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Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (Books Inked With Nightmare Fuel).

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DarkDecapodian The Prodigal Returns from the fold Since: Apr, 2009
The Prodigal Returns
#1: Sep 25th 2009 at 6:24:56 AM

Rather than hijack the the Goosebumps thread with another, nominally child-oriented horror series, I've set up a thread for Alvin Shcwartz and Stephen Gammell's Scary Stories set. They've got most of the text and illustrations here - http://www.imgdump.info/cat-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-371.htm. Sorry about the un-ergonomic set up.

Now, the stories themselves were a pretty good collection of urban legends (even if the embellishments by Alvin Schwartz are a li'l hammy), but the real attraction, as many have stated before, is Stephen Gammell's wondrously creepy imagery. The man illustrates children's books...with these? Perhaps he had a pact going with Morpheus, and earned a dollar for every nightmare he induced.

So anyway, this thread's to recount your own experiences with the books, as well as others like this that sat, like a copy of the Necronomicon For Kindergartners, glowering on your own bookcase.

Oh, and does anyone know if ol' Stevey did anything else like this? Or, y'know, anyone who's worked in a similar vein? I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

Edit: The site's been shut down recently. I shall see if it's located anywhere else, but I'm not holding out hope.

edited 8th Jul '10 11:20:18 PM by DarkDecapodian

Aww, did I hurt your widdle fee-fees?
NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#2: Sep 26th 2009 at 3:39:59 PM

those stories always scared me. Especially the elevator one. And the creature that roamed around the wood and killed a hunter

tmoh Nightmare Fetishist Since: Jan, 2001
Nightmare Fetishist
#4: Jul 1st 2010 at 7:14:57 PM

Weirdly enough, I had virtually* no problem with these when I was a kid—my school had all three in the library, and I loved them so much that as soon as I brought one back I'd check another one out. I ended up reading a lot more books on urban legends and folklore because of these.

Of course, I ended up running across the one I'd actually bought (the second one, I think, but it seems to have vanished again) when I was eighteenish, and all those fond memories of little-kid ghost story fun scariness came crashing down in flames when I saw those illustrations again. How the hell did little me read these things without giving herself chronic insomnia?

  • "Virtually" because that picture from "The Haunted House" filled me with just as much terror in second grade as it does now. Just the thought of that face still makes me have to sleep with the light on, and I won't click on any of the links for the other pictures just in case I see HER, too.

I can't make a single post without a Discworld reference. See?
Myrmidon The Ant King from In Antartica Since: Nov, 2009
The Ant King
#5: Jul 1st 2010 at 7:23:00 PM

So many childhood nightmares. So many.

Kill all math nerds
Roman Love Freak Since: Jan, 2010
#6: Jul 1st 2010 at 10:25:56 PM

I read It in 6th grade. Does that count?

The goodsebumps books always put me to sleep. Why the hell were they so popular?

When I was in the first and second grade, though, I was much more into Kaiju type monsters, not so much real horror.

So... huh. I'll check it out. It seems novel enough.

edited 1st Jul '10 10:32:37 PM by Roman

| DA Page | Sketchbook |
Latia Since: Jan, 2010
#7: Jul 2nd 2010 at 10:29:33 AM

I was always fairly okay with the stories and though unsettled by the pictures, I was able to handre handle it.

Except one. The title was either "What?" or "What is going on Here?", something along those lines. It disturbed me because a) the illustration was this... big, fucking...floating ball of what looked like FLESH... b) because it was said to be a true story, and c) (though this may be facisination more than fear) there are no ghosts or monsters but happenings no one can explain... and they're theorized to be a direct cause of teenagers.

In fact, that one story facinated me for so many years I ended up writing a story inspired by it, the one linked in my signature.

Oh, and there was also the one mystery that had no ghosts or supernatural happenings, but it was argueably the scariest one in the series. The one where a mother is told her sick daughter doesn't exist, and it's impossible to understand what the fuck happened until you read the back of the book. Readers know which one I'm talking about.

edited 2nd Jul '10 10:31:23 AM by Latia

BonsaiForest Since: Jan, 2001
#8: Jul 2nd 2010 at 6:54:46 PM

One that really creeped me out was when the kid played hide-and-seek, but hid inside a trunk in the attic that didn't open from the inside. She got stuck in there and died, and wasn't found until many years later.

And Latia, what's the story you're talking about? I don't remember it.

edited 2nd Jul '10 6:55:19 PM by BonsaiForest

Scisless What's That Zach? from The End of Time Since: Apr, 2009
What's That Zach?
#9: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:02:14 PM

Actually if I remember right, it was a bride on her wedding day, not a kid.

But yes, I remember reading all three books as a kid. The stories I remember the most were probably the one with the priest and the zombie chick and the one with the kid in the haunted house and the severed head that chanted "Me Ty Do Ti Walker" or whatever it was.

Scared the crap out of me as a kid.Good times.tongue

edited 2nd Jul '10 7:02:55 PM by Scisless

Myrmidon The Ant King from In Antartica Since: Nov, 2009
The Ant King
#10: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:03:54 PM

What about "Oh Susannah"?

Kill all math nerds
Jumpingzombie Since: Jan, 2001
#11: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:22:42 PM

Man, I really need to go to my library soon and checks those books out again. My brother and I almost bought a copy of the first one at a garage sale, but my parents put the kabash down on that. It was kind of old, it added so much to the creep factor.

