Editing makes it a bit tough to follow, but it feels intentional to get the viewer into a frenetic and overwhelmed state. And this movie sure does overwhelm. 🫀
New Horror 2023 – Day 4
“The policemen who arrived on the scene found only cotton wool.”
We imbue objects with a power that we sometimes can’t take back, and I love when a story explores that. But then I’m the guy fixated on doll and dummy horror and who recently visited the only ventriloquist dummy museum in the world. So if that kinda stuff terrifies you, this story’s for you.
This is horror in the way some stories from Tales from the Crypt are horror. Which is, not really. It’s doesn’t even have a comeuppance. Ice Cream Man appealed to me as an anthology series but I recall the last issue being pretty light on the horror as well, so maybe I’ll skip these going forward. But, the particular story in this issue was neat in that Heavy Metal sort of way, just wacky space fantasy shenanigans.
Yeah I can see why this hit and spawned a series. Controls feel great, looks good for the vintage, and that music is tops. It takes the beefy Conan the Barbarian type and throws him into a castle full of monsters, what’s not to love? The scariest creature by far is the little guy who hops around.
New Horror 2023 – Day 3
“Someone screamed – it was me, it was me – as her flesh blackened and greened and sank in around her bones like fallen cake.”
Horror-ish? Certainly in the spirit of the time. But it’s also just one of those meditative pieces about how one gets here through all the muck of youth and existence, where you are who you are and sometimes you have to wonder how you got to be this way.
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“I’ll tell them what we did and you won’t be able to stand it!”
Wow. This one’s pretty raw in terms of a character being abused and treated horribly. But the thing is, Machado’s story has the exact same scenes, only between a man (abuser) and a woman (victim) instead of a man (abuser) and a man (victim), like in this story. So why does a man abusing another man stand out to me when the other, more heteronormative abuse does not? And that’s the most fucked up thing here, realizing it’s just because it’s between two men and that’s not normalized in my brain the way it is when it’s a man abusing a woman. This one absolutely got to me.
Oh, so is this how Freddy Kreuger became a cartoon? Because pop culture definitely took this character and made him into a spooky family-friendly spokesman. And the movie isn’t being coy about it, but somehow the comedy and campiness doesn’t quite gel. The ending montage showing scenes from the previous movies definitely make me think I should go watch those instead.
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“Remember to carry matches; the HAUNTED HOUSE is very dark.”
It’s obviously of its time and technology, but I can see how this sort of thing is a progenitor to a lot of what we now know as survival horror. It has limited supplies, a house full of spooky creatures, and most importantly it’s explicitly dark with the need to light one’s surroundings. I also appreciate the many modes available so players can customize their difficulty level.
New Horror 2023 – Day 2
“Rather this old boat, rather a deserted grave under the stars, for my home!”
Hey that was something. A bit of cosmic horror vibes in there, but really just that same tack with coming to grips with unfathomable terror. And eventually it’s not something as wild as alien god things, but still a good buildup to a familiar horror in a different sort of environment.
Vampirella is one of those characters that gets mixed up in my head along with others like Lady Death and Elvira, but I never knew a thing about her other than the slinky red outfit. Did you know she’s an alien? This origin is an interesting exploration of that and a recontextualization of the vampire mythos.
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“Oh, they’re nice as pie until they’ve had their way with you.”
I felt like I’d been duped into watching a kids’ fantasy movie until Things start to happen in some especially gruesome ways. These sorts of fantasy-horror stories also find their way into my annual viewing and I’m all for bringing those classic fairytale terrors back around. All of today’s stories had that seductiveness of the darkness and unknown, so big ups to the recurrence of the theme.
New Horror 2023 – Day 1
“The beautiful face kept her secret and told me nothing.”
I select a lot of stories without fully understanding the plot since I don’t want to spoil, so sometimes it’s a dice roll as to how much spookiness is contained in a given story. But this one delivers after it winds its way through a tale of marital impropriety and the ~horror~ of an unmarried woman’s dishonor.
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“No one knew what the sorcerer wanted with so many beautiful young girls…”
“Birds of a Feather” by Stephanie Phillips, Maan House, Giorgio Spalleta, Justin Birch, Chris Sanchez (2021)
A Bluebeard story somehow always finds itself into my horror list each year, but they’re usually taking the original and flipping it on its head. This one’s short and sweet and probably could have told the tale without the direct references, but with so few pages it’s perhaps best to make things explicit.
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“It needs to tenderize the soul by attacking your sanity.”
I liked this a lot, despite a lot of reviews about how mediocre it is. While it does a lot by the numbers, the point here is to give it a cultural spin based on Hindu tales of terror, and that’s what makes it special. And I’m always a sucker for high schoolers not being believed by adults and having to take things into their own hands. (In fiction, not in real life where adults should be less shitty about supporting teens.)
Theater Camp dir. Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman (2023)
I took a theater class one semester of high school, along with a final play at the end, and that is an intense type of person to hang around with. But I liked that there’s a subset of member who just does, like, building sets and stuff, because it me.
