All you need is horror
But do you also need a content warning?
“It’s all in your head. It really happened. These mutually exclusive statements mark out the terrain of the horror genre.” - Eugene Thacker, Tentacles Longer than Night
In case you missed the about page, I wanted to repeat that the first few comics I’ll be sending out will be horror comics. Not everyone can handle horror, I get it, so there’s your warning.
But, while I’m warning you, I figured I’d take the opportunity to talk about horror a bit here because there are so many different subgenres. So, to hopefully get you non-horror folks to stick around, I thought offering a preview of what specific horror genres you can expect might be interesting.
“Eternal Gaze” is a weird fiction tale. A genre that has long fascinated me with its capacity to infect ordinary situations with unknown dread and unease. And, since comics are a visual medium, I couldn’t resist developing a story with body horror elements.
Here’s a fantastic breakdown of body horror in film by StudioBinder if you’re curious.
For those who might be asking, “Tim, you seem like a happy guy; why do you like this horror crap so much?”
“To die would be an awfully big adventure.” J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
I don't know.
So, to maybe find out, I've read a series called "Horror of Philosophy" by Eugene Thacker. Thacker argues that horror reveals the limits of human understanding and offers a way of thinking about the world beyond traditional philosophical concepts.
According to Thacker, the horror genre resonates in part because death is as unique as it is inevitable. We don't get to experience our death and also share that experience, and our attempts to cope with that inevitable dichotomy encourage us to explore stories of mystery, horror, salvation, redemption, and legacy.
In the third book, Tentacles Longer Than Night, Thacker focuses on the theme of non-human life. I love monsters. The unhuman is a deep fascination of mine and is one of the ideas I’m working with in “Eternal Gaze.” Very few works compellingly capture the unhuman—and one of the few creators that gets it right is manga writer and artist Junji Ito.
When discussing the works of Junji Ito, to which “Eternal Gaze” owes an enormous debt of inspiration, Thacker says,
“The unhuman is not simply that which is not human, be it animals, machines, oceans, or cities, though all of these play a role in Ito’s story. The unhuman is also not that which is made human.”
Can you dig it?
“Eternal Gaze of the Sightless Void” starts this Thursday.