🕷Couples Therapy
If Walls Could Talk…
This getting-close-to-Halloween episode of Into the Storymaze features: a creepy rhyme inspired by a video contest; the retro-eerie treasures of Monsterama; and a look back at the first look of the art for the Hellraiser comic.
It's easy to get pulled into the Storymaze. All it took to derail my original plans for this episode was a tweet about a "mobile scare fest" from Lumafusion, an amazing video editing app for iPhones and iPads. (Seriously powerful and seriously fun.) I didn't have time to even write anything like that, let alone edit a video — especially with the deadline just a couple of days away. But "scare" stuck in my head — Halloween was always the family holiday — and it started with a single line that just kept pinging inside my skull.
It wouldn't stop until I gave it some attention — which was all it needed to demand more of my time. Just a moment to show me the next line that was waiting around the corner — and then the next turn, where another line was eager to seize my hand. It wasn't long at all before the whole unplanned rhyme could rest easy, having fed well on my neurons. Now I had no excuse for not creating the video itself. And sometimes that's the best drive for creating: no excuse.
In a house on a hill lived a man and his wife.
A place that for her was much grief and strife.
Not a hand that was raised, but words that did bite.
Diminish, demean, make her doubt her own right.
Cook, clean and care, it was his needs came first.
As whatever she’d dreamed died slowly of thirst.
Then from within the walls, a scratch and a knock
Led to a panel behind an old clock.
Two eyes made of glass beckoned with unholy sight,
Set in the skull of a doll built for fright.
It showed her the way to a grim hidden place
Where insects clacked mandibles close to her face.
It was human flesh this legion were eager to pierce.
And the old bones scattered ‘round said their hunger was fierce.
The doll’s eyes caught hers, both promise and threat.
“Choose now, young wife, and get what you get.”
At the end of the day the man returned from his job.
His simple wife clutched at him, her voice wracked with sobs.
“There’s bugs in the wall, won’t you please get them out?”
He squared his broad shoulders and prepared for a rout.
As he stepped into the shadows behind the old clock
She slammed closed the entrance and it sealed with a lock.
The man pounded the wall, and raged for a fight.
Inside the darkness the doll’s eyes glinted bright.
She took in a deep, shuddering breath, and it was joy she released
As inside the darkness, the insects swarmed to their feast.
In a house on a hill a woman took back her life
Through honest hard work
And blood sacrifice.
Know someone who’d enjoy the Storymaze? Invite them to join us…
Remember the over-the-top line art that used to grace newspaper ads and video store promos for horror movies? No worries if it's before your time. Monsterama is bringing it back or making it fresh with two amazing collections of those goofy/grim illustrations, ads, headlines and promos, mashed together over 2 volumes of 100 pages each — plus original art along the same lines.
That's a couple thousand crazy cool monster images to make a fear fan's heart beat faster. Volume 1 is devoted to theaters and drive-ins, Volume 2 captures the flickering fluorescent of the nights-gone-by at the local video store. I'm having spooky fun paging through the packed pages, discovering new devilish delights at every turn.
What lurks inside your Storymaze?
FedEx packages containing original art were rarely as simple as "pull tab to open." Artists had a fervent need to protect their work, born of both creative passion and a desire to get paid. Extra padding, and miles of criss-crossed packing tape sealed the precious cargo from damage — and sometimes human hands. Opening was an exercise in snip, peel, cut, tear — BE CAREFUL OF THE ARTWORK! Multiply that many times over when it came to the fine art we often received in the Epic Comics' offices, where the artists were more likely to be creating comics in watercolors, oils, markers, acrylics and other exercises in "let's see what sticks to the canvas."
The package from John Bolton in the UK was more carefully constructed than most to surround the treasure within — John was a precise kind of guy. Nip, bend, slice, unfold, lift, pull. If it sounds like we were solving a puzzle, that’s appropriate. Because inside this particular package was John’s cover painting for Hellraiser #1. A central conceit of Hellraiser mythology is the Lament Configuration — a puzzle box that grants a special prize when you solve it: it opens the door to Hell. Thus endeth the exposition and ham-handed package/puzzle analogy.
Up to that moment we hadn't seen much in the way of art for the new horror anthology we were putting together based on Clive Barker’s world of demons and discipline. So John's ferocious portrait of cenobite-in-chief Pinhead was an early, tangible validation that we were onto something special — and at times spectacular. It didn't simply mirror a character from a movie. Pinhead's gaze locked on, commanded the moment, and promised he was bringing the pain, the pleasure, and everything in between.
Considering the fact that this iconic image has now graced many Hellraiser volumes over the years, we were clearly not the only ones to feel the chill and the thrill that Mr. Bolton had captured — or conjured. (Considering the many publishers that have put out those volumes, I hope they've done good by John as well!)
Of course it became the image for the promotional poster that was created for comic book shops. I had that headline in mind from the moment I started writing the Hellraiser series bible: "Terror the movies don't dare unleash." As much as anything, that also served as a mission statement for the comic when it was at its best.
“There is no route out of the maze. The maze shifts as you move through it, because it is alive.” — Philip K. Dick
Amazing Times
Thanks for taking a break from the dark web to check out this share-out of projects I’m working on, plus things that have me jazzed. I’m D.G. Chichester. If that looks pretentious, feel free to just call me “Dan”, and have a go at the last name as Chai (like the tea) Chester (like it looks).
I earned my word-cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, along with digital widgets in the world wide web of advertising. I keep my storytelling cred by trying new things — this is one, with more on the way. I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!
Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions.
For the lonely moments between newsletters…
@dgchichester — 280 characters from the Twitterverse
@dgchichester — images via Instagramland
Congratulations. Cool to read the backstory.