Okay, alright, things are starting to sag a bit after the peak of seasons 3 and 4. Not a show to binge watch. But I still want a super cut of Cryptkeeper intros and outros.
Help! Looking for horror comics from diverse voices
I read a bunch of new-to-me horror stuff every October, including short comics and single issues, but hoo boy is it real research to find horror comics that aren’t by white (and mostly American) men. I also try to pick out a comic or two from each decade for as far back as I can find them. I’m going through the process now of selecting this year’s comics, and while I’m confident I can find diverse voices and backgrounds for the comics I’ll read, I’m interested to see if any horror comic fans out there have recommendations.
So if you know horror comics and have recommendations from diverse creators, whether it’s people of color, or based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, or any other diverse background, lemme know! There must be a ton of comic creators right here on Tumblr that I’m missing out on. It can be a single issue, a story in an anthology, a web comic, it’s all good. Maybe there’s a horror Discord I outta join?!
As a bonus, here’s the list of horror comics I checked out last year:
“The Boar’s Head Beast” by George Wildman, Nicola Cuti, Wayne Howard (1975) “I toyed with forces I couldn’t control.”
This has bits of Lovecraft but it’s mostly an adventure story, and that just reminds me that so much of the adventure stuff I loved as a kid is from the action subgenre of horror.
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“Ill Bred” by Charles Burns (1985) “I realized her muscles were getting larger and more defined.”
The story seems to go full tilt into men’s panic about gender and sexuality norms until it pivots into a Twilight Zoneish wink at the audience as the plot resolves to an acceptable state for the normies. Pretty gnarly body horror stuff.
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“Don’t Go to the Island” by Sfé R. Monster & Kalyna Riis-Phillips (2016) “The skulls at your feet are laughing at you.”
It’s been almost all white American men in my horror comics this month, so I’m pivoting to other creators and eras. Fortunately, the Bones of the Coast anthology has that and also focuses on the Pacific Northwest, undoubtedly my favorite region. It’s a good pairing with the Jackson story. A moody coastal vibe, the gray sky threatening something that doesn’t reveal itself immediately, but instead lingers behind trees and corners, watching and waiting.
Some inside part is always going to feel like it’s different from yours.
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“Greed” by Becky Cloonan, Jordie Bellaire, Travis Lanham (2013) “Kindly take your place by the dead horse.”
I liked what I read here, but it’s clear it’s not meant to stand alone. It’s too brief and it feels like we’re (rightly) meant to read this entire book and perhaps the series before getting to this point.
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“Goin’ South” by Nancy Collins, David Imhoff, Jeff Butler, Steve Montano, Renée Witterstaetter, Electric Crayon, Simon Bisley (1995) “He has his hate to keep him warm.”
People in the 90s really wanted to see these sorts of bouts between characters from different media properties. There’s an essay in the comic itself that comments on the fascination. Of course, this just presages our modern era of cinematic media universes. As for this first issue in a trilogy, it’s a decent setup, but not much happens since it’s focused on getting the two characters into the same room by the end of a single comic issue. I think a cross-country trip/spree featuring Jason could’ve been cool if it wasn’t so rushed.
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“Winnebago Graveyard #1” by Steve Niles, Stephanie Paitreau, Jordie Bellaire, Jen Bartel, Alison Sampson, Aditya Bidikar, Mingjue Helen Chen, Sarah Horrocks (2017) “Where are the people?”
Ooh good setup here. I’ll return to finish this series for sure. I hope the big bad they introduce here gets a real powerful comeuppance, though it does feel like a setup for torturing some protagonists. Bonus points for a creepy carnival setting.
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“Seed” by Fiona Staples, Jose Villarrubia, Michael Dougherty, Todd Casey, Zach Shields, Marc Andreyko (2015) “For this is not a woman but a demon with no soul to save.”
I remember Trick ‘r Treat being more jokey with its anthology format, but this was just a straightforward historical horror tale. But I liked the sincerity and will certainly return to this book later.
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“Kill Screen” by Lauren Beukes, Dale Halvorsen, Ryan Kelly, Eva de la Cruz, Clem Robins, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rowena Yow, Shelly Bond (2015) “This better not end up in a bathtub full of ice with missing kidneys.”
Some of the writing here is cringey, but the character setup is intriguing. I’ll stick with it and finish the series after October.
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“The Fool of the Web” by Patricia Breen, Roel, Brenda Feikema (1997) “Your belly quakes with laughter even as I tremble in disgust.”
Sometimes you follow the maiden, and sometimes the maiden follows you.
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“Fortune Broken” by Sandy King, Leonardo Manco, Marianna Sanzone (2015) “Death runs from me, you old witch!”
A simple one, and too abrupt in its conclusion. A bit more time at the end and I might’ve been more into it.
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“The Cemetery” by Franco, Abigail Larson, Wes Abbott, Sara Richard (2022) “Don’t you just want to get this over with?”
How do we learn to navigate the scary stuff? And why do some of us make it while others don’t?
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“The Speed of Pain” by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart, Steve Wands, Will Dennis (2018) “I spent the week cursing God.”
