Corpse Cold: New American Folklore Will Remind You of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Jonathan Barkan
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A couple of months back, you might remember me posting a story about Nightmare Soup, which I called “…a spiritual successor” to Schwartz and Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. While I don’t deny that statement or take it back, I want to bring a new collection of stories to your attention that isn’t a spiritual successor, it’s a maturation and evolution of those classic stories/illustrations that haunted our childhood. Introducing Corpse Cold: New American Folklore“.
Written by John Brhel and Joe Sullivan, this collection of 17 spooky tales takes inspiration from Schwartz and Gammell but addresses the same readers decades later. That’s right, these stories are for the adults that grew up on Scary Stories and will feature very, very mature themes running throughout. They’ll also include illustrations from artist Chad Wehrle, who was heavily inspired by artist Stephen Gammell. You can see those influences in the images below.
Brehl explains, “We grew up watching Twilight Zone and Are You Afraid of the Dark? and reading books like Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book and various American horror anthologies. The unsettling stories and imagery found in books like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark made an impact on Joe, Chad, and myself, all the way back in elementary school. In fact, those books are one of the biggest reasons why we write today. With Corpse Cold, we hope to provide that same sort of reading experience for people like us — readers who are grown up, but still nostalgic for creepy art and new takes on well, and lesser known, urban legends and folktales.”
You can read “Switches”, one of the stories appearing in the collection, right here. And if you feel like contributing to this campaign, you can do so via Kickstarter.
Some stories included in the collection:
“Moss Lake Island”
A carefree getaway in the Adirondacks takes a terrifying turn when two friends stumble upon an island inhabited by witches…
“Two Visions, 1984”
A journalist on his way to cover an event with President Ronald Reagan picks up a hitchhiker with a series of visions regarding his future…
“The Woman on the Campus Green”
A college student with a dark family history finds himself the subject of a strange secret admirer…
“Black Dog”
Two teenage brothers encounter the strange creature that their father had warned them about since childhood, while hunting in the woods near their home…
“Autoplay On”
A man falls asleep watching a playlist of internet videos and ends up playing a clip he was never supposed to see…
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