Nostalgia: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Nothing scared me more as a child than the following three books:
Terrifying me to the point where my father actually complained to my elementary school over allowing something as psychologically damaging as these books to be checked out by kids, my interest in these books was rekindled when I saw the anthology for sale at Borders one day. The stories, edited and adapted from folklore and urban legends by Alvin Schwartz, were actually the least terrifying aspect of the three books. While the books did possess a few creepy-as-fuck stories, it was the nightmare-inducing illustrations Stephen Gammell that forced me to sleep with the light on for God knows how long. Let’s examine some, shall we?
The look of hydrocephaly is not scary in of itself, but when it looks like you’re missing half your skin, have a sealed ocular cavity, are completely bald, and are rendered in black and white, it’s absolutely terrifying. This image accompanied the introduction of the second book, where Alvin Schwartz used the T. S. Eliot-coined phrase “hoo-ha” to describe the fear elicited from scary stories. A “hoo-ha” is a euphemism for the vagina. Deduce from that what you will.
What. The. Fuck. is that? According to the story for which it was illustrated, it’s nothing more than a ghost that likes to give “raspberries” to poor, frightened children. To me, it’s the ultimate cure for constipation, because if I saw that thing sitting on a dresser, in the dark, staring at me with those two dark holes where eyes should be, I would shit myself.
The Macy’s Day Parade has been switched to Halloween. Is that thing smiling?
This scared me the most when I was a kid, as it combined my fear of spiders and my tendency to believe everything I read in a convenient little package. It also looks like they capitalized on the “creepy long-black haired girl” thing before the Japanese ever did. This picture is what prompted my dad to chew out the school and my twin brother to call me a wuss. I WAS FUCKING SEVEN! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?!?!
Screenshots of every page of each of the three books can be found at http://www.imgdump.info/, though fair warning: pornographic ads plague the many pages, as does an ad to become a male escort. Coincidentally, if any ladies in the Denver area need a date, I can be reached at http://www.loweredexpectations.com/male-escorts.
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BIG fan here, too. The books were great, but it was Gammell’s artwork that really made them something special. Still love ‘em to this day . . . .
As a matter of fact, I went camping with all my nieces and nephews a couple weeks ago. We spent every night around the campire, everyone listening with bated breath as I read from my son’s copy of the SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK treasury. Fun times, and a real cool feeling, sharing these stories that scared me so much when I was a kid with a whole new generation.
J.N.
http://www.myspace.com/newmanjames
This was great, especially your blurb about that ghost on the dresser. The illustrations definitely made the books edgier and more intriguing. Gammell had some goofy shit going on in that head of his.
Ah, memories.
These were my favorite books as a kid. I read them so many times I can still quote a couple of the stories word for word. When I was six, I loved telling people the story of “Me Tie Dough-ty Walker”, in which a bloody head falls down the chimney.
…Looking back, I was a weird little kid.
my god, i found this book when i was about 7 in the school library, and it was old and tattered too. i took it home and kept it there, scared the LIVING DAYLIGHTS out of myself by reading it over and over, and yes, how increadibly creepy gammell’s illustrations are! what was he smoking when he thought them up. what skill to make someone too scared to sleep with a simple picture. so i forgot all about them but the other day walking home i got a random flashback pop up in my head of a tale about a dog that turned out to be a sewer rat……..and thought, i wonder if people actually know about those books, googled it and here they are! i am off to amazon to order them all and re-read them. can’t wait for all the nostalgia. praps i was wierd as a kid too.