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I love horror comics. A well illustrated horror comic can almost always be as effective as a good spooky movie or a well told ghost story so I thought it might be fun to have a little thread to talk about them, especially as some of us are making our way though Black Hole this month. Just a heads up: there will probably be ~gross pictures~ in here. Nothing pornographic, unless it's behind a link, but probably some things that wouldn't be work safe. I'm sure that most people are familiar with a few of the really good horror comics that are being published or have come out recently. Hellboy, B.P.R.D., Locke and Key, Beasts of Burden, Ragemoore have all been excellent and maybe someone will put some more in-depth posts about them. I love them all. But for this post I'm just going to talk about some older stuff that people might not have read.  In the late 80s Cliver Barker teamed up with Spiderbaby Grafix and Steve Bissette to put out a horror anthology. Over the next few years they put out nine volumes and a one shot that had stories by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim, Charles Burns, Phil Hester, and Moebius. It would be where the world got a first look at From Hell and Lost Girls, as well as the only time the Moebius/Jodorowksy story "Eyes of the Cat would be printed in english. I have seven of the volumes and the one shot and they are really, really good. The art is incredibly gruesome, but not in the way Crossed and the other Avatar books are. There's a level of care that you don't see much any more. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post one of the stories from the first volume. It's by Alan Moore and Bill Wray.         
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Mar 14, 2013 02:13
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I've read a lot of Junji-Ito's stuff, and the drifting classroom, but I've never really sat through an American horror comic before. Good to know that they can be just as unsettling as Japan's stuff - that bag, yeesh.
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Mar 14, 2013 02:30
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Everyone needs to read Scott Snyder's "Severed". Amazing, scary as hell horror comic.
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Mar 14, 2013 02:53
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I've always liked Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte. Basically its kind of like The Thing: the Series where spores from space land in various points over the world infecting people and replacing their body parts with shape shifting alien bits. The difference is that they can't replicate the entire body so they take over a body by just replacing the head and neck. The main character, Shinichi Izumi, is a high school student who gets infected but through a twist of fate the parasite infects and replaces his right hand and the two start working together to fight the other parasites. While this mostly sounds like a a standard action comic Iwaaki focuses on the horror of the situation as the various parasites have no issues murdering humans indiscriminately. It also has a heavy dose of body horror as Shinichi has to come to terms with the fact that he's no longer fully human.  
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Mar 14, 2013 03:55
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That Moore/Wray story is great. I'm going to go through my stuff and post a boat load of Richard Corben since I always put him at the pinnacle of horror books.
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Mar 14, 2013 14:16
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Waterhaul posted:I'm going to go through my stuff and post a boat load of Richard Corben since I always put him at the pinnacle of horror books. I'm gonna take that as my cue to link to this, one of the creepier Corben stories I've read. I really, really need to get that Corben Creepy omnibus. Big ups for posting this thread, Wind Up Bird. I love this stuff.
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Mar 14, 2013 14:49
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:I'm gonna take that as my cue to link to this, one of the creepier Corben stories I've read. I really, really need to get that Corben Creepy omnibus. Corben is amazing, and the meaty/fleshy way he draws everything really sells the sickness, deformity, and fevered panic that usually crops up in the second half of his stories. Not to mention the lurid and oppressive saturated colors. He really exemplifies the weird balance of fun / serious / grotesque / titillating that makes pulp horror really cool. This blog collects a ton of his serial work and covers: http://fantagor.tumblr.com
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Mar 14, 2013 15:33
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Here's a link to one of the scariest Junji-Ito short stories in my opinion, Hanging Balloons: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3805023.html It's just so surreal. The monsters appearances are stuck in a twist of comedy/horror, its like your brain can't decide to laugh or cry. Hearing the whole plot of the story sounds a bit silly: Giant balloon heads resembling living people come from the sky to strangle the people they resemble and float off into the sky. Then you read it and -  Also, if the balloon "pops", so does the person it resembles. Pretty much, some guy with a gun can blow your head to ribbons because he decided to shoot at the monstrous floating head that is your doppelganger. Sadly its not brought up much - only one instance if I recall, but that just adds a ton of fuel for paranoia knowing that Any of the characters could just "deflate", you could lock yourself in a safe-room, and still die.
