October 2005
Cesar Torres
fear factor
Of Witches and Dead Men
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Those same shelves of horror novels and anthologies have changed now, and the horror genre landscape is far different. While novels and anthologies continue to thrive, their ambitious covers of the 1980’s are gone, leaving the more graphical and larger-than-life elements behind.
However, the horror comic remains alive and well, much to my personal delight, The Dark Horse Book of the Dead and The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft, bring back some of those great memories of classic horror comics, new short stories and more contemporary comics storytelling and come together in beautifully presented bound volumes that are enough to satisfy even the most discerning reader.
Book of Witchcraft promises the forbidden, the grisly and the grotesque all at once. On its cover, a crone in colonial dress is straddled by a half-human, half-goat demon. The anthology collects the works of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, Jill Thompson, and Evan Dorkin’s “Unfamiliar,” Winner 2005 Eisner Award Best Short Story. The anthology promises “Eight Weird Mysteries of Powerful Woman and Supernatural Skill -- Told in Words and Pictures."
And indeed, there are powerful females in this anthology, which give it more gravitas than a conventional tale of hags and witches’ brews. In a fine nod to the Bard, we open with a brief but lovely drawn re-telling of Macbeth’s witches, who in this version are colorful and cartoonish, but bizarre enough to act as an appropriate bookend for this set of tales. Non-fiction is also part of the mix in the anthology and Phyllis Curott, who is a real-life Wiccan high-priestess, seeks to dispel notions of hags with hooked noses and black cats.
The stories in Book of Witchcraft are fresh and inventive, and they sit well within other works that have recently visited the subject, such as Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell. And the book of witchraft, just like those other works, often grounds the witches’ tales firmly within reality, providing their supernatural tales with real depth.
And despite its fresh take on the subject of witches, I must admit that this Dark Horse book still appeals largely to my sense of the pulpy and dangerous, not unlike the Tales from The Crypt comics or Eerie and Creepy. Yes, there is much to be learned in the words of Curott, or the revenge tale of “The Flower Girl” but there is something so damn satisfying about the short story of the “Mother of Toads,” all moist and amphibian erotic grotsequerie, as well as the Louisiana tale of “Gris Gris,” which delivers on its promise of mythological bayou voodoo tales. When the unjust are punished in its steamy tale of giant witch creatures, there is an immediate comfort as delicious as a cup of hot cocoa in bed the middle of a barren Chicago winter.
For a good taste of intelligent horror with plenty of striking visuals and sometimes visceral takes on the genre, a good look around the comics shop may be more rewarding than a trip to the bookstore. Imprints like Dark Horse, Vertigo and smaller houses are turning out great work that may be elevating the field of dark fantasy and horror than, say, The Lovely Bones.
I don’t think I would be happy nowadays if the schlocky book covers from the '80s came back to the industry. Most of what you find now are suggestive covers with dark outlines or more abstract imagery, and I am really just okay with that. Even Caitilin Kiernan’s novels have been tastefully designed to broaden their appeal. However, Dark Horse has really brought some wonderful horror elements back into their collections, and I hope they continue to do so.
