About writing Horror-Comics

Or: What I have learned about scary stories in the three years of Schattenspiele.

First off a rhethorical question: What do an erotic story and a scary story have in common? Answer: What you don´t see is what´s the most interesting. In other words: Tension and build-up, with the goal being the best possible stimulation. While shocking moments are important, they should be used sparingly, even if that does not seem logical at first. But I´ll elaborate.

There are different kinds of fear, let´s just put them into three categories for now:

Unsettling: Something is off, something is alarming or even just uncomfortable. You might not be able to put your finger on it, but it´s there (probably) and it´s haunting. It might or might not be enough to get your imagination starting.

Scary: You know that something is there and it´s out to get you. It´s not here yet, though, but you know that it´s going to come, inevitably and with no or only a small hope of avoiding it. And when it happens, it´s gonna be BAD.

Shocking: It is there, immediate, no distance in between and the self loses itself for a moment in a pure, overwhelming moment of fear. Maybe it came out of the blue, maybe there was a build-up, but the result was even worse or something entirely different, but equally terrifying as what was expected.

Now what an author might want at the end of the tale is “shocking”, but what they really aspire most of the time is “unsettling” or “scary”. Why? Because while shock is indeed the most intense feeling, it´s over soon. I bet every one of us has witnessed a jump scare in our lives. Yes, it´s bad, but when it´s over, it´s over and a sweet release of endorphin ensures us that we are indeed still alive. Shock alone only releases tension, is what I want to say. You need context to make it last. You want to make it last. And yes, horror authors have to be sadists. Actually, most authors have to be sadists. Comes with the territory.

What you need to prepare a good scare is a “dark hallway”. A “dark hallway” is something we all encounter in our daily lives that unsettles us irrationally, meaning that we cannot logically explain why it unsettles us. We can find explanations, but since the phenomenon is in itself harmless, it stays irrational. It needs to be relateable. So, for example, if you as an author are scared of buttons it´s not enough to show a button on every page to make someone uncomfortable, since most people aren´t. You need to find the root of your fear and try to convey it to the person reading your story to feel with you. A dark hallway on the other hand has the advantage that it tends to unsettle most people. 

This is something you can build upon, in many different ways, making the unsettling scary. A dark hallway, to pick up the example again, is a good place for an attacker to hide. Even if the hallway seems empty, since we cannot see completely, the fear still remains. One possibility is to show or hint at an attacker that actually exists, could be a murderer roaming the house or something supernatural. Even better if said supernatural attacker somehow utilizes the fact that it cannot be seen or uses shadows.

For example: There is a monster in the house that can only move in the dark. Our protagonist sees said dark hallway, unsure if it is there, the eyes fixated on the dark spot where he thinks it might be. He knows that it can´t move forward any further, the light prevents it and his hand is on the switch. But then a small hand-like blurry thing moves over the wall, it seems to sizzle in the light and a faint scream is heard. It moves towards the light bulb and finally crushes it. In the next pages the protagonist retreats further and further into the house in a battle of wits that might or might not be hopeless while said monster is out to get him.

The shock element would be the sight of said monster, it might be in the beginning of the story to help build up tension or in the end as a grand finale, in any way it should be a sight that neither the protagonist nor the reader wants to see again.

And that is how I build up moments in horror stories. Of course I don´t always stick to this, some stories don´t need shock moments at all, some just live off of them, also it really depends on what you understand as unsettling, scary or shocking, of course. But I hope I was able to bring you a bit of insight into how this can work.

- Nekromantenhase

Movie Review: The Shadow within

Also known as „Ghosts”, also known as “Les meres noires” (the black mothers), while I personally like the last title the most. Because, although it is a tale about ghosts and a shadow within someone, the mothers are what makes it special. But first things first:

In a little French village in the mountains set in the forties, the nine year old Maurice lives with his mother. The war has taken away the husbands, the phthisis is taking away the children. After losing his twin brother at birth, his mother has become a bitter woman, obviously and irrationally preferring the dead twin over him. And the bond to his dead brother is still strong – and threateningly so. And now the women of the village want to use said bond to communicate to their dead beloved children.