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Mar 14, 2013 15:47
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How do y'all feel about Marvel's old horror books like Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night? I just finished Essential Tomb Of Dracula Volume 1 and it was pretty cool, if a bit formulaic. Gene Colan draws a hell of a vampire, and Dracula fights a brain in a jar and gets his rear end kicked by a mountain goat (a regular, non-superpowered mountain goat). I'm curious if the next three volumes are also worth checking out. Edit: Both this thread and the Book of the Month thread have convinced me to re-read Black Hole, but I'm curious: What other Charles Burns stuff is creepy/good? El Borbah looks pretty cool. Uncle Boogeyman fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Mar 14, 2013 |
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Mar 14, 2013 20:11
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I've only read a little of Tomb of Dracula but I like what I read cos y'know Gene Colan. scarycave posted:Here's a link to one of the scariest Junji-Ito short stories in my opinion, Hanging Balloons: Well if we're posting Junji Ito it only makes sense to post The Enigma of Amigara Fault given the thread name. Bonus Corben/Ragemoor because everybody needs to read Ragemoor.    
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Mar 14, 2013 22:24
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:Edit: Both this thread and the Book of the Month thread have convinced me to re-read Black Hole, but I'm curious: What other Charles Burns stuff is creepy/good? El Borbah looks pretty cool. Here's Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli's story from Taboo #4. Well, it's not really a story. It's more of a fable.     Maybe a little on the nose but oh well. Mr Wind Up Bird fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Mar 14, 2013 |
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Mar 14, 2013 23:05
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Taboo looks awesome. I just filled my run of Bruce Jones Twisted Tales (Both Volumes) and Alien Worlds. I am going to send them to get hard bound soon. I wish the horror anthologies from the 80's and 90's would get collected. I love me some old Creepy but after a while the stories tend to seem same-ish or have extremely stupid twists. Looking forward to more recommendations out of this thread.
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Mar 14, 2013 23:27
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I am not surprised at all that Neil Gaiman wrote that. In fact as I was reading it i was like this feels like Gaiman. What do people think of the Avatar line and it's books? I really enjoy Gravel although it got away from Horror and Supernatural. Also, how about comics like Swamp thing etc.. Honestly I have not read to much actual "horror" comics. What's a good place to start?
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Mar 14, 2013 23:32
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Hollis posted:Honestly I have not read to much actual "horror" comics. What's a good place to start? The way I got into horror stuff was I followed the superhero arc. You start with things like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and Animal Man and see what clicks. One book I would always recommend to anyone looking to get into horror is going to be Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites  It's about a group of pets that have to defend their neighborhood from zombies, werewolves, ghosts, a swarm of evil rats, and more. Jill Thompson's painted art is beautiful and the stories are exciting and scary without being gross. Plus, talking animals. Who doesn't love that.
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Mar 15, 2013 00:02
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Waterhaul posted:That Moore/Wray story is great. Corben's House on the Borderlands is pretty awesome. The page at the end where its revealed what the watcher was is bone chilling. Edit: There's also some really good Hellraiser comics out there. Avoid the arc stuff and just stick to the one shots and you can't go wrong. Gaiman did a really creepy one with McKean called "Wordsworth" which features an unconventional Lament Configuration (the puzzle box.) muscles like this! fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Mar 15, 2013 |
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Mar 15, 2013 00:08
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Pretty sure everything I talk about below is NSFW. Uzumaki and Amigara Fault are definitely Junji Ito's best work, but something about The Town Without Streets I love. It's got a really well-paced descent into madness, and when things go full-out, there isn't really any central mystery to spoil. It's more horror comic by aesthetic than anything else, but Abstraction by Shintaro Kago is some weird wonderful stuff.  On actual horror terms, The Holes by Henmaru Machino is legitimately the most disturbing thing I have ever read. Not gonna link it. Not gonna even recommend it unless you've got a whole day to spend thinking about how awful existence is etc etc snucks fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Mar 15, 2013 |
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Mar 15, 2013 00:56
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Mr Wind Up Bird posted:One book I would always recommend to anyone looking to get into horror is going to be Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites That sounds pretty interesting, I think I read about something like this during my trope-lurking days, I think I remember something about a Hell-boy cameo? Can't decide if I should read it or not though, I'm a crybaby for dead-dogs. I mentioned the Drifting Classroom, but I didn't really talk about it much. I think its a pretty neat story - unsettling and pretty depressing at times (90% of the deaths are in grade-school - though every-once in a while, a death will be so over the top you may guilty laugh (I blame the art-style though, cutesy anime big-eyes and gonk face can only go so far before its too unbelievable)). Think Lord of the Flies, in the desert, and an entire grade-school and staff. If you have a kid or younger sibling that goes to school it's going to hit you hard sometimes. Especially the bits where you get to see the parents reactions that their kids are never coming home. It goes like this, during a school day, a huge explosion goes off - somehow, this sends the school to a horrible wasteland. This is where one of the things I like about the story kicks in, rather than throw monsters around in the opening, they have to face problems rationing food, and making sure theirs enough water. Of course, they also learn that they have to fortify the school into a fortress to keep the children eating monsters out. You'd think that the adults would be in charge of all this, but saying that the "adults are useless trope applies" is a major understatement, well 90% of the time anyways. I really think that its biggest flaw is the art-style. I'd say if your in a mood for something a bit weird/sad/scary or you simply hate kids (you monster) I'd give it a read. snucks posted:Pretty sure everything I talk about below is NSFW. Yeah the town without streets was pretty cool, if I'm remembering it right, its that weird community where everyone just walks through each-others house, wearing masks, and pretty much just being creepy happy as possible. That neighbor lady from that one Junji Ito story though, I'd think she'd feel right at home there. She wouldn't even need the wooden board. "Are you well?", no not after reading that, thank you Junji. Why do I feel like the Holes is actually some horrible, horrible hentai?
