
ized expression of the reality distances the essential frightening tone and spirit of the
dream. And yet. , . there is a deep and brooding melancholy to these images ofAmy and Jordan’s world that is often more than a little disquieting.

Mark Beyer’s is an extraordinary vision, and Dead Things is a remarkably consistent,
cohesive piece Of work. This is a vastly more abstracted account Of human reality than
has probably ever been seen in comic books. (Many will certainly dismiss it outright as
an embodiment Of the Outre.) It’s a wildly original comic-horrific vision of things,
though, and it would be incorrect to allege that Beyer hasn’t sorted Out. the complex
fears and anxieties that permeate these intricate fables. As an excusion into the realm
Of shroud-wearing fantasy, Dead Stories is an astonishing collection of work.”

— Dale Luciano in Comics Journal

$ 100.00