Horror reading lists by author, series and subject

December is almost upon us and as it is time for more gift ideas.

Here is a great and useful gift many horror writers wouldn’t necessarily have. Hooked on Horror is a readers’ advisory tool that a librarian would use to help them find a scary book for a patron. I submit that it is useful for the writer in a couple of ways. First and foremost, any serious writer of horror needs to make a study of the genre.

Secondly, a writer who suddenly happens upon a brilliant idea can use Hooked on Horror to make a quick determination if another writer has written that story and, if so, what direction they might have taken it.

Currently only the second edition is in print and available for the winter holiday gift-giving season.

Hooked on Horror	Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interests in Horror Fiction Author: Fonseca, Anthony J. and Pulliam, June Michele Edition: 2nd ed. Format: Hardcover Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 400pp. Pub. Date: January 30, 2003 Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
The expanded second edition of this award-winning readers’ advisory guide describes and organizes hundreds of horror titles according to reading preference. Focusing on titles published in the last decade as well as older classics, the authors cover 13 popular subgenres of horror fiction; lively annotations, commentary, background information, and lists of pertinent resources accompany titles. New features include streamlined organization for easy access, the inclusion of graphic novels, and indications of audio, e-book, and large print formats.

However, if you want to give your writer the newest volume and you don’t mind waiting a few months before they actually get to hold the book, you might order the 3rd edition. Order it today and receive it by April.

Hooked on Horror III	Hooked on Horror III: A Guide to Reading Interests (Genreflecting Advisory Series) Author: Fonseca, Anthony J. and Pulliam, June Michele Edition: 3rd ed. Format: Hardcover Type: Nonfiction Page Count: ???pp. Pub. Date: March 30, 2009 Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
Hundreds of new horror titles are described and organized according to reading preferences in this new volume of Fonseca and Pulliam’s award-winning readers’ advisory guide. Focusing on titles published since 2002 and broadly accessible to library users, along with a few older classics, the authors cover more than a dozen popular subgenres of horror fiction, including vampires and werewolves, techno-horror, ghosts and haunted houses, and small town horror. Lively annotations and commentary help you find the right book for your most demanding horror fans. More than 500 annotations are new to this edition. Background information on current trends, the history, and appeals of the genre are also offered, along with lists of pertinent resources.

The first edition is also available through third party resellers and some could be snagged for a reasonable price.

Hooked on Horror	Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interests in Horror Fiction Author: Fonseca, Anthony J. and Pulliam, June Michele Edition: 1st ed. Format: Hardcover Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 332pp. Pub. Date: January 1, 1999 Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
The first edition of this award-winning readers’ advisory guide describes and organizes hundreds of horror titles according to reading preference. Focusing on titles published in the last decade as well as older classics, the authors cover 13 popular subgenres of horror fiction; lively annotations, commentary, background information, and lists of pertinent resources accompany titles.

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Today I have a guest blog from thriller writer Sean Chercover. If you love books and your local book sellers, you need to read this. Thank you and thank you to Sean for letting me repost this message.

All I want for Christmas. . .

by Sean Chercover

“But it’s too early to blog about Christmas,” I hear you say. “We haven’t even reached Thanksgiving!”

True, but we are living in desperate times, and they call for desperate measures. Surely you’ve seen the news, and you know just how desperate. You’ve heard the cries from Washington and Wall Street and Detroit. It’s a Global Economic Meltdown(TM), and just in time for the Holiday Shopping Season(TM).

Run and hide!

Okay, I know that we’re all in for some serious belt-tightening, but here’s the thing: You will probably buy a few Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa gifts for your loved ones this year. You may not be as lavish as in years past, but you’ll probably buy something, right?

Right. So please, make that something a book.

Doesn’t have to be my book (although I have no objection to that), just any book will do. Fiction, preferably. But as I said, any book will do. Fiction, non-fiction, hardcover, paperback, frontlist, backlist. Just so long as you give books.

Maybe give a book that had a big impact on the way you see the world, or simply a book that made you smile. A book is a beautiful, thoughtful, personal gift. And a book can be burned for heat when the entire economy collapses and we are all left freezing in the dark.

Really, there’s no better gift this year.

Those of you who read the publishing trades know that I’m not kidding around. Share prices of the largest book retailer in America just hit an all-time low. Some other bookstore chains and many independents may not survive the winter. Even the most optimistic economists project no economic growth until next spring. And that will be too late for many bookstores.

It’s that serious, kids.

Of course, if you’re so broke that you’re considering roasting the family pet for Christmas dinner, you get a free pass. But for the rest of us . . . for those who are going to buy something to give our loved ones this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa. . .