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Mar 15, 2013 01:14
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scarycave posted:Why do I feel like the Holes is actually some horrible, horrible hentai? Because it is, I remember some goon talking about it here somewhere a couple of years ago, but I can't, nor do I want to, remember the thread it was posted in.
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Mar 15, 2013 03:50
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scarycave posted:Why do I feel like the Holes is actually some horrible, horrible hentai? I did a search for it, because the description was remarkably vague. Like, the first link that popped up was for a Guro Manga site. I think I'll skip it, thanks. "Abstraction" was fascinating though. that guy does some odd stuff.
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Mar 15, 2013 04:02
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The Drifting Classroom is antiquated in a lot of ways, but a lot of modern franchises should take note of how successfully it executes long-form survival horror. I got incredibly emotionally invested in seeing a bunch of bug-eyed 70's anime babies persevere through some pretty ridiculous adversities.scarycave posted:Why do I feel like the Holes is actually some horrible, horrible hentai?  Also on the very disturbing end of things, Panorama of Hell is pretty hard to forget. You don't realize it at first, but the narrative is largely autobiographical. A dude is just relating all of the awful things that have happened to him and his family through this over-exaggerated cartoon.  Also, Black Hole fits well into this thread. Anyone interested in comics should read it regardless; every facet of it is executed very, very well. Probably up there in my top ten of modern indie comics. If anyone has any specific recommendations regarding Tales From the Crypt, I'd really like to hear them! That's a whole chapter of comic book history I feel like I don't have any good doorway into. edit: had to include another Junji Ito. The Long Dream is bursting at the seams with Lovecraftian existential dread (I picture Ito thought of it immediately after reading Beyond the Wall of Sleep...) snucks fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Mar 15, 2013 |
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Mar 15, 2013 04:26
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snucks posted:
The Holes  I don't find it even remotely capable of good-story telling (albeit it is a 12-page manga) and there is no build-up, but for those with "trypophobia" beware. The clustering of holes is pretty repulsive. I have really only read Junji Ito's work, so I am excited for some none Japanese horror comic suggestions.
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Mar 15, 2013 04:46
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snucks posted:If anyone has any specific recommendations regarding Tales From the Crypt, I'd really like to hear them! That's a whole chapter of comic book history I feel like I don't have any good doorway into. Easy: avoid the Crime Patrol/War Against Crime beginnings and go straight for Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear. You can't go wrong with any of them, even if some of the really early issues may seem a bit tame as they were working up to the gold in later ones. And don't miss Shock SuspenStories: some of the best work that EC ever put out is in there, and it is fantastic! If you can't find the Archive hardcover collection, try the 'Annuals' which are bound reprint versions here: http://www.russcochran.com/ That said, is anybody else reading Yoe Books' new monthly 'Haunted Horrors' reprints? Some of the stories aren't half bad and they're up to their third issue. Truly awesome stuff.
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Mar 15, 2013 05:17
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Junji Ito is so awesome and it's a crime more of his stuff is not available in English, legally. Glyceride is another good one and might be one of the grossest things I've ever read. It's about a family obsessed with grease. The best part about his stories is that they frequently go to way worse places than you can imagine yourself; he so deftly avoids the "never show the monster" trope by basically rubbing it in your face repeatedly until you feel sick.