Well, what could go wrooong?

A shocker or thriller this is not. Instead it is what I would describe as a drama with added mystery. The movie moves slowly and in low tones, probably a trait that outs it as an adaption of a book. The recurring themes and the atmosphere are nicely done and gloomy. The special effects are meh, but i´d still recommend this movie. While the dead twin/ dead child schtick has been done to dea- a LOT – what I liked about the movie was its grounding in reality and its pessimism. The relationship of the mother to the child is sad and believable and so are the circumstances that lead up to the decision that they want to use Maurice as a medium to the other side. The real horror, if any, lies in the daily life of Maurice between the coldness of his mother and the closeness of his dear brother.

So if you are waiting for jump scares or masses of ghosts, you won´t get them – no matter how much the cover art tries to make this movie look like a screamer-picture or a gore-fest* – but if you are in the mood for some solid spookiness mixed with melancholia, this might be for you.

*= Pfft, seriously, look at this:
This one is actually rather accurate, all things considered...

... but then this one´s like:
Damn, sales are dropping, we gotta up the scariness!
And BAM: Scream/er face is gonna eat your SOUL!
Only scary thing is that this reminds me of a blow-up doll
... hrrr... okay, that implication IS scary.

... and on to the Mega-Digitation:
LOOK AT HOW DARK EVUL AND TRUE I AM!!!111eleven
I´M FSK 18 BEEATCH!
LOOK AT ALL THAT KETCH- I MEAN BLOOD!
IT`S SO RED!
YOU SCARED YET!?
No?
BUT LOOK THERE´S A VAGUE MONSTER HAND
 AND A VAGUE MONSTER SKULL!!!
Or something.
BE SCARED!!!
Please?

Neuigkeiten... erneut

Hallo meine Damen und Herren,

leider muss ich mitteilen, dass sich die Herausgabe von Schattenspiele um ein halbes Jahr verschieben wird. Von den, mit mir eingeschlossen, vier Zeichnern haben zwei abgesagt und ich kann die daher ausfallende Menge an Material nicht innerhalb solch kurzer Zeit zeichnen und will das auch gar nicht. Es lag mir immer am Herzen, dass die Schattenspiele-Comics einen gewissen Mindest-standard an Qualität haben und dass ich kein Heft herausbringe, in dem weniger als 60 Seiten Comics sind. Hinzu kommt, dass ausgerechnet in den Zeitraum von Mitte Oktober bis Mitte November viele wichtige Termine meinerseits gefallen sind. Also ist die logische Konsequenz, das Heft zeitlich zu verschieben.

Bis dahin werde ich mein Bestes geben um den Blog hier wieder regelmäßiger zu updaten und falls es wieder etwas Neues gibt, halte ich euch natürlich auf dem Laufenden.

-     -     Nekromantenhase

Comic Review: Night of a thousand wolves

... might as well be called: Comic of a thousand gorgeous wolves.

The art ist beautiful. It is hand-drawn, giving the pictures a vibe of age and tradition which nicely tingled in the back of my head while I was reading it. That is not say that I dislike digital art (not at all) I just want to say that it fits the theme and the story, which is set in the middle ages. And yes, the masses of wolves by the artist Dave Wachter are very impressive. There are only minor nitpicks, such as the zombie wolves and the faces of the humans just don´t look as interesting as the rest of the art. It is still eye porn, though.

The story is rather classic horror with fantasy elements: A family lives out in the wilderness among green hills and sheep. One day, all of a sudden, the Grandpa grabs one of these sheep and an axe, he wants to sacrifice it, as it seems, to an unknown force called Nagbre. The father intervenes, he argues with the old man, but as they stop their argument end and they look up when they hear a noise, a wolf has already half devoured the white animal, now gnarling his teeth at them. And he´s only the omen of an army of wolves coming their way...

