I recently helped with running a booth at Salt Lake City’s Fan X event. While visiting other booths, there was one that struck me, in particular. The booth had several prints of black and white illustrations along with copies of a book with a familiar square red and black border on its cover. It was called Scary Stories: A Tribute to Terror by Curt Tuckfield and art by Shane Hunt. These guys are fans of the original Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trilogy by Alvin Schwartz and this is their homage. Of course, I snatched up a copy and had them autograph it.

Schwartz’s books deserve their own article, but they made a profound impression on my generation. Schwartz painstakingly researched folklore, urban legends, and campfire stories to create his collections of horror stories for kids. Complemented by Stephen Gammell’s elemental illustrations, books had an authentic feel to them. They were simple and atmospheric. They were widely banned throughout the 90s. I have to admit that whenever I came across any copies as a kid, I felt like I was looking at a forbidden tome. My brother would read some of these stories to me and it gave me shivers. Tuckfield and Hunt endeavored to create the same effect with their tribute and succeed, for the most part.

Hunt’s art is an excellent imitation of Stephen Gammell’s work, but it is still something that is effectively his own. You could tell the book was made with love because both the author and the artist didn’t spare any effort in their details and Hunt’s artwork summons a similar spirit to that of Gammell’s. As such, the artwork seems to inhabit a world of its own.

Tuckfield’s stories were largely inspired by numerous vivid dreams, life experiences, and stories he heard from other sources. I don’t need to go into detail because he explains the workings behind each story in his notes at the end of the book. I take the true experiences recorded in this book much more seriously than I ever would with any “Based on True Events” movies featuring the Warrens. Like the Scary Stories books, the tales in this collection are grouped into themes.

The first section is called Nightmares. Striking vignettes like “Grandma” or the more extensive, but very effective “When I Wake Up” have a Kafkaesque sensibility. I also see some sparks of David Lynch in these ones.

The second section, Unearthly Fates, have visceral stories like “Dog Food” that captures the spirit of Schwartz’s more grisly accounts. “Memento Mori” is a bit long to be a match for Schwartz’s style, but it is still one of the best with a group of kids exploring a European catacomb lined with thousands of decayed corpses.

The third section, Playgrounds, has kid-themed tales. “Hide ‘n Seek” is subtle yet unsettling one, based on a true experience. “Scrapbook” falls into the visceral side of things and is memorable.

The fourth section, Creatures, has a cool take on the skinwalker myth in a story called, “Unigoshi.” “Venetian Blinds” is a good chiller while “Coal Black” has a gut-wrenching finale that you won’t soon forget.

Lastly, we have the fifth section, called Leftovers because the remainder of the stories don’t quite fit the other categories. Some of them are too elaborate to fit Schwartz’s style, but they capture the macabre spirit all the same. “Geulogy” is a Cthulhu mythos tale that takes place in an unique setting. “Flowers” is weirdly cathartic for anyone who has ever had a crappy neighbor. “Bleeny Gnugs” is about a treat with an unknowable source. The collection concludes with the longest story called “The Stairs,” in which Kafkaesque dream logic is in full swing as a girl descends a newly formed staircase in her home and enters an alternate reality.

While not every story made a perfect landing for me, I thought it was a great collection overall with the ones I listed as my favorites. Painstakingly assembled after four years of hard work, this book is a labor of love and great reading for a stormy night. A-

Written by Nicholas Montelongo

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