In a dark, dark room...

[sithwitch13]

We all know Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, right? Creepy folktales and urban legends, some creepy, some funny, geared towards kids and with the most awesome, horrifying illustrations ever.

About those illustrations...What I'm gathering, and about twenty minutes of googling and looking at various

Comments

[smiko]

NO
WHY

How will we traumatize future generations of children?! Those books are widely popular at the store, and it's always kids seeking them out. Because the pictures are horrifying and kids love that.

[sithwitch13]

Exactly! Every time I see someone post one of these illustrations, there's always one or two "fuck you forever"s, but mostly it's "Oh god these horrified me but I love them so much" or "Man, these scared me but it's where I learned to love surrealism"s!

[shadowesque13]

What is this nonsense. How could they replace the most nightmarish images with...pretty, more realistic, but on the whole very boring bull? Noooooo. The horse skeleton! The big-headed thing with long arms reaching out to poke the guy shitting his pants about it! That plain woman with the thin hair staring down at you! If I still had my books somewhere (I may have let them go, and if not, then idek where they are now) I'd remember the titles but god the art.

[sithwitch13]

I remember reading the stories, thinking, "That wasn't scary at all" and staring for as long as I could stand at the illustrations, trying to figure out how he did them. (And then I gained a little more appreciation for the stories once I started reading up on folklore and urban legends, but still! Illustrations!)

Someone did a painted statue of the mutant sewer rat. It's horrifying in any amount of dimensions and I love it.