Ghosts and Ruins

Just because Ben Catmull (Monster Parade) tweaks his gothic drawings and paired narratives for humor doesn’t mean there aren’t shivery chills aplenty in this gloriously nightmarish collection. The book trawls through several haunted houses, with each of the textured, full-page drawings facing a block of spooky or sarcastic story text. The first piece, “Drowned Shelley,” is the best, describing a house haunted by the ghost of a girl drowned by her drunken stepfather. It starts in sad horror (“Say her name 13 times while looking in the pond, and she will drown you in your sleep”) and works its way toward the comic (“Mispronounce her name... and she will kick you somewhere delicate at the stroke of midnight”). The effect of combining trancelike portent and giggles is reminiscent of both Edward Gorey and Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Catmull’s pieces are worth savoring, his dark-etched, black-and-white scratchboard-on-Masonite drawings so richly layered they almost seem to be in color. Elegantly evil, and a surefire bet for an early Halloween. (Aug.)