“The Events at Poroth Farm” by T.E.D. Klein (1972)
“Sometimes we forget to blink.”
Hotdang, that’s a scary story! It’s a novella-length yarn and the author uses that space to build things up so gradually that you don’t notice the creeping dread until it’s too late. And it’s funny because the character in this is a horror book nerd and is insistent on dropping titles, names, and the occasional critique of some pre-70s horror fiction, which felt a bit annoying, but then here I am constantly dropping what I’ve just read or watched. Feel seen, indeed.
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“Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall!” by Jack Davis, et al. (1953)
“Why do they scream when they see you?”
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 Picture of Dorian Gray dir. Albert Lewin (1945)
“You think it’s only God who sees the soul?”
That design for the sins of Dorian Gray is gnarly.
