Written By: David Pinckney What makes horror, horror? Sounds like an easy question, but really what makes horror comic fall into that category?

Look at Chew. Many people consider Chew a horror comic but a lot of people on the other hand have a hard time placing it as a horror comic. It has some pretty gross and intense scenes, but overall it has a form of humor to it that it's hard to believe at times it's supposed to be a horror comic book. Does this mean Chew is truly a horror comic? Those elements displayed are almost iconic to horror but it isn't really scary, these elements are purely just typical “building blocks” of horror. This isn't in anyway a knock on Chew, in fact, Chew is fantastic, but collectively, we have sort of diluted the idea of horror to include the idea of being morbid and gory versus scary. In addition we have gotten to a point where horror means, it just needs something stereotypically horror.

If the idea of horror is it has to have elements of horror like Walking Dead having zombies, does this mean the X-men books with vampires are now considered horror comics? If not, then why? I'm not seeing a real clear line anymore between horror and not horror. With the boom of monsters in books all across the board, we have really desensitized ourselves in a way. It seems like more and more now, horror translates directly to bloody and violent. We used to have stories that were psychological and that was horrifying enough.

Horror should evoke an emotion from the reader. This is why vampires in X-men books shouldn't be considered horror books. Psychological horror movies and comics are scary because it gets in your head. Horror, in my opinion, should start with your head and not with you eyes. Think about it. If I give you the idea of something horrific without showing you it, when you turn the page and suddenly your worst thoughts are unfolded before your eyes isn't that more scary then opening a book and seeing a dead body? Horror needs a second to play around in your head. Horror thrives off of suspense.

I understand that horror usually implies showing an act of violence or something gruesome, which is fine. The problem I'm seeing with comics now, is being gruesome just because, with no real reason. Or even characters doing things that are completely illogical and getting themselves into a situation easily avoidable, but is now in some “danger”. At this point, it's not really horror, it's just gross an unorganized. I think horror really needs a revamp. I think horror needs stories that legitimately scares the reader. A story that makes you not want to turn the page because you want to be able to sleep at night.

The simple question of “what makes horror, horror” is easily answered with “it's horrifying”. We need to remove the idea of gross equals horrifying. We need to see horror with our minds first and THEN our eyes. I think we have diluted horror just a bit, but not too much where it can't be fixed. We just need a few more stories that go back to the fundamental thought of horror comics which is, to scare you because it's fun.

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Published on: 2011-02-22 (627 reads)