I've been watching lots of horror movies recently, as an avid comic reader i tried to take a look at some horror titles, i then noticed how different are the portrayals and techniques for horror (let alone for any other kind of genre) between different mediums. movies often go the easiest way; rely on heavy and fast transitions of intensity of both images and sound, while it might sound cheap for some , those techniques are pretty effective (although some people are already used to this), there are some other movies who follow the lines of suspense and add few layers of horror between the progress of the plot.

But comics, only share the visual quality (as in "qualities") of movies, and back up those images with written text, hence why they obviously can't surprise you with loud sounds or splashy changes of scenes.

that's what brought me to this question, Horror comics (like books) tend to portray horror more along the lines of suspense, building up the tension as the story progresses, using the events as the main dish.
then, can horror comics really be considered "horror", or "scary" ??, yes, i know that definition varies depending on the person.

Movies are a more widespread medium than comics, since man is a being driven by it's senses , the more input, the more submerged he'll feel

Man is also a thinking being, the abstract thought, and the thought processes are a delight for our minds, hence why many of us enjoy less sense-restrictive experiences, like written stories.

Comics lie somewhat in the middle, they provide some visual input, and leave up the sounds and any other sort of text for us to shape as we will.

Do you consider Horror comics to be as good, better or worse than horror movies ??
Have some titles actually given you goosebumps ??, if so, which ones ??


(Sorry for the long nonesense before the actual questions)

Can they scare us how?

For example, a lot of weak horror films go for a fast edit and loud noise to make the viewer jump. A comic cannot do this.

What comics can do is create a mood and atmosphere where an outside stimulus might add to that.

Garth Ennis provided many horrific moments in his series crossed that will saty with me longer than almost any horror flick.

I don't think it's in the same sense as say, how a horror movie could scare you.

As Genejoke stated, horror movies combine both picture and sound to get the whole nightmarish quality. However, with comics, we are purely limited to picture, so everything is rather visual.

So I don't believe you could achieve the same affect that horror movies give you, but rather have a sort of suspense. So technically, you do get "scared" but not in the same way you could get scared from say, a horror film.

Ryuthehedgewolf
I don't think it's in the same sense as say, how a horror movie could scare you.

As Genejoke stated, horror movies combine both picture and sound to get the whole nightmarish quality. However, with comics, we are purely limited to picture, so everything is rather visual.

So I don't believe you could achieve the same affect that horror movies give you, but rather have a sort of suspense. So technically, you do get "scared" but not in the same way you could get scared from say, a horror film.

Well that's exactly what my post says ...

Pandafilando

Ryuthehedgewolf
I don't think it's in the same sense as say, how a horror movie could scare you.

As Genejoke stated, horror movies combine both picture and sound to get the whole nightmarish quality. However, with comics, we are purely limited to picture, so everything is rather visual.

So I don't believe you could achieve the same affect that horror movies give you, but rather have a sort of suspense. So technically, you do get "scared" but not in the same way you could get scared from say, a horror film.

Well that's exactly what my post says ...

Ah. The name of the thread sort of just made me start to rant. Should've been more so about the titles. Anywho.

The only comic(s) that come to mind with horror to me are like Guts , Putrid Meat , and Scorch , all of which are pretty 'creepy', I suppose. I think Scorch is the creepiest, with Guts running a close second. Those are pretty much the only ones I can really think of..

Of course, there's a third option. Naturally, a comic can't do a fast cut since it's a static medium. However, it's possible to create something genuinely disturbing. It could be a really grotesque image, or it could be something in the plot that plants a very disturbing thought in the reader's mind (for example, a character gets tortured. You don't necessarily have to see it, but having them very clearly become a metaphorically empty shell afterward can be very effective).

It's easy to startle a person with a sudden loud noise or something suddenly moving onscreen. Coming with something that is actually horrible to think about takes talent and skill.

it would take very good writing, but yeah. comics can scare the crap out of you. it used to be a populer genre of comics back in the days before superheros, but i guess the US has gotten soft.

Genejoke
For example, a lot of weak horror films go for a fast edit and loud noise to make the viewer jump. A comic cannot do this.

okay, those aren't horror movies. they're shockers, date movies you bring a girl to so it'll spook her into holding onto you without disturbing her very long after. stop letting people think otherwise, damn it all.

Orin J Master
it would take very good writing, but yeah. comics can scare the crap out of you. it used to be a populer genre of comics back in the days before superheros, but i guess the US has gotten soft.

Genejoke
For example, a lot of weak horror films go for a fast edit and loud noise to make the viewer jump. A comic cannot do this.

okay, those aren't horror movies. they're shockers, date movies you bring a girl to so it'll spook her into holding onto you without disturbing her very long after. stop letting people think otherwise, damn it all.

Horror is a broad genre and yes I was referring to horrors, some supernatural horrors some more like slasher flicks. Some do fall into the category you mentioned but they are still loosely horrors.

