Wednesday
Oct102007
Horror Comics
Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Once upon a time, Horror was one of the biggest genres in the industry, then along came the comics code and everything changed. Or did it? We take a look at some of the history, titles, and characters in the history of "scary" comics in this edition of the Dollar Bin.
Reader Comments (10)
Great topic!!! Good show...I want FELL!
Great 90's references! The Noid!
I'd go with Alien as horror. It may not seem so much because every sequel it had wasn't horror, but the first one was. Yeah, I think Event Horizon fits, too.
Adam's got a good point about trying to pick out what horror is. I guess I don't even think of a lot of vampire stuff as horror - it's not scary. Buffy's awesome, but it's not scary. The Batman Elseworlds, Red Rain, Bloodstorm, Crimson Mist (I think), weren't scary. There's a lot of supernatural stuff that I wouldn't peg as horror.
I like what Tre had to say about the difference between creepy horror and what startles you. It seems Hollywood can't do really creepy horror any more. It has to be either gore and splatter, or jump out and scare you. The Ring was decent, but it just had startling moments. Have you seen the original Japanese, Ringu - now that was damn creepy. I think the girl in the original is the scariest movie monster I've ever seen.
I don't know if I've ever read a scary comic...and I'm not sure if I'd agree with Tre said about it having to be disturbing because it can't jump out and scare. But then again, I don't know how you'd do scary in a comic; I've got 30 Days of Night on my shelf, but I'm waiting to read it until after the movie (in a week!).
You talked about how comics don't seem to be picking up on the popularity of horror movies, but one thing you didn't mention - have you all seen the recent glut of horror movie tie-ins in comics? Here's a partial list of some over the last few months:
Wildstorm (DC)
Trick 'R Treat (in theaters this Halloween)
Friday the 13th Summer Vacation
New Line Cinema's Tales of Horror (Nightmare on Elm Street/Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: About a Boy
Avatar
2001 Maniacs Special #1
Fangoria
Dee Snider's Strangeland: Seven Sins
Viper Comics
Borderland
Plus, Avatar (I think) has been doing a ton of Night of the Living Dead comics (zombies again), and another one (forget which) is doing Se7en tie-ins, Devil's Due, I think, has been doing Chuckie.
There's more, but I'll spare you...
Dollar Bin rules!!!
Enjoyed it, guys. Love me the horror.
There have been some interesting horror film/horror comic promotions in the past as well. In addition to the small comics that are sometimes packaged with DVDs, I remember seeing "Shadow of the Vampire" at a Greenville theater a few years back and being handed a comic when I bought my ticket. It was only 16 or so pages, but it was a welcome surprise to myself and the people in line with me. Looking forward to the next show.
A magnificient capitalist bastard. Thank you so much for the shout out. It is always a pleasure to have your efforts recognized.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. For me there are three reasons that horror comics generally do not work:
1. No surprises. One of the essential ingredients to a horror story is the surprise(s) that you do not see coming. Someone sneaking up with an ax from behind or someone jumping out of the shadows, something like that. Unless that panel is on the next page your eyes have already more or less taken in the action the second you glanced at the page so there is no surprise.
2. Deliberate pacing is hard to do in comics. Does anyone remember the movie "In the Mouth of Madness" with Sam Neill? That scene where Sam and that other guy are talking in a restaurant by a window and the publicist comes walking across the street towards them with the ax slowly right before he crashes through the window. That's scary. In comics you'd get 3 panels of him walking across the street. Creepy? Yep, but not scary.
2. Suspense building is limited due to lack of sound. Let's suppose someone is walking down a street and being followed. The sounds of the pursuer's feet is heard but they are not seen and the sounds get faster and faster while the tempo of the music increases.... Suspense is built. How scary would Jaws have been without the theme music or the shower scene from Psycho without the strings screeching "deet, deet, deet"?
Even if you read a book with the same scene of someone being followed your mind is filling in the sounds for you but a comic you get only pictures or really cheesy sound effect like "thunk, thunk" to describe the sound. And that's pretty weak.
Because sound effects and music cues are taken away you are left with the mood of the drawings, reaction shots of the people, and dialogue to convey the threat so 1/4 of your arsenel is taken away.
Ummmm........Did I kill the conversation? We were doing so good there for a while.
naw, that just tends to happen sometimes. its like a communal blog disease. I think its called olepostphalys.
As for responding to comments: I've been up at SPX and didn't really have internet connectivity so lets see what I can do.
*Avatar is doing a crap load of Night of the Living Dead and Se7en is coming out on Zenescope. I have the Lust issue. Got it at Baltimore Comic-Con.
*Dollar Bin does rule.
*I try so hard when reading a comic to not look ahead. "Look out! A head!" I like to keep myself in suspense, but as you say it is really hard to do. The sound think makes complete sense. If I ever get around to liking something I write enough to show it to the rest of the world then I will also take the "Local" thing to a whole new level and put together a compilation album for the reader to listen to along with it. Maybe even take that extra time to write a few songs as a download companion and post it on a page for access. Oh and he's not doing comics yet, but I've just starting reading Steven King for the first time (yeah I know) and that guy knows how to pace a book. I guess it also helps when someone is reading it for you...
Anyway I'm going to get on writing that book. Thanks Joel.
You write it and i'll read it Adam.
Bump! We are just ahead of our time.
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/05/08/comic.books/index.html
Hey just showing this show some love. Excellent shit guys.