Please, give a book.

About The Author:

This article was originally posted in The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers. Sean Chercover is the author of the Ray Dudgeon Series which starts with Big City, Bad Blood and continues in Trigger City You can find Sean Chercover at his website.

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From the Undead Rat and family to you — have a Happy Thanksgiving Day.

And watch out for zombie turkeys, they’re not as tasty as you might think.

–Ye Olde Undead Rat

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“If she wanted something she could share with others she should have chosen a mystery . . . for secrets must be kept forever.”

This collection reprints more of Alan Moore’s classic run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing.

TITLE:

SWAMP THING: LOVE AND DEATH

WRITER:

by Alan Moore

ARTISTS:

by Steve Bissette (art)
and John Totleben (art)

SERIES:

Swamp Thing #2
Collects The Saga of the Swamp Thing vol. 1 #28-34, Swamp Thing Annual #2 and an excerpt from The House of Secrets #92

PUBLISHER:

Dc/Vertigo Imprint

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror, Fantasy

DESCRIPTORS:

Magic, Weird Science, The Plant Kingdom, War, Super Heroes, Demons, Autism, Identity Crisis, Zombies, Aliens, Hell, Lost Souls, Corruption, Necrophilia, Incest, Love, Sex, Communication, Murder, Fratricide, Stories, Mysteries, Secrets

SUMMARY:

In the first short story, the Swamp Thing finally lays to rest the last vestige of the real Alec Holland. It is a touching good-bye as the Elemental finally releases his quest for a lost humanity and begins to embrace his true destiny.

“Murder? Don’t talk to me about murder! I invented murder!”

The major story arc is the return of Arcane and the Swamp Thing’s descent into Hell. As you probably guessed, the fly that Matt Cable swallowed was Arcane and he re-enters Abigail’s life as her husband while he re-animates the corpses of evil people and consolidates his sorcery with Matt’s mental powers.

Then he lays a trap only to find out that the much monster he’s battled repeated all these years is no longer the creature he faces. At the tragic end, Abby is forcibly thrown into Hell and only the Swamp Thing with a little bit of otherworldly and demonic help can save her.

The Other stories include a meeting with Pog (loosely based upon the delightful Pogo and his friends), and Abby’s dreamtime encounter with Cain and Abel, the hosts of the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets. Before we learned what the Swamp Thing was not, now we begin to learn what he is with a story that wraps the original House of Secrets Swamp Thing story into Moore’s epic.

The final story is a beautiful consummation of Abby’s and the Swamp Thing’s relationship. It is poetry in words and images and color. It should be read several times.

APPEAL:

The pacing was moderate to fast. The narrative was a bit lean for the time it was originally published (1980s) but very full for current sensibilities and yet Moore always brings a turn of phrase or an idea or a metaphor that stuns me and makes me re-read again and again.

There is some interesting characterization. The Swamp Thing must face existence with new knowledge about his identity and as he learns about himself and grows, we learn about him and see him develop over time. Abby also begins to exhibit growth and come into her own as a character, slowly at first but more quickly later on.

The stories are told 3rd person omniscient. There is a generous use of captions as the narrative strand. Moore relies on the art work to help tell the stories.

Moore uses several tropes of the horror genre–mad scientists, nightmare creatures, demons, and mental abilities that corrupt the owner. But Moore has always been one intrigued by and constantly reshaping ideas in his stories. Things are rarely as they seem and never play out in a cliched way.

READALIKES:

If you enjoy The Saga of the Swamp Thing, you’ll want to get ahold of the rest of Alan Moore’s run which is now collected into graphic novels. The next one would be Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death, Swamp Thing Vol. 3: The Curse, Swamp Thing Vol. 4: A Murder of Crows, Swamp Thing Vol. 5: Earth to Earth and Swamp Thing Vol. 6: Reunion.

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“You wanna know what the worst part was? It wasn’t watching my family and friends die, seeing them slaughtered in front of us. It was the waiting. Waiting for dark. They always come at night.”

For the next entry in our look at the 2007 After Dark Horrrorfest Movie series, we check out a movie that could have been good, except for the many plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. Welcome to the end of the world where running out of oil and gas causes cannibalism. Welcome to Tooth & Nail.

TITLE:

TOOTH & NAIL

Director:

Mark Young

GENRE:

Horror, Thriller, Apocalyptic Survival

DESCRIPTORS:

Horror, Death, Killers, End of Civilization, Cannibals, Fossil Fuels, Survival, Siege, Hunting Party,

RATING:

Rated R.

