Footnote (2) has always been one of my favorite tactics to draw in the audience. ex. The movie ‘Fargo’ starts off with a title card that informs/sets-up the viewer by stating that the following story is true or based on real events (or something of that nature). Then chaos ensues for just shy of two hours. In reality, the Coen brothers blended together two completely separate events but also included a kitchen full of their own ingredients that they conveniently left off the menu. I employ the same tactic by informing everyone I meet that I was the product of an event similar to immaculate conception. It never ceases to create an atmosphere of alluring tension and unique conversation. PS EC Comics are partially responsible for the consequences of the majority of my actions.
Having entered into the comic/graphic novel medium with 'Fight Club 2' and 'Fight Club 3', do have any interest in returning to it? And if you do (running with the hypothetical "Yes" or "maybe" here), would you want to make a sequel to another one of your books (my mind goes to what would have been the third book in the 'Damned'/'Doomed' trilogy here), or would you maybe want to create something new in the comic/graphic novel medium? Either way (again, assuming "Yes" or "Maybe"), would this comic/graphic novel based project feature a semi-naked grave digging scene? I mean, if the medium allows it...
I always thought books (more than comics, as they were harder to get here) were like a portal to a world you weren't allowed into otherwise. Parents would stop you watching violent, gory films stuffed with sex......but get all that stuff in a book, and they'd not only allow it, but actively encourage it as it was 'reading'!
On a similar note.....is book censorship even a thing now? Is it simply that people don't care enough to try to ban things in books? Do they no longer reach an audience wide enough to care?
Lol - “ Sure, Boy’s Life magazine had its charms, but horror comics taught me ethics.”
Superhero comics shaped me.
At leadership retreats in my youth when we were asked ‘who is your role model?’ I would answer, “Spider-Man.” Because dad, scoutmaster, pastor, etc. weren’t able to live up to the ideals they taught. But a fictional character? Always able to be perfect.
I’m all about the Heathcliffs of the world. Vengeful, abusive, amoral, and damn sexy! In a novel I’m working on now, my antihero monologues, “Most people think transgression means freedom to make macrame underwear for a living or have deviant sex in public. What I’m showing is it can also mean murder, suicide, theft, domination, hatred. Pain, pleasure, good, bad, it’s all meaningless and ultimately the same. Transgression’s boundaries are the limits of human capability. I’m not planning on eating human babies any time soon, but what you did is against everything I represent.”
Now that I paste my character’s rant out of context, it’s a little heavy-handed. However, it illustrates why horror and the macabre are so wonderfully delicious. It’s coloring outside the lines of the acceptable human experience.
To me, horror is about power, control, transcendence, and detachment. As you pointed out, Chuck, it’s also about spirituality and morality. (Watch Midnight Mass on Netflix if you want a clear example of that!) As a kid, I loved jump scares, body horror, and gothic ghost stories (enter Wuthering Heights). I didn’t make sense of it until my fourth decade. When I feel anxious or depressed, I immerse myself in a horror marathon. I finally discovered that if I cheer through the jump scares or laugh at the fingers getting chopped up with the carrots; then I have mastery over my own fear and inevitable death.
My library carried the Ripley's Special Edition books in the early 2000s and I was OBSESSED. I must have renewed it over and over for a whole summer once...
Yes! I only had a couple of treasured Tales from the Crypt comics (still have them), but oooh I loved them. And my dad let us watch awesome movies like Creepshow. One summer when I was maybe 9 or 10 (little sis was 4 or 5, ha) we did a scary movie marathon. Lots of digging through the couch for quarters, but we rented about every horror flick the video store had, with Dad instructing me and sis to cover our eyes during the sex scenes lol. Great times.
‘Vampirella’ from the 70’s. Whew. Those damn sexy front covers. She and Elvira. (Fans self) I’d sneak them out of my Dad’s nightstand and pour over them, while listening for the stairs to creek. I was kindah a bad kid. Good thing my brother was born— I had someone to share my blame. Heheh. My brother still holds it against me. We are both in our 40’s now.
Now I want to read the story of this Russian aristocrat who starved to death.
