What's a Haunted House? (1/4)

 

What is a haunted house?

Like: What makes a haunted house haunted?

I guess a more important question I ask myself a lot is – how can I make one?

Other pertinent questions are:

What elements make up a haunted house in my conception of it?

What things formed that in me, what factors led to me going “oh, that belongs in a haunted house”?

How can I make my ideal Haunted House work in Lamentation of the Flame Princess?

Well – In my case I think I can isolate what makes a haunted house, or what makes something “spooky” – In my experiences, it is 100% from the books I read as a tiny child – why I was drawn to them I have no clue, but these books are what informed this ideal haunted house in my head.

I emphasize the I and My and Me because this is very much about how I imagine things - and all of what I talk about here is not the way it is or should be, it is the ideal in my head - and the one I want to express through creating and exploring the factors and expectations that those factors created.

So, this is not a series of posts intended to say that there is a correct way to make a haunted house - but to create or imagine a haunted house based on my own definition instead.

So – I will go ahead and tell you a little about my childhood for context -

I did not watch TV.

I did not listen to the radio.

I did not play with a neighborhood of kids.

So the media I did watch was media we (me and my brother) had files of, DVDs of, or the rare visit to family’s houses.

The music I listened to was all on CD, and all on a CD shelf – and lots of music had curse words on the back or surreal art on the front – Mellow Gold and The Mollusk stands out, oh, and Sailing the Sea of Cheese.

But for the most part, I listened to what I though was normal for a kid to listen to.

We listened to The Machinarium soundtrack, Paul Simon, Bebel Giberto, The Beatles, The Beastie Boys, Led Belly, Pete Seeger, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Flood and Apollo 18 – and a whole host of small strange mixes and one offs.

What I am getting at with these two examples was that I listened and watched what we had – and had no clue that anything was unusual – and because we had very few friends, there was never much to compare to – the friends we did have mostly came to our house, so these things became “normal”.

Now something we did have access to was the library, which we visited constantly – and as a result we were reading books nonstop.

The library would also have library booksales where they sold old, under-circulated, or excess books – so I own the physical copies of most of my favorite books from childhood as they inevitably left the library.

I also had access to a filing cabinet that had all of my Dad's AD&D and Rifts books, which I read a lot of.

My parents read to me and and my brother a lot, I can clearly remember my Dad tucking us in and reading the first chapter of Harry Potter to us, he also read Narnia to us - and my Mom constantly took us to the library and read to us - later on me and my mom would lay or sit on the couch and she would read Harry Potter to me, until I read stuff to myself.

I think I picked up reading so fast because my parents supported it and helped me read and made books available and let me read what I wanted.

School helped introduce me to lots of different things, but I was still very separate from everyone else – I am not sure if I have aspergers, or just some amount of regular autism – and I certainly have some level of ADHD – So I had lots of trouble concentrating, learning and just in general, a hard time fitting in with the other kids.

So I would crawl on the floor looking for staples and erasers and brads and pencil lead and beads and coins and anything else I could find – and would make little toys out of them, and I was just a general nuisance, not paying attention, reading and doodling, wanting to walk around or dig or look for trash or whatever else caught my attention.

The one area in school I excelled at was reading – I had/have terrible handwriting, am very slow with math, and am terrible when it comes to memory. I was rail thin, so P.E. was so-so - and I am musically untalented, so music class was boring and frustrating –  this resulted in the two places I wanted to be quickly becoming art class and the library – but I had to struggle through everything else to get there.

 I eventually got placed in “advanced” classes due to my reading ability at the age I was, and this led to learning about essays and neoligisms and lexicons and lots of “english” things – which helped me get better and better at reading, writing, and speaking.

So, I tell you all this to illustrate that Everything was confusing or abnormal except books – so they were the most important part of my life for a very long time, and really, up until today.

So: here are the the books I own that most factor into the ideas I have about Haunted Houses – I will talk a little about each one, and try to distill the individual qualities I think a Haunted House should possess – there will be a scan of the cover, and one scan that illustrates what is in the interior – then I will talk about it. They are nearly all children's books - with only a couple exceptions.