SUMMARY:

The world ran out of oil and civilization crumbled into anarchy. three fourths of humanity died. In three years the infrastructure had deteriorated. A small band of young adults led by an older man called Darwin (Robert Carradine) hold up in an abandoned hospital, turning it into a make-shift ecosystem. They grow their own food, catch and purify rain and secure the building just in case.

On one expedition to forage for supplies, Viper saves a young woman named Nova from attackers who just killed her boyfriend. They take her back to the hospital where an argument ensues over taking in the newcomer who would a drain on their resources or kicking her back out. Instead, an argument between Viper and Darwin ensues and Viper leaves.

That Darwin is killed and his body taken that night. Now the group realize that they’re under siege and Nova reveals that the people who attacked her and her boyfriend were nomadic rovers — cannibalistic humans who would take them one at a time each night unless they fought back, hid somewhere in the hospital or tried to run away.

APPEAL:

This movie could have worked had the writer/director done his research and not fixated on chiding the audience over natural resource consumption. The concept doesn’t work when you realize that mankind thrived for several thousand years without knowledge of fossil fuels.

Either stick to loss of fossil fuels and work out a logical conclusion, such as in Mad Max or find another catastrophe that would force groups of people to become cannibals.

This movie had a few moments. I enjoyed seeing actor Rider Strong — the sacrificial boy in Borderland be a likable heel in this movie. I liked the twist at the end, although I question if it could have worked. And the character change in Dakota was too sudden to be believed.

The real disappointment is that there was not one scary moment in the entire movie.

READALIKES:

Mad Max starring a young Mel Gibson did the apocalyptic energy crunch much better and spawned a pair of decent sequels The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

You can order either the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For or the 2007 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For collected 8 movie set from Amazon by clicking on the titles.

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Horror comics are wildly popular these days. Comic book writers like Steve Niles, Scott Allie and writer/artists like Mike Mignola have made a names for themselves scaring people with comics. However, even established horror novelists like Brian Keene, Charlie Houston and Scott Nicholson or television producers like Joss Whedon are getting into horror comics in a big way.

However, writing comics isn’t like writing a novel or short story but with pictures. If you’re horror writer is interested in comics, perhaps these gifts would make his holiday season bright.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art	Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Author: McCloud, Scott Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 224pp. Pub. Date: April 27, 1994 Publisher: Harper Paperbacks Original Pub: August 1993 (Trade Paperback — Kitchen Sink)
In this witty and illuminating softcover book, Scott McCloud, a twelve-time Harvey and Eisner Award nominee, uses a comic book to explain and analyze the medium of comic books themselves. This ultimate book about comics dissects the art form and shows how words, lines, colors, symbols, panels and pictures all come together to create a unique and one-of-a-kind storytelling experience. Looking back at the 3000 year history of the art form, McCloud shows how this unique genre is just as important and valid as film and prose in his own funny and profound manner.
Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form	Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form Author: McCloud, Scott Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 256pp. Pub. Date: July 25, 2000 Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
In 1993, Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture with the acclaimed international hit Understanding Comics, a massive comic book that explored the inner workings of the world’s most misunderstood art form. Now, McCloud takes comics to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are created, read, and perceived today, and how they’re poised to conquer the new millennium. Part One of this fascinating and in-depth book includes: The life of comics as an art form and as literature The battle for creators’ rights Reinventing the business of comics The volatile and shifting public perceptions of comics Sexual and ethnic representation on comics Then in Part Two, McCloud paints a breathtaking picture of comics’ digital revolutions, including: The intricacies of digital production The exploding world of online delivery The ultimate challenges of the infinite digital canvas
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels	Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels Author: McCloud, Scott Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 272pp. Pub. Date: September 5, 2006 Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character’s facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way. Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form.

You might also wish to check out these books on making comics by one of the masters of the art form and a man Scott McCloud often refers to: Will Eisner