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Mar 15, 2013 11:59
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Hakkesshu posted:Junji Ito is so awesome and it's a crime more of his stuff is not available in English, legally. Do not read this if you are eating pizza, just don't. Anything with grease for that matter. The climax is beyond words. It needs to be seen to be believed.
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Mar 15, 2013 12:04
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Hakkesshu posted:Junji Ito is so awesome and it's a crime more of his stuff is not available in English, legally. Haha, I just read that one a week ago or so. A couple days ago I thought about it and gagged. Then I gagged thinking about it while writing this. I will definitely second The Long Dream, too.
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Mar 15, 2013 21:13
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The only pleasant thing about Glyceride is that it thankfully isn't colourized 
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Mar 15, 2013 22:00
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Hakkesshu posted:The only pleasant thing about Glyceride is that it thankfully isn't colourized I Think I just found my current SA-related project of the day. I know just the perfect panel too. //Edit// (Linked to prevent spoilers/projectile vomiting - probably not work safe either.) http://imgur.com/5p26VZP Eh, it actually feels like it loses some impact in color, or I just botched it up. There's just a certain flair to black and white pages I guess. scarycave fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2013 16:25
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No mention of Kanako "The Queen of Horror" Inuki? School Zone is the only thing I read by her, but it was incredible: Wiki summary posted:There exist thirteen ghost stories about the school and, it is said, a terrible fate is reserved for those unlucky ones who learn all thirteen. One afternoon, one student tells the others the one about the human head found in the school elevator. Soon after, many students begin to experience strange and terrible encounters with the supernatural, and coming to school now becomes a struggle for survival. It's pretty creepy at times, mostly because Inuki draws everyone one in this distorted, nervous manner. Like even whenno horror things are going on, the kids look like they're paranoid pill poppers; the way she writes them combined with the drawings paints a picture of how hosed up schools are and the horror of growing up. It's only a three volume series, and TFAW usually has them for $5 each in Nick and Dent so I highly recommend snagging them. timeandtide fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 11:31
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Would Hack/Slash be considered a horror series, or is it just plain exploitation? Because I love it, one of the few comics I have hunted down back issues for, because I am a bad comic fan.
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Mar 18, 2013 01:32
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Sid Vicious posted:Would Hack/Slash be considered a horror series, or is it just plain exploitation? Because I love it, one of the few comics I have hunted down back issues for, because I am a bad comic fan. Not too sure really. I haven't read it but from the sound of it I think it could fit. With monsters trying to kill people and other people killing them, which is kind of like Beasts of Burden, except with pets. (Which I shouldn't read anymore - I can't. I'm weak.)  I say I'm not too sure though, because I haven't really read Hack/Slash at all I just did a quick Google search, though I can't say I have any reason why it wouldn't fit in.
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Mar 18, 2013 02:49
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:How do y'all feel about Marvel's old horror books like Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night? I just finished Essential Tomb Of Dracula Volume 1 and it was pretty cool, if a bit formulaic. Gene Colan draws a hell of a vampire, and Dracula fights a brain in a jar and gets his rear end kicked by a mountain goat (a regular, non-superpowered mountain goat). I'm curious if the next three volumes are also worth checking out. The big difference when the shift happens is that it's going for a much more adult audience, so you get boobies and a much, much stronger focus on Dracula as a sexual concept (Dracula as a rapist, corrupter, male and female object of desire, etc). Then it goes "back" to PG-13 but sticks with the anthology. It also contains a comic version of Stoker's Dracula, although I'm almost done with the omni and I'm pretty sure the comic ceases before the book finishes. quote:Edit: Both this thread and the Book of the Month thread have convinced me to re-read Black Hole, but I'm curious: What other Charles Burns stuff is creepy/good? El Borbah looks pretty cool. Or I could be a dum dum who isn't picking up on stuff, but after The Hive I felt that I could connect dots from X'ed to Hive and that dots in Hive were going to connect to dots in Sugar Skulls.
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Mar 18, 2013 06:46
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When "The Holes" was mentioned, I thought it was about Shintaro Kago's "Punctures". That one's a lot better done, has some actual story, but on a similar level of NSFW/NMS.
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Mar 18, 2013 07:23
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Mr Wind Up Bird posted:I'm curious about this too. I remember way before it came out "X'ed Out" was billed as "Tin Tin exploring a William S. Burroughs novel" which is the kind of thing that demands to be read. Do you know if the artist of this also drew the story from Completely Doomed about fur trappers? I can't remember the title of the story offhand, the art is just really similar, which is a very good thing.
