Championing comics for an innovative Scotland
Scary comics
The film version...not really very scary at all.
Recently, I had to put a comic in the freezer, for being too scary. And I'm a little ashamed to admit this, because I pride myself on being able to tolerate horrible films and books. Why is it, then, that a comic can reduce me to a shivering little bundle?
I thought it might be OK because I'd seen the film, and any horror in it was outweighed by the laughable acting of Heather Graham.
Yes, I had to put From Hell down for being too ghastly. I wasn't even at a particularly good bit. The page I closed it on was not especially horrid. It might be because the sooty, dirty artwork eventually began to grow too heavy for bed time. It could be because of the unsettling nature of the story itself. It's my favourite Alan Moore so far, a beautiful portrait of the structure of London, and of the anatomy of a time of woman killers. But I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it. One day, my wife took it from my hands, and I watched while she put it in the freezer for me. Better? she said, sarcastically. Yes, yes, it was.
Palestine, by Joe Sacco, also lives in the freezer. I'm considering letting it out and continuing, but I still remember the page that made me do it, and I know that it will still be there when I open it.
Am I alone? Do you have a graphic novel in the freezer? Is a scary comic scarier than a scary film?
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Comment by Richard Buchanan on February 7, 2012 at 16:24 -
A comic will only scare or unsettle me if it's a really good one, so I tend to press on and lie awake in terror of any creak in the house. There's definitely the potential for the graphic novel to beat film in achieving this as it can engage in a more intense and personal manner.
I'd only put a bad or gratuitous comic in the freezer.
As for 'From Hell'; get it back out the freezer and finish it. There are few greater examples of what the medium is capable of.
:)
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Comment by Ariadne Cass-Maran on February 7, 2012 at 16:37 -
I wonder if comics are scarier because a reader's perception of time is different. You can travel back and forth in time, and you can linger over an image for as long as you want.
From Hell is wonderful because the images are so complex, and are disturbing on levels which are difficult to immediately identify.
In any case - it has been duly rescued from its (metaphorical) icy prison.
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Comment by Anna Keville on February 9, 2012 at 14:29 -
I have never had a nightmare because of a scary film or novel but did have one after reading Arkham Asylum. I assume because of Dave McKean's wonderfully psychotic artwork.
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Comment by Anna Keville on February 24, 2012 at 17:28
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