Comics and Sequential Art	Comics and Sequential Art (Will Eisner Instructional Books) Author: Eisner, Will Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 175pp. Pub. Date: August 17, 2008 Publisher: W.W. Norton and Co. Original Pub: November 1985 (Hardcover — Poorhouse Press)
A classic drawing textbook from an American comics pioneer, revised and enhanced for a new generation. Based on Will Eisner’s legendary course at New York’s School of Visual Arts, this guide has inspired generations of artists, students, teachers, and fans. In Comics and Sequential Art, Eisner reveals the basic building blocks and principles of comics, including imagery, the frame, and the application of time, space, and visual forms. With examples from Eisner’s own catalog and such masters as H. Foster, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, and George Herriman, this book distills the art of graphic storytelling into principles that every comic artist, writer, and filmmaker should know.
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative	Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (Will Eisner Instructional Books) Author: Eisner, Will Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 164pp. Pub. Date: August 25, 2008 Publisher: W.W. Norton and Co. Original Pub: December 1995 (Hardcover — Poorhouse Press)
A classic drawing textbook from an American comics pioneer, revised and enhanced for a new generation. Based on Will Eisner’s legendary course at New York’s School of Visual Arts, this guide has inspired generations of artists, students, teachers, and fans. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative teaches how to control a story effectively using a broad array of techniques. With examples from Eisner’s own catalog and such masters as H. Foster, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, and George Herriman, this book distills the art of graphic storytelling into principles that every comic artist, writer, and filmmaker should know.
Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative	Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist (Will Eisner Instructional Books) Author: Eisner, Will Format: Trade Paperback Type: Nonfiction Page Count: 164pp. Pub. Date: August 25, 2008 Publisher: W.W. Norton and Co.
The final volume of Will Eisner’s celebrated instructional trilogy explores the critical principle of body grammar in comics storytelling. Designed and outlined by Will Eisner before his death in 2005, this posthumous masterwork, the third and final book in the Will Eisner Instructional Series, finally reveals the secrets of Eisner’s own techniques and theories of movement, body mechanics, facial expressions, and posture: the key components of graphic storytelling. From his earliest comics, including the celebrated comic The Spirit, to his pioneering graphic novels, Eisner understood that the proper use of anatomy is crucial to effective storytelling. His control over the mechanical and intuitive skills necessary for its application set him apart among comics artists, and his principles of body grammar have proven invaluable to legions of students in overcoming what is perhaps the most challenging aspect of creating comics. Buttressed by dozens of illustrations, which display Eisner’s mastery of expression, both subtle and overt, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative will benefit comics fans, students, and teachers and is destined to become the essential primer on the craft.

None of these books deal solely with writing horror in a comics medium, however, with these six books any writer would have a good grasp of what the comic medium is all about and how it differs from other art forms. With that information, bringing the elements of horror to a comic medium becomes ever so much easier.

If your writer already has these books, don’t fret. We’re going from the most obvious gifts to the most unique as we move into the holiday season. Stay tuned. And hey, if you have any ideas you’d like to suggest, leave us a comment.

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“It had taken almost a full year, but they had finally gotten around to rewarding me for killing my wife and daughter.”

Christopher Csejthe discovers that he is half alive, half undead, and completely in a lot of trouble.

TITLE:

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE

WRITER:

by Wm. Mark Simmons

SERIES:

The Halflife Chronicles #1

GENRE:

Horror, Humor, Adventure

DESCRIPTORS:

Monsters, Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Mummies, Scientists, Enclaves, Mobsters

SUMMARY:

Christopher Csejthe finds he has somehow become stuck in the middle of a transformation between human and vampire and he has no idea how he got that way.

Worse, the New York enclave (of vampires) has dispatched their best killers including Kadeth Bey, a vampire-sorcerer-mummy that cannot be killed to put an end to Csejthe’s existence. Chris has his hands full learning what he can do and staying “alive” long enough to find out what really happened to him.

APPEAL:

The book is narrated by Chris and he can be bitingly sarcastic and displays a black sense of humor. In fact this is one of the few books of humor and horror that really works well together and is carried throughout the length of the book. It uses the monsters of horror fiction but it is far more thrilling than scary.

This story works as part medical mystery and part thriller. Not all the questions are answered by the end either. There are, in fact, three sequels to date.

The real identity of Bassarab was difficult to accept — every vampire series seems to have a Vlad the Impaler — to the author’s credit, Chris doesn’t really seem to trust this confession, although he acknowledges Bassarab’s influence in his life and the danger that the vampire represents.

This story is slightly mature for a sex scene that while not graphic, can be intense.

READALIKES:

If you like One Foot in the Grave you might want to read the sequels, try Dead on My Feet, Habeas Corpses and Dead Easy. You might also try one of the early Anita Blake novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Christopher and Anita both have a wicked sense of humor in the face of disaster and they’re always facing disaster. Check out Guilty Pleasures.

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The wovel, that great online episodic novel where you the reader get to decide what happens next, has return while I was asleep.

Kealan Patrick Burked wrapped up his wovel The Living and now horror author and comic book editor Jemiah Jefferson has stepped up with her slipstream/cyberpunk offering called Firstworld.