Footnote (2) has always been one of my favorite tactics to draw in the audience. ex. The movie ‘Fargo’ starts off with a title card that informs/sets-up the viewer by stating that the following story is true or based on real events (or something of that nature). Then chaos ensues for just shy of two hours. In reality, the Coen brothers blended together two completely separate events but also included a kitchen full of their own ingredients that they conveniently left off the menu. I employ the same tactic by informing everyone I meet that I was the product of an event similar to immaculate conception. It never ceases to create an atmosphere of alluring tension and unique conversation. PS EC Comics are partially responsible for the consequences of the majority of my actions.
Having entered into the comic/graphic novel medium with 'Fight Club 2' and 'Fight Club 3', do have any interest in returning to it? And if you do (running with the hypothetical "Yes" or "maybe" here), would you want to make a sequel to another one of your books (my mind goes to what would have been the third book in the 'Damned'/'Doomed' trilogy here), or would you maybe want to create something new in the comic/graphic novel medium? Either way (again, assuming "Yes" or "Maybe"), would this comic/graphic novel based project feature a semi-naked grave digging scene? I mean, if the medium allows it...
LOVE the unbridled honesty in this post. Brilliant.
I always thought books (more than comics, as they were harder to get here) were like a portal to a world you weren't allowed into otherwise. Parents would stop you watching violent, gory films stuffed with sex......but get all that stuff in a book, and they'd not only allow it, but actively encourage it as it was 'reading'!
On a similar note.....is book censorship even a thing now? Is it simply that people don't care enough to try to ban things in books? Do they no longer reach an audience wide enough to care?
Lol - “ Sure, Boy’s Life magazine had its charms, but horror comics taught me ethics.”
Superhero comics shaped me.
At leadership retreats in my youth when we were asked ‘who is your role model?’ I would answer, “Spider-Man.” Because dad, scoutmaster, pastor, etc. weren’t able to live up to the ideals they taught. But a fictional character? Always able to be perfect.
I empathize with this, hard. Er, I emphasize this, hard? I empathize there for I am, hard.
I’m all about the Heathcliffs of the world. Vengeful, abusive, amoral, and damn sexy! In a novel I’m working on now, my antihero monologues, “Most people think transgression means freedom to make macrame underwear for a living or have deviant sex in public. What I’m showing is it can also mean murder, suicide, theft, domination, hatred. Pain, pleasure, good, bad, it’s all meaningless and ultimately the same. Transgression’s boundaries are the limits of human capability. I’m not planning on eating human babies any time soon, but what you did is against everything I represent.”
Now that I paste my character’s rant out of context, it’s a little heavy-handed. However, it illustrates why horror and the macabre are so wonderfully delicious. It’s coloring outside the lines of the acceptable human experience.
To me, horror is about power, control, transcendence, and detachment. As you pointed out, Chuck, it’s also about spirituality and morality. (Watch Midnight Mass on Netflix if you want a clear example of that!) As a kid, I loved jump scares, body horror, and gothic ghost stories (enter Wuthering Heights). I didn’t make sense of it until my fourth decade. When I feel anxious or depressed, I immerse myself in a horror marathon. I finally discovered that if I cheer through the jump scares or laugh at the fingers getting chopped up with the carrots; then I have mastery over my own fear and inevitable death.
My library carried the Ripley's Special Edition books in the early 2000s and I was OBSESSED. I must have renewed it over and over for a whole summer once...
Are EC comics still being made? I've never heard of them before. Maybe they didn't make it to the UK? If they're not, is there an equivalent?
Yes! I only had a couple of treasured Tales from the Crypt comics (still have them), but oooh I loved them. And my dad let us watch awesome movies like Creepshow. One summer when I was maybe 9 or 10 (little sis was 4 or 5, ha) we did a scary movie marathon. Lots of digging through the couch for quarters, but we rented about every horror flick the video store had, with Dad instructing me and sis to cover our eyes during the sex scenes lol. Great times.
Also I really love the idea of ghost stories as comforting. Makes perfect sense.
Chuck, isn't that you on the cover of CREEPY? That's how I picture you writing. By candle light, in a castle with a demon bouncing ideas of you.
‘Vampirella’ from the 70’s. Whew. Those damn sexy front covers. She and Elvira. (Fans self) I’d sneak them out of my Dad’s nightstand and pour over them, while listening for the stairs to creek. I was kindah a bad kid. Good thing my brother was born— I had someone to share my blame. Heheh. My brother still holds it against me. We are both in our 40’s now.
Wuthering Heights, after yours is one of my favorite books