Nearly three decades ago, folklorist
Alvin Schwartz published
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the first of three horror anthologies that would go on to become
the single most challenged book series of the 1990s. But most of the
backlash was against not the stories themselves (which were fairly tame), but rather the illustrations of artist
Stephen Gammell. His bizarre, grotesque, nightmarish black-and-white inkscapes suffused every page with an eerie, unsettling menace. Sadly, the series has since been
re-issued with
new illustrations by Brett Helquist, of
A Series of Unfortunate Events fame. Luckily for fans of Gammell's dark vision, copies of the old artwork abound online, including in these three image galleries:
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. Interested in revisiting the stories themselves? Then don't miss
the virtual re-enactments of YouTube user MoonRaven09, or
the dramatic readings of fellow YouTuber daMeatHook.
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 29, 2010 -
48 comments
"Three years ago, on my first trip to England, I visited the Tower of London with my friends Tony and Emily. When I got home and uploaded my pictures, I found this strange blur of light on this photo taken outside the room that housed all the torture implements at the Tower... I told Antonia about my weird photo from 2007, and how I wanted to take another picture in the same place when we went, just for fun... [Back at the tower, I] took another shot of Esme on the walkway. And when I looked at it on my camera after, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Now don’t laugh at me, but do you see a sort of smudge to the center and right? Like a smudge made of light?... It made my heart stop for a second.
I’m clearly starting to see spooky stuff in places where there is nothing spooky to see."
posted by ocherdraco
on Oct 1, 2010 -
22 comments
User
El_Greco of the SkyscaperCity Forum presents
"Lost London", an absolutely stunning photographic thread of old London architecture.
posted by 6am
on Feb 25, 2009 -
21 comments
Fed up with old-fashioned boards and planchettes? Want to contact spirits the 21st century way? Try
iPod Ouija.
(not responsible for any possessions or nightmares. try at own risk.)
posted by divabat
on Oct 31, 2006 -
2 comments
They see dead people. Seattle's own floating monument to a bygone era, the ferryboat Kalakala, is rumored to be haunted. The members of A.G.H.O.S.T. investigated earlier this year and claim they caught spectral images on film. Are those hazy orbs actually visitors from the spirit realm or does someone just need a new camera? Go on, tell us—do you believe in ghosts?
posted by gutenberg
on Apr 4, 2002 -
26 comments
Now this is eerie. A discussion on Airliners.net from 2000, regarding a plane hitting the WTC.
'When the two towers that make up the World Trade Center were built, they were designed to withstand the impact of the largest airliner of the day, the Boeing 707 Intercontinental. The Empire State Building survived a B-25 medium bomber crashing into it on very foggy day. Anyone wanna bet that the World Trade Center could survive an 767-300 impact?'
posted by Atom Heart Mother
on Sep 14, 2001 -
19 comments
