For the “30th Anniversary” edition of the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books, publisher Harper Collins got rid of all the awesome, creepy-as-shit original artwork by Stephen Gammell, and replaced it with lame, “family-friendly” stuff…
What?! How dare they!? Man, some of those illustrations are burned into my brain even now, and I haven’t read a Scary Story book since I was a kid. They were disquieting, distinctive, and perfect for scaring the piss out of everyone at sleepovers.
Granted, a lot of book series change artwork when they make new editions, but in this case, the artwork is kind of what made the stories at all effective. I don’t think children are going to look at these books with the same kind of horrified fascination. Shame.
WHAT THE FUCK. GAMMELL WAS A GOD SEATED AT A THRONE BUILT OUT OF TWISTED, MANGLED, DANCING CORPSES. HOW DARE THEY HOW DAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE THEY
I have such a serious sad right now.
