I am pleased to present here an group interview with some creative people who have worked upon horror comics with some great success. I like them, I have liked their work. I like horror as a setting, but look for, in the future, different takes on the genre, because as a genre there is a fertile field to grow in.
AN: Is horror the unknown thing hiding around the corner? Is it an event? Is it the setting? What in particular makes a story a horror story.
Stephen R. Bissette : Like romance and comedy, horror is an emotion-based genre, and hence defies rationalization or easy categorization. Most people associate horror with its most obvious and visible trappings -- castles, bats, fangs, ghosts, vampires, zombies, etc. -- but that doesn’t define its parameters at all, just some of the landscape and populace. B. Traven’s Death Ship, Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird, Barefoot Gen, Maus, Jimmy Corrigan, Uzumaki, Begotten, Come and See, etc.: it’s all horror, as it all explores the darkest aspects of our world, real and imagined.
Tony Isabella : Horror isn't necessarily that "unknown thing." Jack's slide into madness in THE SHINING may have been triggered by otherworldly evil, but such murderous madness isn't alien to our world. Remove the supernatural and it's still a horror story.
Horror is where you find it. It can be an event, it can be several events. It can happen anywhere.
If I had to pin down what makes a story a horror story, it's that moment when the reader feels as terrified, as helpless, as those in the tale. After that, for me, at least, what makes it a satisfying horror story is when someone in the story overcomes those feelings of terror and helplessness...and survives...and conquers whatever created those feelings.
Ben Templesmith: Horror is different things to different people. To some it is typical blood and guts gore, to others it is a feeling that emanates from the work, and for others yet, it is a Britney Spears corporate crap pop concert.
Steve Niles: It is those first three things you mention, and more. For me horror is about the darker side of life and the imagination. It's a chance to face things we're not supposed to or are afraid of in a fun way like a rollercoaster. It's a way to face a monster without having your whole family murdered.
Jamie Delano: Horror is an emotion, a manifestation of fear and disgust evoked in an individual by the infection of their imagination with an awareness of their utter helplessness in the face of the potential abuse and degradation of their (or their loved ones) psychic or physical integrity through the agency of pain, terror, or humiliation.
This infection can be performed through fiction – a creator imagines the terror on the reader’s behalf and offers them the opportunity to share his vision: or in reality – as when a perpetrator of monstrous acts provides a physical demonstration of terror and forces us, as an audience, to empathise with a victim (insurgent head-cutting… Abu Ghraib torture.)
Tom Mandrake:Yes, but not to everyone. Horror is a very personal thing, to you it might be the unknown thing hiding in the corner, to someone else it's speaking in front of an audience. Horror is an intense, profound fear and the source of that fear can seem very pedestrian, sometimes even funny, to someone on the outside looking in. What makes a story a horror story is the intent of the creator. It's a very wide open genre ranging from gut wrenching fear to black comedy. Humor and horror go hand in hand and the biggest challenge to the creator is to not accidentally cross the line.