It's not easy but it can be done. Horror just tends to fall victim to the limits of the medium in comics. There's the "fast edit and loud noise" trick that movies tend toward but there's also various auditory tricks that won't work in comics either. The Eerie and Creepy anthologies had a few really great horror stories. Oni Press also put out an anthology of short based on the Blair Witch movie called The Blair Witch Chronicles, which I thought was seriously creepy and I liked quite a lot. This coming from a guy that thought the Blair Witch movie was stupid. On the webcomics side of things I loved Manifestations when it was still going, I think you can still read the archives though.

God, I forget to actually answer the question. To me, I love them both. There are some good horror comics and some good horror films. None is better than the other, though a terrifying comic tends to stay with me longer than a terrifying movie.




Funny you should ask.

My own comic (coming later this month, in case everyone wonders why the hell I keep talking about it but don't have it) is a horror hybrid. Now I know this is a discussion thread, not a hints thread, but I wanted to share my techniques anyway. Because, after all, these things were things I learned about from other artists.


Besides brutal torture scenes (I ADORE drawing them) there are four things I do to stir fear, and other horror comic artists have done similar things:

1) Foreshadowing and loopholes. For example, one character may say something that's simple on the surface, but really fortells something terrible that's going to happen to them or another char. When the readers get to that terrible (usually something bloody or mind-bending) thing, they get (or at least I try to make them get) a horrid cold feeling in the pit of their stomach..."Hey, I remember that."

2) Imagery. Imagery is your friend when working in comics, since (duh), you draw them. One of my main tricks to create scary looking pages is to do them all in black in white, save for various shades of one color...red, obviously. Also, when I draw gory scenes I make them GORY. Like, when I'm portraying a severed limb, I make it look like a real severed limb, down to the cracked bones and muscle tissue, and down to knowing when blood is a light color and when it is a dark color...

However, it should be pointed out that making violent scenes hideous doesn't always work. Occasionaly it pays to step back and use hints and metaphors, rather than outright showing whats going on. For example, you can cut out and use a black panel to show someone died or went unconcious. You can do the same and add black splotch effects to show that their dying or passing out was a bloody thing.

3) Involve children. I involve children a lot. Many are weary of seeing a child get killed, tortured, brainwashed, etc. so I use this fear to my advantage and "go there" more often than not. ^^

4) Go where others are afraid to and push the limits. This may naturally make people mad, get them to stop reading your comic, but you will know that when someone does get mad and gripe at you about it...that you set something ablaze in thier hearts. They wouldn't be bothering you about it if what you drew/wrote didn't stir their emotions in some way.

It's certainly possible, but I'd say you'd need to be reading the comic in an environment that you'd normally view horror theme media in, in the same way that watching a film is normally somewhere quiet (and dark), so it would ruin the effect if it was somewhere loud and public.

Horror literature tends to stick with me longer than horror films because of the build of suspense rather than having visuals to rely on (I'm referring to old ghost stories here, not Richard Layman-esque stories). I'd like to read more horror comics if I could find them.

For ones that creeped me out, I found Uzumaki very unpleasant although some of the chapters were ridiculous. You'll start spotting spirals everywhere after reading it though.

I think probably the best kind of horror in my opinion is fridge horror. The kind that isn't obvious until it dawns on you later. I got affected by it a crapload when I was younger. But because I learned about death before I could understand the concepts of fantasy and reality in live action films it wouldn't make as much sense now. I was seeing horror in a lot of places where it didn't exist or where the writers and actors in films hadn't considered it. I still do, but I don't consider what I'm seeing as reality anymore.

Psychological horror is always the thing that scares me most in moving picture form. I don't scare easily visually with films because you don't have much time to linger on what you're seeing. It's there and then it's gone. Have to fit everything into a set time frame.
Sure in comics you get a set number of pages, but you can look over those panels for as long or as short a time as you want or... Stomach...

In order to get a visual scare in picture form you have to make the drawings as grotesque and dominating as possible so you don't turn that page for a good five minutes at least out of sheer horror at what has been put down on paper or in pixels. But it's rare that you get people TRYING that. Most just play it safe with psychological and hope to give you a lingering scare through tension. I'm not sure which is better in the medium to be honest. If done well they can both be as good as each other. Psyche wins out in movies and games but comics are so different that rules become twisted and other things can be applied or taken away.

Sometimes an especially creepy image can stay with you.



Most horror fans are pretty much immune, but I think it's still possible to give a them an unexpected jolt sometimes.

If its a horror comic about Satan or aliens or the New World Order, maybe it will scare me.

But for the most part, I am immune from it.

I've only been scared twice by fiction.

One time was while reading a chapter of IT in the dark and hearing a really loud noise (My dog bursting into the room). The other time I was 5 and the power of Harry's love on Quirrel in the first movie made me cry.


But in real life many times.


It's not that I know it's fiction so "whatever". It's that...I enjoy the creepiness...