Let me be clear… I’ve never jumped in my seat with fright over something in a comic. “BOO!” just ain’t as scary when it’s read as when it’s heard. Cheap scares don’t quite work in print, no matter how gory things get. What does work is the slowly-burning idea - - the unsettling notion that gets in your head and won’t go away for weeks, months and (as you’ll see here) years. That’s the really scary stuff.
So what are some truly scary comics ever, by Tom Pinchuk’s estimation?
FROM HELL. This whole tome is doom upon dread. The portion where the Ripper becomes the “spirit of the 20 century” and simultaneously pervades almost every serial killing in 1900s is chilling tour de force . You sit in the passenger seat for a ride through all these dreadful secret truths - - as if this were some black mass-style inversion of all the history you’ve come to accept. The mutilation scenes should be mentioned, as well. They’re stomach-churning, to be sure, but what’s more disturbing about them is the rhythm achieved by their 9x9 layouts. You’re witnessing murder conducted to a cadence and all the Ripper’s little pauses and asides throughout are like the affected motions of some death-worshipping performance art. I’m getting queasy just thinking about that again. == TEASER ==
ANIMAL MAN. Grant Morrison’s celebrated run on this title has a dreamy surrealism with a nightmarish undercurrent that frequently creeps on up to the surface. Chas Truog and Doug Hazlewood’s art is perfect for this comic, because their clean-line styles are juxtaposed with some truly foreboding, heady concepts. Morrison’s always been fascinated with metafiction, but this, more than of any of his works on the subject, conveys a sense that the sacred trust a reader has with the work has been violated - - either with Animal Man becoming self-aware or the Psycho Pirate hijacking the fiction. Stand-outs are, of course, the “Coyote Gospel” issue and the infamous moment when Animal Man turns to see you, the reader.
TOMORROW STORIES #1. I’ve got to list another Alan Moore story because, let’s be honest, he’s written a lot of scary stuff. To get even more specific, I’m talking about this issue’s COBWEB short. I don’t what it was about the combination of Melinda Gebbie’s flowery, erotic line work and the silent film-style “Doll-O-Vision” segments, but this short still freaks me about, some eleven years after I read it. I can’t really even describe - - you’d have to see it yourself, if you dare.
Anyway, I figure that’s enough for here. What comics have given somehow even frightened you brave Comic Vine maniacs?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. HYBRID BASTARDS! is available here and UNIMAGINABLE is available here for pre-order on Amazon.com.
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