Dwellings Inspirations- Childhood Terrors
A personal look at the inspirations behind Dwellings vol. 6!
http://go.blackeye.ca/dwellings
"Hindsight is always 20/20. And looking back on my childhood in the 70's and 80's, I can now see clearly it wasn't all so innocent. The stakes seem higher when kids are involved in a horror story, but it's not ONLY because of their perceived vulnerability. The entertainment of that era understood this, and refused to water down the dread of childhood. Or pretend kids can't be sh*tty. Monster kid boomers like Stephen King and Steven Spielberg knew that kid life is an uncomfortable mix of fun and fear.
The 6th volume of my retro-cute horror comic, DWELLINGS... titled “UNDERGROWTH”... is an attempt at connecting to those traumatic childhood truths, and to invoke that pop culture past. A nostalgic, but darkly red-tinted gaze backwards at misremembered thrills and frights, in a tale that bridges the gap between the fictional town of Elwich's past and it's ominous present. What happened to little Reigh Macintosh in 1984? Why can't Jim remember? What terrible trauma will his therapist unearth?
Childhood is not innocence, no matter how much we would all love to believe that. We cringe and flinch when we see kids in peril on the screen, not because it is unthinkable and transgressive, but because we RECOGNIZE it. A familiar horror from within. When we recall our hazy schooldays, and our old gang, we mostly leave out the worst things. Pushing to the back corners of our minds the kid stuff that makes us feel guilty and afraid. Keeping the ghosts at bay. Because the only thing more frightening than a kid in deep trouble, is a deeply troubled kid."
Sound effects and music care of https://www.zapsplat.com