I will also mention other media I remember or have seen after those – with some pictures.

After that I will list the qualities that the books have - and try to apply/establish them in a game-able way - and will be using the qualities and information and ideal "Haunted House" to make rules that work for Lamentation of the Flame Princess, which has more than a couple haunted houses already - but I want there to be one of my own.

 

OK - In no particular order....

99½ Spooky Jokes, Riddles, & Nonsense by Holly Kowitt

This book is made on very cheap paper, and is a paperback - I distinctly remember staring at the cover quite a lot - and the interior illustrations are a lot less cool because they lack color.
The book has lots of puns and wordplay - all centering on "spooky" stuff, so I naturally ate it up.

Here is an example of the interior - 

Amphigorey by Edward Gorey

Oh man, what can be said of the master?
Ennui, bicycles, dead kids, urns, dolls, murderers and madpeople, bugs and cats and coats - old homes and ballet - the list goes on and on...
Edward Gorey has a extremely refined sense of what is playful, what is unnerving, what is black and white, what is creepy, what is composed -- somehow managing to run his work through all of these at once, and in doing so produced a unbelievable body of work that exemplifies the strange sense of "I won't be in this house forever, but it will sure feel like it".

Here is a beautiful example of a page - Amphigorey consisting of a collection of 15 books by Gorey -

Amphigorey Too By Edward Gorey

Another compilation of the many wonderful books of Gorey - this features more from the master, and more and more of what makes his work so distinct - spooky stuff presented in a decidedly unusual way.

Here, take a look for yourself -

Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey

Lastly, oh so ghastly, is the third compilation of Gorey's works - with more fascinating words and lines and subjects and motifs and formats, some in this book are more experimental and unusual than the previous two compilation books - 

Looking For Atlantis by Colin Thompson

Oh man, this book.

Me and my best friend in elementary school discovered this in the school library and read it every chance we got, whenever it was not checked-out by someone else.

About a million little details - objects crammed into every frame - beautiful colors and shapes - and a strange sense of loss as one looks through each page and the main character keeps on not finding Atlantis.

There is a grimy bathroom, a overstuffed kitchen, a insanely packed sailor's footlocker, a computer room, and one of my favorites - a crazy quilt -

What's Up in the Attic?  Written by Liza Alexander and illustrated by Tom Cooke

I don't really have to say that much - the art speaks for itself -

Moose head - Cobwebs - Weird Door - Lantern - Gramophone - Weird Wooden Animal - Dollhouse - Sea Chest - Opera Binoculars - Stained Glass in Two Places - Flashlight...

I read this book almost every visit to my Grandpa's house - they had a small toybox and a stack of books - and all were well-read by me and my brother.

There is so much to look at - and all of them are examples of old-ness which is one of the hallmarks of what makes a haunted house to me.

Belly Laughs! Written by Charles Keller and Illustrated by Ron Fritz

Puns - Lots of corny jokes - very cute and stylized drawings. I read this book pretty much every time I visited my Gran's house - it was in their library room.
Lots of them are "spooky" - even on the cover there's a mummy!
Here is one of the examples in the book of something "spooky"-

The Corpse   By Mike Mignola

My godfather is a library director, I think at the point that matters for this story he was a librarian - So when I was a little kid he would sometimes bring over books and comics and things that were taken out of circulation - he also told us tons and tons of stories, more about those later.

So The Corpse was one of the comics he gave us, me and my brother, and I read it many times.

It's perfect.

I am not gonna summarize it - I will simply say that it is full of creepy and spooky and old and interesting folklore - another part about it is it's conception - which informed it's creation heavily.

