Mind's Eye Comics Pick!! -- Stuff of Nightmares #1

Stuff of Nightmares #1, Boom Studios

Written By: R.L. Stine

Art By: A.L. Kaplan

With the calendar about to turn to Fall, the spooky season is fully upon us, and a few great spooky comics came out this week. Here, we have R.L. Stine, of Goosebumps fame, writing a more mature, adult themed horror book. Illustrated by A.L. Kaplan, Stuff of Nightmares clearly takes inspiration from Tales From The Crypt or Creepshow, with a ghoulish narrator setting the stage for a horror anthology. In this case, the narrator is simply known as The Nightmare Keeper, a collector of curiosities and the macabre. After setting the stage, he begins his tale of the Cameron Brothers, ghoulish scientists who have been collecting body parts for experiments in their hidden lab on a stretch of lonely beach in Cape Cod. Assisted by Stella, the two mad scientists have created life, stumbled upon later by a couple on the nearby beach, who hear screams coming from the isolated home, and who intrude on the unsuspecting brothers.

Between the set-up with a very Crypt-keeper like narrator, the amusing side bar about the well preserved hand of William Seward, and the well-paced unfolding of the main story, R.L. Stine hits a home run here, as far as I’m concerned. The tension builds from the start, as a delivery driver stumbles on the lab and goes missing, the acquisition of body parts via Stella, and then the screams heard by the couple on the beach, one of whom is a reporter. When the brothers trap the couple in the house, things escalate in unexpected ways and continue to build the tension. As a fan of all things horror, I’m beyond excited for books like Stuff of Nightmares (and the new Creepshow, also on sale this week), and to see where it goes next. It was great to see R.L. Stine, an author I grew up with in the Goosebumps era, write a story geared at a more adult and mature audience as well. If you want to get your spooky on, this is a great place to start!