The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories

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The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories
Melancholydeath.jpg
First edition US cover
Author Tim Burton
IllustratorTim Burton
Cover artistTim Burton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Poetry
Black humor
Publisher William Morrow and Company
Publication date
1997
Media type Hardcover
Pages115
ISBN 0-688-15681-9

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories is a 1997 poetry book written and illustrated by film director Tim Burton. The poems, which are full of black humor, tell stories of hybrid kids, spontaneous transformers, and women who have babies to win over men.

Contents

Some characters of the book would later appear in the flash animation series Stainboy , which was created, directed, and written by Burton.

The characters

Origin of title poem

According to American comics artist and publisher Stephen R. Bissette, the title poem "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" was originally conceived as a project for Bissette's comics anthology Taboo and was actually written by horror novelist Michael McDowell, who had previously worked with Burton on the screenplays for Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas . McDowell is thanked in the acknowledgements at the end of the book, but is not credited for writing the poem. [1]

Reception

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories has been generally well received by both critics and reader. It received 5 out of 5 stars at Amazon.com [2] and a B+ at Entertainment Weekly . [3]

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References

  1. "Steve Bissette". COMICON.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  2. Burton, Tim (22 October 1997). The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: And Other Stories. Harper Collins. ISBN   0688156819.
  3. Steffens, Daneet (5 December 1997). "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 19 June 2020.