Whoa nelly, this first issue is a great setup. It’s got that urban decay vibe of grungy industrial hellscape movies of the 90s like The Crow, Seven, and Dark City. I’ll definitely be coming back to finish this series.
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“Gestation” by Marguerite Bennett, Jonathan Brandon Sawyer, Doug Garbark, Nic. J. Shaw (2014) “I’ll deal with the corpse, my lady-love.”
“Chemical 13!” by Michael Woods & Saskia Gutekunst (2009) “Everything is fine.”
Comeuppance stories about Nazis getting the wrath they deserve don’t hit the same anymore, not when they are just still around in daily life.
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“Hello, My Name Is…” by Nadia Shammas, Rowan MacColl, Licha Myers, Chris Sanchez (2021) “Workers have names. Management has power.”
What is a name but a tracking system? The means by which to search and destroy.
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“Sea of Souls” by Jenna Lynn Wright, Alvaro Feliu, Juan Francisco Mota, Ricardo Osnaya, Erik Lopera Tamayo, Jorge Cortes, Robby Bevaro, Maxflan Araujo, Walter Pereyra, Taylor Esposito (2022) “This isn’t the face I had when we met.”
The feel of a rushed committee affair, but stitched together adequately enough.
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“Crush” by Janet Hetherington, Ronn Sutton, Becka Kinzie, Zakk Saam (2018) “His eyes are as wild as the sea.”
Aye, that’s a Gothic story alright. The foreword by Jacques Nodell that introduces the anthology was actually a really good breakdown of the Gothic literature genre and its trappings. The ending is pretty gruesome but then I think that’s also a tendency in the scary Gothic romances.
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“The End of All Things” by Natalie Leif & Elaine Well (2014) “I’ll look at the lines myself.”
I wasn’t quite sure of the message here, and it’s probably a sign of a good story that I found it very compelling but wanted more. The ending evokes a sense of inevitable collapse beneath the weight of the world, that we are all inextricably linked to an entity we cannot escape.
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“Swamp Monster” by Basil Wolverton (1953) “You stare in unbelief at what used to be normal hands!”
There’s something appealing about these old, simple morality horror tales. I suppose it’s knowing that someone’s getting a comeuppance, or a rude awakening. So reading these is about knowing they’re gonna get it and enjoying the twisted revelation.
I often fantasize about illustrating text stories if I had the skill, just to visualize what’s in the brain. It’s cool to see Howard taking that on with one of these old timey and appropriately spooky stories.
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“Rainbow Sprinkles” by W. Maxwell Prince, Chris O’Halloran, Martín Morazzo, Nimit Malavia (2018) “Arizona like in the movies of our dreams”
My first reaction was this isn’t horror (particularly after a more straightforward horror story in the first issue), but I think this is going to happen many times throughout the month. I’ve made the effort to seek out a more expansive range of voices and backgrounds in my horror selections and it’s going to require a broader acceptance of horror as a genre and medium for storytellers. All that said, this second issue of Ice Cream Man is more tragic and real, and horror fiction is, after all, a reflection of the horrors we face as real people.
First-person perspective in a comic must have been a fresh thing in the fifties, and if you’re going to do it, then you may as well pull from a classic like Frankenstein. I also recognize this sort of amnesiac monster thing from many stories since ‘53, in particular the disturbing “His Silicon Soul” from Batman The Animated Series.
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“The Harvest” by Shannon Campbell & Pam Wishbow (2016) “Just think of blackberry jam."
Oh fuck yeah, that autumnal folk horror. Much of this sort of thing comes out of places with traditional seasons but I love that this anthology is all about horror from the Pacific Northwest, so here you can feel the gray gloom and green hells of those thickly forested areas. This particular story also gets into the insidious and unknowable machinations of plants. Who knows what they’re thinking…
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“In Each and Every Package” by Reed Crandall, et al. (1954) “I kept thinking of you and that gave me the strength.”
This came up in a list of noteworthy horror comics from the mid-century due to this gnarly cover that got held up as an example of the questionable artistic merits of this sort of stuff at the time. I also doubted the horror qualities of this series since the title itself says it’s crime fiction, but I gave it a shot. It’s crime fiction for sure and I don’t think I’ll read other Crime SuspenStories, but it definitely feels like something I’d see on Tales from the Crypt.
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“Roots in Hell” by Richard Corben (2016) “Have some of this mango. It’s delicious!”
Kind of an abrupt ending but I dig the conceit.
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“Mars Is Heaven!” by Ray Bradbury, Wally Wood, et al. (1953) “And Lustig began to cry."
Looks like this story hit pretty hard in the fifties, but then the Godliness and paranoia of the nation was more potent then. Now it comes across as quaint.
So many horror comics of this time are just peeks into the Ironic Punishment Division in hell.
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“Infected” by Bruce Jones, Richard Corben, Steve Oliff (1982) “You drag a shaking claw across your mouth and wipe away the sour smelling bile.“
Whoof. The casual racism is real bad in this one, even if it’s portrayed just to show the shitty attitude and personality of the protagonist. It feels more like some white guys riding the wave of edgy work like Heavy Metal to paint a portrait of “those people” and a cautionary story about getting involved with “them.”
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