Unfortunately it is not as interesting to read as I am making it sound. The story is not particularly grabbing and it feels a bit like a "what standard-horror-route will they go with?"-game. It mixes up the formula up a bit in the middle of the story when the "family alone a in a shack"-story becomes a "city under siege"-story, unfortunately ditching the horror element for that part completely in my opinion. It´s just not the same kind of fear when you are lying in your bed, unsure if the monster in front of the window has seen you yet then when you stand in the middle of a crowd, uneasy if all those people in front of you will provide a shield thick enough to save your life. I personally find the second scenario not as effective as the first, but that is of course subjective. While it starts out strong, if very clichéd and it mellows down towards the middle, the ending is nice, with a legitimate eerie feel to it and a bit of an open end that still manages to conclude the story.

The characters are pretty one-note. Nothing more to say here, unfortunately. The most memorable one was the mother, but apart from that the story sticks rather firmly to narrating down what´s happening with little to no characterization and little to no background story. While I am not a fan of the "we explain evey little detail"-approach, knowing a bit more about the lore would have been nice. It felt more like they did not have enough pages to tell everything they wanted to (the story is not that long and can be read in a single volume) and not like they meant to leave things out. Still, there is a mythological feel to it and as if there IS a backstory and a greater world behind it. 

Altogether, the story is not bad, just not very special. It is not full of twists and new interpretations, instead it is rather conservative. It´s like bread, essentially. Nah, that´s too harsh. It´s like bread that´s a little special. Like potato-bread. And it´s a good foundation for the delicious layer that is the artwork, the atmosphere and the wolves.

The thousand incredibly pretty wolves.

Buy: If you like the art or just like wolves a lot and want a comparatively "soft" and classic horror story. 

Pass: If you don´t like wolves that much or want an innovative horror story.

A preview of "Night of a thousand wolves" can be read here: Night of a thousand Wolves preview

and it can be bought on amazon.com by IDW publishing as a paperback here: Buy Night of a thousand Wolves

Book Review: Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrorow

Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow by Katy Towell

"Adelaide Foss, Maggie Borland, and Beatrice Alfred are known by their classmates at Widowsbury's Madame Gertrude's School for Girls as "scary children." Unfairly targeted because of their peculiarities—Adelaide has an uncanny resemblance to a werewolf, Maggie is abnormally strong, and Beatrice claims to be able to see ghosts—the girls spend a good deal of time isolated in the school's inhospitable library facing detention. But when a number of people mysteriously begin to disappear in Widowsbury, the girls work together, along with Steffen Weller, son of the cook at Rudyard School for Boys, to find out who is behind the abductions. Will they be able to save Widowsbury from a sinister 12-year-old curse? " Source: Amazon

I was introcuced to "Childrin R Skary" through a friend of mine, who showed me the animations made by the author herself. Said animations have mostly one running theme:
Little scary girls and how they change the world for the better or the worse. They were quite nice to watch, though a bit badly drawn and a bit too predictable in their story, but entertaining and creative in other aspects. (That does sound worse than I inteded it to. I guess it would be best if you judge for yourselves: http://skary.com/)

Now the author has brought her ideas to paper and the result is this book. It was printed in 2011 and since I liked the ideas and the style of the videos, I purchased it. It´s a quick read (about 270 pages), it´s illustrated and it´s... genuienly entertaining, adorable, and exciting and the intended message is solid and conveyed wonderfully. 

There is little to complain about the book, since it know what it wants: The characters are charming and relateable and they have their strenghts and flaws. There have been times when I rolled my eyes at all four of the main characters, though this did not stem from BAD writing, but from GOOD writing. They were portrayed as children who have yet to find their place in the world and make mistakes because of it. All motivations were comprehensible.

The story is not ashamed to become dark and edgy while still having its cute and nice moments. It´s not complex, but also not banal. It has style and a goal. It´s simply a enjoyable, gloomy adventure.

An illustration from the book

My only real problem with the book is... it´s illustrations. It´s not like the author did not try, the pictures are a huge step upward from the animation. But - and I know I´m being full of myself here - if you can count the mistakes that you used to make just a few years ago in every illustration, it kind of takes you out of the experience. Buuut: It´s always clear what is meant to be expressed and for someone less nitpicky than me, the illustrations might not be a problem at all.

