Seeing Night Reviews is pleased to welcome author Joshua D. Boeringa and Illustrator Robert Forest to the blog. Mr. Boeringa is the author of Dread of Night Vol. 1 and Beautiful Artifacts, Heartbreaking Relics. (released on March 4th & 5th, 2011).SNR: In your own words can you tell us about Dread of Night Volume One?
JDB: Dread of Night is a collection of thirteen illustrated scary stories. Some of the stories are based on existing urban legends, but with a few tweaks and updates. The rest are totally new. There are ghosts, river monsters, and some really horrible human beings in here.
SNR: What made you choose to write a horror book for young kids?
JBD: When I was young, I loved the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection. The first stories I ever wrote were in that vein – short and spooky. So when Rob and I were talking about projects we could take on together, this was the first concept that came to mind.
JBD: We settled on the number thirteen to fit with the Halloween / urban legend vibe. I'm not a superstitious person myself, but inside the universe of the book, thirteen is a powerful number.
SNR: Do you have a favorite story out of these in Volume One that was your favorite to write?
JBD: My personal favorite story is “Toward the County Line.” I had been hanging on to that story for years, and with Dread of Night I finally had an outlet for it. I like the melancholy tone of that story, and I think Rob's illustrations fit perfectly with that tone.
SNR: Are you working on any other writings that you can tell us about?
Robert Forest (Illustrator)
RF: I'm glad that your a fan, sorry, "BIG FAN" of comic books ... ha-ha ... I too am a big fan of comics. However, if my style is similar to comics it's inadvertent. I'm sure it's come from years of reading comics though. It's funny, I never really sat out to plan a style for this specific book. I actually just used the style that I do most often and am most comfortable with. I think it's kind of unique compared to most peoples style and it sets me apart from other Illustrators just enough to be able to look at it and say, "Hey, I think that's a Robert Forest." That's really my main goal. The artists I admire most are very geared toward having their own unique style. Guys like: Frank Frazetta, Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke, Matt Wagner, Frank Miller, Guy Davis and Mike Mignola ... these are the guys that I look up to. But it's really been since meeting two specific artists, who have become close friends, that I've felt pushed to be a better artist in general. Those two guys are Jay Jacot and Jon Gordon. They both live in the greater Lansing, Michigan area which is were I live.
SNR: Did you and the author decide together what images to create for representing each story?
RF: Josh and I very respectful of each other’s specific talents. We really trust each others visions and know to allow each other our own room to work. That's not to say that we don't differ from time to time on what we want to incorporate or leave out ... but for the most part he does the writing and I make the illustrations. For Dread Of Night vol.1 Josh was very kind to leave it open to me to read his works and then decide what I felt needed to be drawn to accent his words. This is a great way for me to work because it liberates me and leaves me open to do the things I feel the most passionate about in his stories. So it really came down to me reading the stories and deciding what to draw. Then, after doing the art I'd send it back over to Josh for approval. I'd say probably 85-90% of the time he agreed that the images I created were what worked best. Josh is an amazing person to work with.
RF: It's funny; I actually do most of my work with either straight black and white or a few grey tones. Sometimes I use color, but I'm much more comfortable and suited to the nature of black and white. I remember reading "Conan Saga" and "The Savage Sword of Conan" when I was a kid. Those two magazines were illustrated entirely in black and white. Also, Magazines like "Mad" and "Cracked" were very easy to get and read in my rural hometown of Carson City, Michigan. So, I would have to say that's were my true loves stem from. I suppose that came out of shear ease for picking those magazines up. I remember when I started taking Photography classes at Central Michigan University my instructors were always dumb founded by how intense I tried to make my images. I'd try to elevate as much of the mid tones as possible without making the images indecipherable. That's kind of my basic goal with my whole outlook on the art that I create. So the black and white was very natural for me and it seemed a bit of a no brainer to do a "Scary Stories" book in stark imagery. Atomic Age horror films are very influential to me as well and all of those films come from the Black and White Era. So, yeah ... Black and White just seemed perfect and it is my forte'.
What an awesome interview! I want to thank both Joshua and Robert for taking the time to discuss their work on Dread of Night. Please check out both of their books on Amazon.
Here is the review for Dread of Night:
QUICK THOUGHTS:
Dread of Night Volume One by Joshua D. Boeringa, is a bundle of short horror stories for young teens and young adults. Perfect for campfire stories and sleep overs, with tales of ghosts, strange young boys, creepy old men and more. Boeringa writing has a similar feel to R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series.
REVIEW:
A total of thirteen stories in this volume, I feel the author chose to write that many stories just to add to the scariness of the book. As everyone knows the number thirteen is suppose to be unlucky. Its full of fun urban legends that have the authors own twist and ghostly elements.
Each story is different and I felt got scarier as I continued to each new story. One story called “It Reminds Me of You” has a creepy tone of a woman following around a man, repeating those words over and over again. In the end you find out why and if you were reading that on a dark stormy night, you would definitely get a chill running up your spine. My favorite story is called “April,” when I was younger I heard stories similar to this, but I think adding a child as the scary element makes it that much more spooky. In “April” A young woman driving alone at night spots a young girl wet and cold on the side of the road, little does she know that something isn’t right and that this girl isn’t what she seems.
The stories are a good length to get you all the detail necessary to enjoy the tale without it being too short. You get the creepy feel in each, along with illustrations to help give a more visual aspect of what each character would look like. It’s a quick read, which is great for young readers and even parents who can read them to their kids.
RECOMMENDATION:
This is a Kids/Young Adult E-book that has scary elements and may be too scary for children under 12. Some contents I felt were “Adult” as in scary topic, so I would recommend a parent read the stories first to get approval. But be prepared to be scared kiddies cause this book is full of stories that will give you the chills. Recommended for readers who enjoy the Goosebumps series.
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