I was always kinda freaked out by one I think was called "The Thing" where two boys are hanging out and then they see this creepy guy walk out of a field. He looked like a decayed corpse and the illustration always freaked me out. Later, one of the boys dies and looks exactly like the thing.

Another one I remember pretty well had a girl who buys a quilt made by some witches and becomes obsessed with it.

Scisless What's That Zach? from The End of Time Since: Apr, 2009
What's That Zach?
#12: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:47:01 PM

What is this bullshit about them reprinting the book and getting rid of all the old illustrations?

ArcanGenth Since: Aug, 2009
#13: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:51:29 PM

I remember one where the 8 or 9 year old protaganist is part of a tribe of native-type people that are hunted by monsters from the other side of the forest. These monsters kidnap tribe members and they're never heard from again. At the beginning the kid's uncle gets stolen. Shortly after the kid ends up in the monsters' lair. He snoops around, gets lost, and finds out that the monsters kill the tribesmen and cut up and mutilate the corpses. His uncle finds him in the lair(Uncle broke free before they could kill him) and they try to escape. Uncle kills one of the monsters and skins it. Uncle then escapes by wearing the monster's skin and walking right out with the kid.

The clencher to the story is that it end with the kid's closing statement: "Uncle told me to look away, but I peeked. Under their skin, the monsters look just like us!".


Scary enough for a kiddo reader at face value: The monsters can look like humans!
Then, after a second read and paying closer attention to the descriptions of the monsters and their "skin", I had my first Fridge Horror moment: They weren't monsters at all. The "monsters" were humans in environment suits. Scientists. And they were dissecting the corpses, not just mutilating them.

Brrrrr.

Myrmidon The Ant King from In Antartica Since: Nov, 2009
The Ant King
#14: Jul 2nd 2010 at 7:54:02 PM

I remember that story from somewhere, but I don't think it was from this series.

Kill all math nerds
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#15: Jul 3rd 2010 at 1:12:59 AM

^ Mustn't be Schwartz—he did urban legends, didn't he? Anyways, the American Library Association once made a poster with the hundred most frequently "banned" (their term, generally meaning "removed from library shelves") books and book series in America from the years 1990-2000. This trilogy took the top slot, beating out everything from The Chocolate War to Heather Has Two Mommies—and frankly, of the series I recognized it was the only one that really deserved it. Schwartz got another entry farther down for Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat.

In my personal experience, I found the Scary Stories series more unintentionally comical than horrifying—it's so over-the-top, you know? But it's probably a little much for the intended age bracket. (Schwartz clearly has or had no idea what's appropriate for given ages. His picture book In a Dark, Dark Room wouldn't be scary even to middle schoolers, but as an I Can Read book it was way too much for my kindergarten-attending self.)

edited 3rd Jul '10 1:13:30 AM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
SchwarzeWitwe from American down under Since: Jan, 2010
#16: Jul 8th 2010 at 3:48:26 AM

Damn, I wonder if I still have the books at my parents' house.

DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#17: Jul 8th 2010 at 5:58:41 AM

I never read these (don't know if they were ever translated into Swedish), and having seen some of the illustrations, I'm kind of grateful.

I did read a couple of horror story collections that had the most nightmare-fuelling illustrations, though. Funnily enough, the ones I remember most were both for Edgar Allan Poe stories (in two different collections). One was for The Fall Of The House Of Usher, of Lady Madeline in her shroud, with her face completely in darkness. Another was of the Red Death.

They scared the heck out of me as a kid, and even today, I don't feel comfortable thinking about them...

Dreadnought ALGEBRAIC DUDE from The US. Since: Feb, 2010
ALGEBRAIC DUDE
#18: Jul 8th 2010 at 3:47:30 PM

-shudder-

It was the illustrations that scared me most as a kid, but I have to say, the Body Horror stories just freaked me out. I've always had a distaste for it.

WOOOOOO
Glugg Since: Feb, 2010
#19: Jul 10th 2010 at 11:50:05 PM

Oh yes, I loved these books and I'm proud to say that they scared me senseless as a child.

SilentStranger Trivia Depository from Parts Unknown (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Trivia Depository
#20: Jul 11th 2010 at 1:22:48 PM

I never read them as a kid, but a few years ago, I-Mockery uploaded a program wit hthe audio books as a tribute, and.... wow, that was some SCARY-ass stuff, especially the one with the screaming severed head

Nornagest Since: Jan, 2001
#21: Jul 12th 2010 at 12:15:13 PM

The actual stories are pretty much all straightforward retellings of traditional, campfire-style ghost stories and urban legends, but the illustrations really bring them to life. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the series traumatized an entire generation, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My favorite, or at least the one that sticks best in my head fifteen or twenty years later, is probably the one about the Wendigo.

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.
Nornagest Since: Jan, 2001
#23: Jul 12th 2010 at 12:31:58 PM

A joke, if I remember right.

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.
Charlatan Since: Mar, 2011
#24: Jul 12th 2010 at 12:33:43 PM

...

What was the joke? "Pull my finger"?

Nornagest Since: Jan, 2001
#25: Jul 12th 2010 at 12:37:04 PM

Bit of a shaggy dog story: it spends pages building up the ineffable horror around this unseen thing following the protagonist, then the protagonist turns around and sees the above thing, which politely asks him if there's something the matter.

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.

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