She’s already posted the second chapter but if you hurry you can still cast your vote to influence the third chapter, today.

Here is a recap for those of you who don’t know what a wovel is: Started by Underland Press on their website, each Monday the author posts a new segment of story. Monday through Thursday you can read it and vote on it. Thursday the voting ends and the author takes the result and writes the next segment of the story which gets posted the following Monday. Then the audience reads and casts another vote.

If you miss a segment or two, Underland Press keeps the previously published segments available here. Click here, read from the beginning and then have fun voting.

You can view comments here. And it’s not just reader comments but Ms. Jefferson left a footnote/comment giving readers a link to where they could find a real life article about some of the future tech she employs in her story.

So you get to read the story, shape the story and now talk to the author about the story.

It’s a new online experience and well worth checking out.

Meanwhile check out the Jemiah Jefferson book list and her erotic vampire Voice of the Blood Series.

You can check out what fledgling small press Underland Press is up to these day here in their blog.

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“Man, I don’t believe this! We were watching out for New York, for Metropolis, for Atlantis . . . But who was watching out for Lacroix Louisiana?”

This collection reprints the beginning of Alan Moore’s classic run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing.

TITLE:

SWAMP THING: SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING

WRITER:

by Alan Moore

ARTISTS:

by Steve Bissette (art)
and John Totleben (art)

SERIES:

by Swamp Thing #1
Collects The Saga of the Swamp Thing comics vol. 1 #21-27

PUBLISHER:

Dc/Vertigo Imprint

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Horror, Fantasy, Adventure

DESCRIPTORS:

Magic, Weird Science, The Plant Kingdom, War, Super Heroes, Demons, Autism, Identity Crisis, Corruption, Fear, Nightmares

SUMMARY:

General Sunderland calls in Dr. Jason Woodrue — the world’s leading botanist turned human/plant hybrid super villain called the The Floronic Man — to study the body of the dead Swamp Thing. They hope to pry the secrets of Alec Holland’s research from the corpse. What Woodrue finds, however, turns out to be quite astonishing and throws the muck creature in a brand new and horrifying light.

Taking what he has learned, Woodrue revives the Swamp Thing and studies it as it tries to lose itself in the plant consciousness of the Louisiana swamp. Unfortunately that gives Woodrue an opportunity to force his own way in to the consciousness of the green and marshal the world’s plants in a war against mankind.

Still trying to adapt to what he is and is not, the Swamp Thing finds himself championing one of Abby’s autistic patients in a battle against the nightmarish demon called The Monkey King. But things get even more complicated as the battle is joined by another demon called Etrigan who also seeks to banish the Monkey King and will do it by any means necessary, even if he must kill the little boy Paul.

And if they survive that, there is the problem of Matt Cable who is mortally wounded in a car accident and makes an unhealthy pact with a talking housefly.

APPEAL:

The pacing was moderate to fast. The narrative was a bit lean for the time it was originally published (1980s) but very full for current sensibilities and yet Moore always brings a turn of phrase or an idea or a metaphor that stuns me and makes me re-read again and again.

There is some interesting characterization. The Swamp Thing must face existence with new knowledge about his identity and as he learns about himself and grows, we learn about him and see him develop over time. Abby also begins to exhibit growth and come into her own as a character, slowly at first but more quickly later on.

The stories are told 3rd person omniscient. There is a generous use of captions as the narrative strand. Moore relies on the art work to help tell the stories.

Moore uses several tropes of the horror genre — mad scientists, nightmare creatures, demons, and mental abilities that corrupt the owner. But Moore has always been one intrigued by and constantly reshaping ideas in his stories. Things are rarely as they seem and never play out in a cliched way.

READALIKES:

This was the beginning of Alan Moore’s famous run of Swamp Thing issues. He took over the series in the middle of a storyline and deftly used it to launch immediately into his redefinition of the Swamp Thing in “Anatomy Lesson”.

Although story arcs weren’t as prevalent then as they are today, there are two major stories: The Swamp Thing’s life changing discoveries and Woodrue’s war of the green against the humans is one and the saga of the Monkey King is the second.

READALIKES:

If you enjoy The Saga of the Swamp Thing, you’ll want to get ahold of the rest of Alan Moore’s run which is now collected into graphic novels. The next one would be Swamp Thing Vol. 2: Love and Death, Swamp Thing Vol. 3: The Curse, Swamp Thing Vol. 4: A Murder of Crows, Swamp Thing Vol. 5: Earth to Earth and Swamp Thing Vol. 6: Reunion.

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