Sum of the best horror Around has found Success By Putting its Trust in the Winning Combination of History, Culture, and Fear. The Characters at The Center of these Stories are afflicted by the Times they’re placed in, The Groups They Belong To (Social, Racial, Economic), and The Monsters That Reflect their Immediate Reality. Black horror is particularly potent in This Regard. There’s Never Been A Moment in History Where Black People Haven’t Had Eser Backs Against The Wall By Racist Forces And Other Forms of OPPRESSION THAT STEM FROM IT. As a result, they represent Community that’s in a Constant Stuggy for Safety and Recognition, and They’ve Been Haunted By Sub of Humanity’s Mostrous Agents of Violence. Jordan Pele‘S 2017 film Get out Is a great example of the Things that can have when combination is Given the chance to contribute so much to the story. It change The Landscape of Entire Genres.
Dark Horse‘S Black Horror Anthology Shook!present by Second Sigh Publishing and John Jennings StudioEmbraces this Triple Threat of Terror As Well, Adding a Bit of That Classic Ec horror Styling to Round Out An Experience that is Angry, Vengeful, and out for Blood. And All for Good Reason.
The Book Features 12 Stories from Sub of the Best Black Comics Creators Working Now. Rodney Barnes, John Jennings, Bradley Golden, Flavio Cortés, David Brame, Charles Goubile, David F. Walkerand More Can Be Found Among The Roster. EACH ONE PLAYS OUT Like A Such from the Crypt Segment, Complete with Punchy Endings That Leave Readers In Eithher A State of Shock Or in A State of Contemplation Recarding The Fats of ITS Characters (Namely How Or Why They Diéd).
One of the Biggest Challenges that anthologies face is settling on an opening story that sets the tone for whatver comes Next. Shook! Finds This in “Tasty !! Itchy !!!, ”By Bradley Golden and Flavio Cortés, A Nasty Post-Apocalyptic Tale in which a Group of Survivors Scavenge for Food In a Bombed-Out New Orleans That Has Been Overrun By Radioactive Vampirs. Golden and Cortés create Living Dead World That Feels Hostile From The Vary First Panel. IT Mixes Richard Matheson‘s I am legend With Subthing Not Unlike an Extraction Shooter, LED by A PCUP CHARACTERS THAT ARE EASY TO ROOT FOR.
PERSONALITIES Come Through Quickly Thanks To Clever Dialogue and Dynamic Exchange, Separating Them From The usual ‘End of the World’ Straggyrs. Cortés Illustrates Them in a Highly Textured and Grainy Style That Makes Them Like They The Pumping Real Blood On The Page. The Monsters Get The Same Treatment, Like Sub Kind of Page Rot That’ll Infect You With Subject IF You Stay On The Panels They’re On Too Long. IT All Comes Together for a Story About Urban Decay and How It Reflects Systemic Neglect. If This Story was Meant To Set the Tone, Consider It Set With Horror To Spare.
What’s Interesting with Shook! Is What It Does Once That Tone is establish. Early on we get an endearing and emotional story about aspirations, Death, and what gets cut short when the cruelties of life cut in. It’s street The Story Follows a Breakdancer Calleed Patricia. She’s on Her Death Bed, Beaten Down by Aids, as She Gets A Visit from An Otherworldly Dj That Puts Things In perspective. It’s Somowhat Dickensian, a story about the consequences we suffoful for other People’s Actions, But also about the peace that comes after. No Ghosts of Christmas present, Past, and Future Here, Though. INSTERAD, Death is Given The Microphone and Allowed to Take the Stage.
Jennings and Goubile Find Horror of A Different, MORE EXISTENTIAL Kind in “The Breaks.” It might be the bright story in the book, but it’s no les terrifying than subm of the other offerings. Death Inspiece Here, But It Does So In a Manner that’s transitional. It presents monumental shift in conscious that has a minimum scare requirement, Rensss of How exciting the prospect of an afterlife can be for a Believer. In A Sense, Jennings and Goubile Want Readers to Know That a Little Horror is Good for the Soul.
Rodney Barnes and David Brame’s “The Last March,” On the other hand, Steers Things Back To Ec Horror Territory With A Story that Pits The Kkk Against ITS MANY NOW-ANDEAD VICTimes. This One is a Good ‘Ole Revenge Tale WHERE The Guilty Party Gets ITS Comeuppance in A Manner Befitting their Crime. The Klan Plans to Lynch an Old Man That is Too Calm in the Face of What’s About To Happen. The Reason? I have submmon victims of racial violence from their serious to dishuffy own brand of justice.
Rather Than Merely Showing Bad People Getting the Treatment They deerve, Barnes and Brame Focus on Cowardice a It reports to power. The Kkk are Fearless When in They’re in Complete Control of the Situation. Eleven that changes, they’re made aware of just How indiscriminate fear can be. The Point Is To Show Hower Dictates Horror, and How It Can Be Weaponized Just As Much For Good As It Can For Evil. What Better Way To do This Than By Giving Those Who’ve Been Wronged By Groups Like The Kkk A Hunger for Racist Flesh?
Shook! Changes Gear with Each Story. The Combination I Spoke About in the Beginning of this Piece Weaves Itself Through Each One of Them, Switching Between Tone, Voice, and intention. Sub Focus on History to Look at The Real Human Monsters That have oppressed Black Communities, While Others Hone in On Culture to Considers What Heaven Looks Like For Black Artists Who’ve Suffeed The Wrath of Society’s Vices. Where they converge, though, is in Fear. It’s The Common Language. And Shook! Speaks It Well.
