Once again, I must thank Grim Blogger for bringing another cool project to my attention. Recently, artist and designer Eric Mongeon announced the publication of 4 by Poe, an illustrated collection of four short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

As he explained it in this blog post last year, Eric Mongeon is a long-time fan of America’s master of mystery and the macabre. His senior thesis project was a graphic-novel-style adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Shadow.” He wrote that he “kept coming back to the idea of an adaptation every few years.” The project is now concrete; from his website:

This is going to be an illustrated collection for us grown-ups. One that approaches Poe’s stories of murder, mystery, and mayhem on their own beautiful, sensationalistic terms. One that highlights the black humor, celebrates the philosophical insights, and yes, revels in the violence.

A lifelong admirer of Poe’s work, I’m making the collection I always wanted but could never find.

Here’s how it works: Each season for one year, I will release a short story by Poe in the form of an illustrated, individually-bound softcover volume.

Poe worked as a magazine editor, so it seems only natural to adopt the format of a periodical as the organizing principle of a new anthology.

As with a magazine, you’ll have the option of subscribing and saving some cash or collecting individual back issues – while supplies last – for a small premium.

Also like a magazine, each delivery will be a surprise – you’ll never know which story you’re going to get next. You’ll only know that every 12 weeks something thoughtfully designed, beautifully printed, and worth collecting is going to arrive in the mail.

If you don’t like surprises, you might like to know that in his blog Mongeon announced the following stories: “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat” and “Berenice.”

The texts that you can see on the right are the first pages of each of these three tales, so unless he changed his mind since then, his choice seems already set for three out of four yarns.

A few words by the artists on the layout:

The page grid is based on the Van De Graaf canon — Gutenberg’s design for the Bible, only flipped upside-down. The display type is inspired by antebellum-era magazine design, which was where Poe published his stories. The title is a custom font I designed based on a Scotch Roman typeface — a family of fonts popular in Edgar Allan Poe’s day.

Although expensive, this limited (250 copies) four-volumes edition will probably look gorgeous. Subscriptions are open:

Subscription orders will be taken until midnight EST on May 31, 2010. Any volumes that remain after subscriptions have been fulfilled will be availabe for individual purchase.

One volume will ship approximately every 12 weeks starting in mid-June, 2010.

Each volume will be signed and numbered by the artist.