13 Days till Halloween- Day 12

For the last 10 days, I’ve been talking about some great spooky comics to whet your appetite for the horrific holiday that’s coming up, but with 3 days left, I’m going to be getting a bit more personal. For the next 3 days, I’m going to be talking about the three comics that scared me the most as a kid, from least to most. Prepare your ridicule cannons as you gaze into the fractured psyche of a comics reading child!

Scary Stories to tell in the Dark

Written by Alan Schwartz

Drawn by Stephen Gammell and your nightmares given form

Yeah, I know; this isn’t a comic, but you know what? I made the rules, and I say it stays in. So, I’m guessing all of you have read these, so I don’t have to spend much time giving background on the books themselves.

When I was a kid, they had the entire series at the library, and the whole class would dare each other to read the book. The stories were fine, well written, whatever, blah blah blah. The kicker was that the title page wasn’t the only place there’d be a picture, so you would be reading along, and holding up the page to the sun just to know if it was safe to turn the page without staring into your nightmares.

The one that scared me the most (and it’s tough to choose) was always The Spider Bite, not just because of it was about a spider laying babies on a girl’s face and they burst out of a bloody pus sac, and ughhh…

The file name that I saved this under was “AHHHHHH”. Because I am an accurate namer.

No, it was the picture, mostly (surprise!). The way the girl’s eyes were surprised, and fearful, and… almost happy? Like when the fear got too much, all that was left was an empty happiness. Add that to the literal GAPING HOLE in her cheek (the worst part is the little white dots inside. What the hell are those?), and you have enough nightmare fuel to last for years.

Anyway,  the books are great, and hopefully everyone’s actually read them instead of only knowing about them from internet osmosis.

Other Spooooooooooky Comics

Ziah Grace

Ziah works at a comic shop and has seen Space Jam. You can contact Ziah at zbg333 [at] gmail [dot] com