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Mar 18, 2013 08:25
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Welp, after reading some stuff on Beasts of Burden, I thought I would share my personal experience. They had a preview for volume 1 about half-way through the whole thing, it had me a bit unnerved, had to go look up how it ended, had to spent the whole night worried about by dogs - had to have my eyes glued to the back-door glass. Does not help that I had a run-away puppy (who I swear is living in the neighboring complex - every-once in awhile a border-collie that looks just like she did will pass the house, and then come the water works.) and that I live right next to the woods. This comic totally scared me in a way I wasn't expecting. I tend to avoid these kinds of things because I'm a sissy and I don't like to think about the morality of my pets but....   Also there's apparently going to be a CGI movie made by the guy who did 9. When they say "CGI", I really hope they don't mean like those really bad "funny" talking animal movies.
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Mar 18, 2013 13:43
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scarycave posted:Also there's apparently going to be a CGI movie made by the guy who did 9. If it was the guy who did 9 I don't think you have to worry too much, it was really well done.
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Mar 18, 2013 18:54
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Junji Ito's the best. If you read Cat Diaries, he talks about his obsessive-compulsive disorder. You can really see it in his stories: they're all about obsessions and compulsions. Amigara Fault is probably his best, but Uzumaki visits a lot of the same themes and body horror, so anyone who liked Amigara should definitely check it out.
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Mar 18, 2013 20:00
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FactsAreUseless posted:Junji Ito's the best. If you read Cat Diaries, he talks about his obsessive-compulsive disorder. You can really see it in his stories: they're all about obsessions and compulsions. Amigara Fault is probably his best, but Uzumaki visits a lot of the same themes and body horror, so anyone who liked Amigara should definitely check it out. Oh man now that you mention it, Uzumaki is basically a town hit by horrible OCD revolving around spirals. I mean I knew it was obsession, I just didn't realize that he himself suffered from OCD, that just makes it all fit into place so much better. Seriously awesome.
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Mar 18, 2013 21:09
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FactsAreUseless posted:Junji Ito's the best. If you read Cat Diaries, he talks about his obsessive-compulsive disorder. You can really see it in his stories: they're all about obsessions and compulsions. Amigara Fault is probably his best, but Uzumaki visits a lot of the same themes and body horror, so anyone who liked Amigara should definitely check it out. That's one of the things I like about his stories, no matter how scary and messed up it is, deep-down a-lot of them are really just a social commentary on something, delivered in the most horrifying way possible. Part of the fun is piecing what the whole stories supposed to mean by the end of it. Some good examples (that will spoil the story if you haven't read them yet) I could think of would be the one with that business man who hates his kids All work and no play makes you crazy, live while your young , the one with the ice-cream man Don't take candy from strangers , the one with the tree-sap Drugs are bad , and the one with old-lady neighbor could be something about People not respecting personal space, though I think its more of a joke on that one neighbor who always invites themselves over .
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Mar 18, 2013 21:09
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scarycave posted:That's one of the things I like about his stories, no matter how scary and messed up it is, deep-down a-lot of them are really just a social commentary on something, delivered in the most horrifying way possible. Part of the fun is piecing what the whole stories supposed to mean by the end of it. I haven't read any of these, which collection is it from? I purchased Museum of Horror (Terror?) volumes 1-3, two of them were strictly Tomie stories, which I also quite enjoy, and the other was just short stories. Sadly none of them included Uzumaki or Enigmara Fault 
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Mar 18, 2013 21:19
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Sid Vicious posted:I haven't read any of these, which collection is it from? I purchased Museum of Horror (Terror?) volumes 1-3, two of them were strictly Tomie stories, which I also quite enjoy, and the other was just short stories. Sadly none of them included Uzumaki or Enigmara Fault I read them awhile ago online, I bumped into them when I was crawling around the internet, I think they were issues that were only released in Japan, and were translated into English by some die-hard Junji-Ito fans. If you look around, I'm sure you can find a fan-translation somewhere. Hopefully this doesn't violate any rules though. There are some stories that haven't been translated yet that I've been interested in - one called the groaning drain that was made into a movie. I found a gif on a site that animated a few of Junji's panels and I've been looking for it ever since. It's a shame he doesn't get too much publicity, I never even heard of the guy until I found his stuff in the Tv-Tropes nightmare fuel section when I used to look for scary stuff.
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Mar 18, 2013 21:27
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