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Art Nerd Rage: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
13 years ago
If you've ever read Scary Stories, you'll remember it. Not so much the stories, which were a grab-bag of urban legends, tall tales, and folk lore, but for Stephen Gammell's illustrations. The ink and wash drawings were magnificently creepy, full of spooky half-formed figures, wispy spiderweb-rootlets, staring eyes, walking corpses with limbs akimbo and a way of suggesting decay, body horror and mind-numbing terror without drawing an on-the-nose, straight ahead visualization of what happened in the stories.
Many people were scarred for life by these illustrations as kids; I know adults who still get the creeps from them. So what does the publisher do for the 30th anniversary edition?
If you said, "Replace the illustrations with blander, less-gruesome more parent-pleasing pictures,", well, pat yourself on the head and give yourself a lollipop.
Read more here: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.co.....l-vs-helquist/
It feels kind of grotty to crack on the new illustrator, but this does a very thoughtful analysis of why the original illustrations are so much more effective, and the points the author makes are quite educational for those of us who like to illustrate fiction.
Many people were scarred for life by these illustrations as kids; I know adults who still get the creeps from them. So what does the publisher do for the 30th anniversary edition?
If you said, "Replace the illustrations with blander, less-gruesome more parent-pleasing pictures,", well, pat yourself on the head and give yourself a lollipop.
Read more here: http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.co.....l-vs-helquist/
It feels kind of grotty to crack on the new illustrator, but this does a very thoughtful analysis of why the original illustrations are so much more effective, and the points the author makes are quite educational for those of us who like to illustrate fiction.
I LOVED those stories! The art was truly a gothic awesomeness of splendor!
This shall become a true collectors item one day. Before parents pussied it up!!
I FUCKING LOVED THOSE BOOKS. I STILL HAVE THEM. I BOUGHT NEW COPIES LAST YEAR. THE PICTURES ARE WHAT MADE THEM SCARY!
I'M 20 AND THEY STILL CHILL ME TO THE BONE. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.
Caps for effect. I'm heartbroken.
ALSO THE TOE. THAT IS ALL.
In high school we had to watch a slide show of the horrible effects smoking had on you, including a gangrene-raddled toe which had just . . . fallen off. It was like a years-later sequel.
ALSO EW
BY THE GODS
AUGH
UGH
-table flip-
I grew up with these stories! I was in elementary school when they came out! When we had those Boxtops Book mail order deals I bought the box set and spent TWO WEEKS doing chores for my parents to get ALL THREE for like 30 fucking bucks. I was the only one in my class that was able to get it. THOSE BOOKS MADE ME A GOD AT STORYTIME. The very pictures gave me nightmares
THIS REMEMBER THIS? Story about the guy that goes into the swamp at night!? Fucking swamp monster takes him and he comes back with his arm replaced by swamp roots that the author described as a bleeding stump of mud and slime. jesus christ how horrifying.
THIS was the single most terrifying thing for me when I was a kid. I saw this thing in my dreams for MONTHS when I was a kid.
It's rare for people to get scared by an image. Usually it's music, maybe a weird sound, or even a movie or something, but how many people can say that they saw something in a children's book that made them have a shiver up their spine?
A bit of my childhood is crying right now :(
In Example: Remake of Evil Dead series.
Need I go any further?
I'm sure someone went ANIME IS ALL THE RAGE THESE DAYS, LET'S GET THESE ANIME-STYLE-ESQUE SHIT DRAWINGS TO REPLACE THESE FUCKING AMAZING ONES.
I remember actually JUMPING when I turned the page for the story with the "pet dog" [the one that was...gasp! a rabid rat!] and also being SO TERRIFIED of the "white wolf" illustration it was difficult for me to read the story. I even held a "staring contest" with the drawing to try to "face my fear". xD
I LOVED those horrifying illustrations as a kid! Now it's going to be hard to find all of the original books :(
Honestly it wasn't ever really the stories that scared me as a child, it was those hellish drawings. It's sort of a love/hate relationship with them... I love the unique drippy scary as shit style but at the same time it still makes me feel uneasy.
Might as well change the title to "Stories to Tell in the Dark" instead.
I am so mad for real, it's bullshit.
can't say I'm offended, it isn't one of my childhood books after all, but that is a loss in quality right there.
aaaaaah blasphemy
:C