I recommend the book especially to adolescents and children that are into vampires, werewolfs and gothis culture anyways (provided they can read English) and to adults who can appreciate a lovely told, eerie, little story. Apart from that you can get a first impression with the animations, of course. If you like what you´ve seen there, you will love the book.

- Nekromantenhase

Copyright to "Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow" and all related pictures shown in this entry belong to Katy Towell and the Knopf Books for Young Readers.
Said pictures are hosted and shown under the right of review.

SOIL

Erst einmal habe ich nicht so gute Nachrichten:
Das diesjährige Schattenspiele wird leider das letzte sein.
Auch wenn wir gerne miteinander arbeiten, gehen unsere Vorstellungen für das Projekt zu stark auseinander, um weiterhin Bestand zu haben. Wir arbeiten prima in Dous, aber aus irgend einem Grund nicht in Trios *mit den Schultern zuckt* Cést la vie!

Aus diesem Grund und anderen bin ich (Nekromantenhase) nun Leiterin des Projekts und der letzen Ausgabe, während die anderen auf freiwilliger Basis mitmachen können.
Bisher habe ich Zusagen von drei Comic-Zeichnern, dass sie gerne ein Werk beisteuern würden.
Das Werk steht auf etwas wackeligeren Beinen als sonst, aber es steht, ist, was ich sagen will.

Aber weiter zum Comic:

"Soil" was intended as a stylistic take on the artstyle "Art Nouveau" or "Jugendstil" of the 1920´s. A horror story that is chilling, but also beautiful to look at. It was also the first comic to be drawn for Schattenspiele 2012. The Comic, unfortunately, fell flat on different levels, in my opinion: 

First, I should have looked at Art Nouveau and it´s stylistic elements more closely before starting to draw, as the similarities start out at zero percent and reach maye 10% at best on the latter pages. 

Second: I should have added text, since the pictures alone can´t carry it on it´s own, at least not the way I portrayed it, it´s too abstract. 

Basically, what´s up is this: The white cherry trees shown start bleeding when rain falls unto them and said blood sips through the skin of creatures that rest below it, infecting them. The woman stands up, but falls down quickly and seemingly dies, when in reality, she turns into a tree herself. Years later a couple shows up and picks some cherries, only for the woman to realize, that they taste like blood and the man to cut one up to see the silhouette of a baby instead of a pit inside. 

The story is not designed to make sense on a narrative level, it´s more a contemplation on the merging of two pictures: The tree and the woman. Blood streams that are twigs, (the third panel of page four is trying to emulate upside-down lungs growing out of her chest (GETIT?)), tree sap as blood and fruits as... well... embryoes.

Fun fact: There is tree called "blood cherry" in German :D

Artist Spotlight: Toyen

 

Marie Cerminova, who took on the pseudonym Toyen when she was 21, is, in my opinion, the most important woman in Czech Surrealism. And yet she is shockingly unknown even among Art Historians (at least in Germany), it seems. Let´s change that, shall we?

I apologize to all Czechs in advance for the oversimplified letters. I would use the correct ones - if I could find them…

Phantom object 1937

She was born 1902 in Prag and joined the Avantgarde-Group “Devetsil” in 1923 which later became the Czech Surrealist movement. She was in contact with the French Surrealists as well and took part in almost all the most important events and exhibitions. Even during  the occupation by the Nazis from 1939-1946 she still created paintings and even hid her colleague Heisler in her home. She was calling herself a Surrealist even after the disbanding of the movement in 1969 and until her death in 1980.

Shooting Gallery 1940

While, as I already wrote, she is in fact not a Horror-Artist, but a Surrealist, her paintings and drawings definitely have an element of “spooky calmness” to them, since – among other things – it was the intention of the Surrealist movement to alienate or even shock the viewer with what s/he sees, plus, her main motives are the war and sexuality. Something shocking is bound to be found.

Paravent 1966

After the performance 1943

Message of the forest 1936

Sources: 

Weiss, Judith Elisabeth; Byzovska, Lenka a.o.: "Chronologie Paris-Prag 1919-1969"

Debatin, Sarah; Guntrum, Anja a.o.:"Biografien"

in: "Gegen jede Vernunft, Surrealismus Paris-Prag"

Wikipainting.org