Rationally, I don't believe in ghosts; I've never seen one, and I don't believe I ever will. But there's enough residual belief that a good ghost story (like the ones in The Sixth Sense or Poltergeist) can give me nightmares. The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings doesn't quite get to that point, but it did give me a touch of the willies, which is a good sign for a horror anthology, and even better, it's a solid production by impressive talent. Every story here, save perhaps one prose tale that feels a bit long in the tooth, had my attention from beginning to end, and the quality of the stories and the production values are such that I can hold this up as proof that the anthology concept can work, and work well, in comics.
I might quibble a little with the arrangement of the stories. Scott Allie's interview with seance medium L.L. Dreller is fascinating, and Dreller's belief and stories on the subject of ghosts and spirits are convincing enough to kind of unsettle even a relative skeptic like myself. As such, it would have seemed only natural to put this mood-setting piece right up-front, as a lead-in to the spooky fictional stories. By the same token, the prose story of Perceval Landon should probably have closed out the book, because I honestly felt it a bit hard to slog through when I knew that there were great comics by familiar talents awaiting me as soon as I finished it. Had it been more of an after-dinner mint, a spooky little bit of period fiction to finish off a fine meal of comics goodness, I think I would have been much more patient in my reading of it.
Of course, then I might not have left the book with quite as much of a positive feeling, because my favorite story is actually the last one, the story of a haunted dog house by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. Thompson's painted artwork is beautiful as always, and for a dog lover like myself, the notion of a group of dogs handling a haunting on their own has a definite appeal. Dorkin plays the subject matter fairly straight, letting the humor come from the characters rather than from a "dogs playing poker" sort of stance, and the result is a very interesting tale that has a sad tone to its climax but comes up with a happy ending, and manages to contain a bit of the spook factor as well.
It's interesting that I'm a little spooked by the Book of Hauntings, because really, the spirits we see here are for the most part pretty benevolent. Randy Stradley and Paul Chadwick tell a tale of a genial ghost who just wants some acceptance, but perhaps the fear there comes from the young having to accept the notion of death, not to mention the creepy visual that we probably all grew up on, the fear of looking in our closet in the middle of the night and seeing someone there. And certainly the Devil's Footprints tale has an unusual take on spirits, with a great twist ending that made me laugh out loud.
Then again, some of the tales are about more malevolent spirits. Though there's no physical harm done in the tale of the haunted house in Freewater and Marangon's "House on the Corner," there is a definite hostility to the ghost that we see. And the unseen force that refuses to release anyone who crosses its threshold in "Gone" certainly carries a malevolent vibe, although I admit I felt a little cheated that we never got to see what was happening in the house. Then there's the tale that doesn't really involve spirits but instead a magical curse, the story of a cursed tattoo in "Forever" by Uli Oesterle. Given that the protagonist pretty much seemed to deserve what he was getting, I didn't find this one so much spooky as I did just a satisfying read.
Finally, we come to what will no doubt be the big attraction of this book for most, the only Mike Mignola Hellboy story this year. It's entertaining more than spooky as well, a neat little short that makes for a fun if somewhat empty calorie type of story, and it features the kind of artwork that makes me doubt my sanity in ever thinking that I wasn't a fan of Mignola's artwork.
