INTERVIEW: Get ready for ‘Shook! A Black Horror Anthology,’ coming in 2024
Image courtesy of Dark Horse / Provided with permission.
This Halloween season, Dark Horse is promoting an upcoming horror book that showcases the work of Black writers and artists and their many contributions to the comic-book craft. Shook! A Black Horror Anthology is set for release in January, and the 192-page collection promises 12 tales of terror from some of the top names in the business.
Robert Castro and Alessio Nocerino are among the artists, while the long list of writers includes everyone from Bradley Golden to Marcus Roberts to John Jennings, among many others. Collectively, they come together to offer stories of suspense and murderous terror, and if the cover of the trade paperback is to be believed, a few zombies make an appearance as well.
Golden created the horror company Second Sight Publishing in 2016, and he and Roberts teamed up on the title Mississippi Zombie from Caliber Entertainment. They are the driving force behind Shook! Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with the two creatives to learn more details about the anthology. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How did this book project begin? What did day one look like?
MARCUS ROBERTS: The idea for the anthology came from conversations between John Jennings, Bradley Golden and I. John and I would speak frequently of our love of comics in general and horror specifically. John mentioned an idea for a horror magazine that he wanted to call Shook! Bradley and I had been talking about putting an anthology together and bringing some of the top writers in comics together to accomplish this. We envisioned [getting] together a “Dream Team” and publishing the book. We invited John to participate, and with him came the title for the anthology.
BRADLEY GOLDEN: Day one for Shook! began a little over a year ago when me and COO Marcus Roberts were putting Mississippi Zombie together for Caliber Entertainment. We asked each other, what would it be like if we got all of the top Black talent in the industry on one title. How groundbreaking would that be for Second Sight Publishing and the industry.
How did Kickstarter and the fans help make this project possible?
ROBERTS: We were able to fund the project with the help of Kickstarter and the fans. It would not have been possible to get the book where it is without either.
GOLDEN: Launching this series on Kickstarter was very important and instrumental to making Shook! A Black Horror Anthology a reality. The fans support for this has been through the roof. We can’t thank them enough. Without Kickstarter and the fans, this would not have happened. Period.
How did you choose the tales and the authors?
ROBERTS: We pretty much looked at some of the current horror titles and asked the writers behind the stories. It helped that we knew the guys. When you are working with the level of people we were working with, you turn them loose and let them do what they do!
GOLDEN: Naturally we reached out to top talent like Rodney Barnes, John Jennings, Kevin Grevioux and others about joining the project and telling the stories they would want to tell. Surprisingly everyone said yes. They knew about Second Sight Publishing and our many horror titles and were impressed. They definitely wanted to join the anthology, which was awesome.
Although the stories are all part of the horror genre, do they jump around from serious to comedic?
ROBERTS: Yes, the range of storytelling encompasses everything from the gory and gruesome to the satirical and absurd.
GOLDEN: Most of the stories do jump around from sci-fi, apocalyptic, historical and others. There are a few that have a comedic feel to them, but most of them are serious in tone.
Are the tales in separate worlds, or is there a crossover / framing device?
ROBERTS: Each tale stands on its own. There was no theme or anything given to the writers. They were allowed to tell the stories they wanted to tell.
GOLDEN: Each tale is in their own worlds, so no crossovers here.
How important is it to have diverse, independent voices represented in comics and graphic novels?
ROBERTS: Very important. The horror experience is one that is universal and not formulaic. Being able to tell stories without someone forcing a filter on them as the Comics Code Authority once did or having to answer to a “parent company” to get corporate approval as these companies owned by corporations is the greatest strength of the independent publisher.
GOLDEN: I think it’s very important to have different voices in graphic novels. Not everyone loves the sci-fi tales or the post-apocalyptic horror or the horror that’s a little true to home, as I like to say, about AIDS and other illnesses that causes a lot of death. I believe having different voices gives a little bit of everything to a lot of different readers.
What was your gateway into the horror genre? Scary comics? Horror movies?
ROBERTS: Scary comics was my introduction. I came up reading the old Warren Publishing comics during the underground comix movement along with titles from DC like House of Mystery and Weird War Stories, and from Marvel like Chamber of Chills and Tower of Shadows. I also watched my share of horror movies, with Phantasm being my all-time favorite.
GOLDEN: I got into horror very, very young. I mainly watched a lot — I mean, an unhealthy amount — of horror movies growing up, mainstays like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th to B-movies like The House or The Gate! I try to bring that old-school movie feel to all the stories I write for the company as well.
What’s your favorite horror anthology (any medium)? Other than Shook! of course.
ROBERTS: A toss-up between The Haunt of Fear, Tales from the Crypt, The Crypt of Terror, Eerie and Creepy.
GOLDEN: My favorite horror anthologies: Tales from the Crypt, Freakshow, and Faces of Death movies.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Shook! A Black Horror Anthology will be released Jan. 31 by Dark Horse. Click here for more information.