This particular comic was written in two page installments, because it was to appear in a catalogue in a serialized fashion - so every two pages have something happening - as a result the whole comic is full of visual and story interest - I consider it his best work, and so do a lot of others -

Make Yourself a Monster! A Book of Creepy Crafts Written by Kathy Ross and Illustrated by Sharon Hawkins Vargo

This is one of the books from my local childhood library, and I didn't buy it later on after it was taken out of circulation - my mom checked it out from the library, and my child self cut up some of the pages - so she had to just buy the library a new copy - and we kept the damaged one.

It has lots of crafts, I think I have only ever done one or two - but the art and instructions are fantastic, here, have a look for yourself -

Creepy Cuisine Written by  Lucy Monroe and Illustrated by Dianne O'Quinn Burke

Nasty spooky recipes - horrendous and garish creatures -wonderful art for everything inside.

This was one of the books in our home library, no clue where we got it.

I only think we cooked like one or two of the actual recipes, but I still read this book a lot.

I should make dead man's meatloaf this Halloween -

In a Dark, Dark Room Retold by Alvin Schwartz and Illustrated by Dirk Zimmer

The art is perfect, and in conjunction with the stories this book is one of the elite few that would freak out most kids - I read this over and over, checking it out at the local library - later on I found this beaten up copy at a large booksale - And have loved it just as much as when I was a kid ever since.

A severed head and long-ass teeth and dead men standing and dark rooms and scary pirates and little dead Jim and the ghost of John -

The Ghost's Dinner Written and Illustrated by Jacques Duquennoy

This is one from our home library - it is well-worn, well-read, and well-loved: I read this more times than a lot of other books we had - there is something just so perfect about it.

The colors and flat shapes, the space and composition of pages - and the theme and story are really good - and now that I am older I have been looking for copies of some of the other ghost books by the same author.

I find flat images beautiful, like illuminated manuscripts and maybe like Tintin counts, anything that is decidedly two-dimensional, so I often find my own drawings and paintings to be, ideally, super flat - a little like the art in the book -

Frank was a Monster who wanted to Dance Written and Illustrated by Keith Graves

This book was a gift from my godfather, and I love this author/artist - he has done some other books I love, but this was the one I owned - and I love the whole story - which involves body parts falling off and dancing!

Lots of cool details on every page, and another huge part of the book that is great and improves the whole feel of the story and the progression of it is that the artist also made the words into art - which adds a lot and is unusual -

A Ghost Named Fred Written by Nathaniel Benchley and Illustrated by Ben Shecter

This one is strange and dark and not that scary - but it sure does look like it is going to be scary - I bought it at a antique store - and love the art in it - the story is also interesting, involving lost gold and a lost kid + ghost looking for it in a old creaky house -

Spooky Stories for a Dark and Stormy Night Compiled by Alice Low and Illustrated by Gahan Wilson

This is maybe among my top ten books - The stories are scary, the art is exquisite, and I have read through this one many many times.

It was one we had in our home library - and some of the images/stories have just keep on bouncing around in my head - and I don't think they will ever leave.

"Taily-po, taily-po; Give me back my taily po!" -

 "Tilly, I'm in the hall." -

 "The hairy man is after you, for sure" -

  "It hurts your poor old Auntie's Eyes." - 

"It's the kiddies I'm here for. I sure love kiddies. We're going to be such good friends." -

"But dear Captain Murderer, I see no meat." - 

"BEWARE THE SENTINEL" - 

"rap rap rap" -

"SWINGING A BAT, SWINGING A BAT." - 

"Wh-what h-have y-y-y-you d-done w-with y-y-your g-g-g-golden arm?" - 

"Now we're safely locked in for the night." -

 

Gahan Wilson is one of my favorites, please please go google more of his art - it is the best of the best.

Flat color and clear contrast, unusual and interesting shapes, and it's all spooky and eerie and creepy and just so great - the dead Santa skeleton and vampire feeding bats on a park bench are some of my favorites, but this book has my favorite art of his -

OK, I have lots more books to showcase and talk about - So I am going to make this series of blogposts split into 4 posts - More to come soon!

There will be this post, two more posts with scans and info about the book, then a post that discusses what I have taken from each book and how to codify and gamify those things.

Thanks!


PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4