Graphic Content: Dark Spaces: Good Deeds by Che Grayson and Kelsey Ramsey

 

Fans of horror and comics, or horror comics, might know the name Scott Snyder. Superhero fans might have heard of him because of his seminal work on Batman series like “Death of the Family” and “Dark Nights: Metal.” Horror fans might remember him from such original works as American Vampire and Wytches. He’s managed to parlay that name recognition into an anthology series called Dark Spaces, published by IDW comics. Though he has contributed his own writing to this series, Dark Spaces: Good Deeds is a collaboration from two female creators, with writing done by Che Grayson and illustrations done by Kelsey Ramsey. 

This particular story in the series is a female-centric one with two female protagonists. The first is teenager Cheyenne Rite, who is trying to adjust to her new home in small-town St. Augustine, Florida. The other is Jean McKnight, who is looking to put her journalism career back on track with a piece about St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary celebration. Both women join forces to try and uncover an evil act that goes back centuries that could destroy the town and everyone in it. 

The premise could have had dueling protagonists, with each of them fighting for recognition in their own story, but Grayson keeps them balanced enough so that neither feels like a shallow character (the third act twist also helps keep each protagonist distinct). Ramsey contributes with artwork that doesn’t skimp on the horror, with images that could be pulled straight from a Creepshow comic, which is a complement. Grayson and Ramsey’s collaboration has created a spooky story that looks ready to topple with all the elements going on but still delivers a solid supernatural tale of karma come due. 

Have You Read This? Your Body Is Not Your Body edited by Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone

 

As a genre relying on generating a particular emotion within its audience, horror can be both universal and very personal. Horror can often touch on universal fears, such as the fear of death, but it can also be used to discuss the personal fears of the author, including fears of being attacked simply for being who they are. Often, these kinds of stories aren’t so much a whimper of submission as they are a cry of rage. Such stories are included in Your Body is Not Your Body, an anthology of weird fiction featuring authors from the Trans/Gender Nonconforming community. 

Editors Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone have compiled stories that definitely put the weird in weird fiction. Take, for example, a medieval monk whose body is transformed by a different kind of possession. And if such a tale is too tame, there are stories featuring living weapons, transcendental massages, haunted telephones, and a story from rising star like Hailey Piper about women exploding. Many of the stories in this collection focus on all the ways that a human body can become twisted into something unimaginable, both beautiful and horrifying. The weird in this fiction anthology is definitely the gloriously great kind of weird. 

Anthologies such as this serve not only as an introduction to the various authors who are presented in this book, but books like this one also introduce readers to weird fiction. There are no gothic castles or classic monsters here; the horrors presented in this book are from not only one’s body becoming unrecognizable, but the world they live in becoming hostile, which is what many transgender and gender-nonconforming people are experiencing with the rash of anti-LGBTQ laws being ratified by various states. Horror is supposed to create a fear response, but horror, of all kinds and especially the stories in this book, rely on creating feelings of empathy for the protagonists in these stories. 

Graphic Content: Shook: A Black Horror Anthology by Bradley Golden, John Jennings, and Marcus Roberts

 

When people think of graphic novels, they tend to think of them as . . . well, novels, or at least one overall story. But there are other creators who are using the comic book format to tell smaller stories. Not only does this demonstrate experimentation with the form but it also introduces readers to comic creators they might never have discovered otherwise. There are many different creators that aren’t as famous as, for example, Jim Lee or Geoff Johns who are telling their own stories, including black creators utilizing the monsters within the horror genre to reveal their own unique perspectives on what is scary. The book Shook: A Black Horror Anthology features a collection of graphic novel horror stories from today’s most-well known black comic artists and authors.  

The stories in this anthology reflect many different tropes and subgenres residing under horror’s umbrella, and readers who want to explore black stories, and the subsequent hardships within them, will savor these sinister tales. Fans of dystopian fiction will like Tasty! Itchy! by Bradley Golden (“Mississippi Zombies”), but they might want to stay away if they are terrified of bugs. Writer John Jennings (“Box of Bones”) gives readers“The Breaks,” a 90’s spin that could have been part of “Tales from the Hood.” Rodney Barnes, creator of “Killadelphia,” offers up a ghostly serving of Southern Gothic justice in his story “The Last March.” 

The artwork presented within this anthology is as varied as its stories. For “The Breaks,” artist Charlie Goubile evokes the most talented graffiti artist in how he draws the characters. Allesio Nocerino, the artist for “Evil Lives,” gives the story the feel of an EC comic book with his choices of color and composition. Artist Roberto Castro goes black and white but fills his artwork full of superhero-looking action sequences in “Ezra the Hunter.” Even if readers find some stories in this anthology lacking, there are others that could put a delicious shiver of fear in their spine. 

Graphic Content: Hauthology by Jeremy Haun

 When the pandemic hit, many people suddenly had a lot of free time on their hands. Some people baked

bread, some people caught up on all the Netflix and Hulu shows they never had time to finish, and some just squeezed themselves into a fetal position to futilely escape the crushing sense of existential dread. Writer and artist Jeremy Haun, creator of the body horror series The Beauty, took a different approach. He created a very unique collection of short graphic stories and collected them in the book Haunthology.

Haunthology is a large collection of very short stories. Many of these reflect the horrors of isolation, brief snippets of people suffocating under the weight of existential worry. Others are stories about haunted houses and horrifying curses that are lodged like a stinger in your mind before Haun delivers another one. Each story is its own little monster that’s guaranteed to burrow under your skin.

Haun is well-known in horror circles for The Beauty as well as The Red Mother, but he’s really flexing his creative muscles here. Some might think that writing super short stories is simpler than longer works when, in fact, the opposite is true. In a very limited amount of space and time, the author/artist (Haun is doing double duty here) must incorporate the setting, the characters, and the conflict, before delivering the climax that gives a tale its emotional punch. Each of these stories are great examples of how to create a short short story and should be read by those who want some prime examples of saying a lot with very little.

Graphic Content: Creepshow Vol. 1

 

It seems that Creepshow has enjoyed a kind of wretched renaissance, to employ a phrase the eponymous Creep might use. Indeed, Creepshow is still showing on the Shudder network, just as horror anthologies are still going strong on all the streaming services. Horror historians might remember that books like Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow not only offended pearl-clutching parents back in the day but also how they created new media properties in the form of movies and television shows. Proving that horror is ultimately cyclical, there is Creepshow, Vol. 1, once more returning to the graphic novel medium while also featuring some heavy hitters in comic book writing like Clay McCleod Chapman and Paul Dini.

Fans of the Creepshow series, the movies, and even the comics are familiar with the format: each issue collected in this trade paperback features two stories (a grand total of ten for this entire collection) and they all feature the same gory, campy shenanigans of the Creepshow brand. From birthday mascots scarier than any clown to forbidden temples guaranteed to make shallow influencers pay for desecrating them, there should be a few tales guaranteed to raise hackles and tempt you to buy some x-ray specs.

Like many anthologies, the entries vary in quality but there are a few standouts, like the one featuring a character that eats more than cake at a children’s birthday party and a group of hunters who frequent a local barber shop talking about what could be lurking out there in the woods. One particular story that shows the series’ gleefully dark humor is about a comics creator who defends his home thanks to the brutal encouragement of his cuddly creations. But if you’re a fan of Creepshow, or even Tales from the Crypt, this is one anthology series you should check out while waiting for new episodes on Shudder.