Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged:

An Unnerving Feeling Of Modern Dread…

Published Sat, 21 Oct 2017 09:00:30 -0500

Pat Shand & Ryan Fassett write…

Have you ever sat in the back of an Uber or Lyft, trying to keep calm as you wonder why your driver is taking you down an unfamiliar route? Have you ever read the comments on a YouTube video – or maybe even here at Bleeding Cool – and wondered if humanity is losing its empathy? Have you ever felt the creeping sensation that you're not alone as you lie awake in bed?

Some fears are eternal, while others fade with time. We're in a strange and divisive time now, and it seems that we're on the precipice of a shift in culture. It's not just the dawn of modern technology either – it goes deeper than that, and that is exactly what we want to explore in with our new graphic novel, Modern Dread.

Modern Dread is a horror anthology that turns today's anxieties into seven terrifying tales. We've pitched it as "Black Mirror meets Are You Afraid of the Dark" but the truth is that it's not about the horrors that new technology brings – instead, Modern Dread focuses on the quiet fears that we try to convince ourselves aren't real. With a mixture of timeless fears and modern anxieties, these stories pay homage to the horror of the past while paving way for a new, terrifying path. Our topics include:

Infected tattoos
Designer drugs with horrific side effects
Online harassment
Deranged drivers
Losing a child
And that ever-present fear that bridges both young and old… the fear of death

These stories are linked by a group of high school girls watching a horror movie marathon, which leads them to share tales of what terrifies them in the modern era… but as the night goes on, this story too takes a turn for the horrific.

We're currently Kickstarting Modern Dread, so we wanted to tell you a bit about our team. We're Pat Shand and Ryan Fassett and, together and separately, we've worked on comics and novels such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Destiny NY, Vampire Emmy, Van Helsing, Wonderland, and more. We co-plotted and compiled this anthology and are writing a few of the stories. We also have screenwriter LaToya Morgan (Shameless, AMC's Turn), comic book scribe Katy Rex (Jade Street Protection Services, Charmed), and horror writer Ryan Lynch (Tales of Terror) on board. These stories are illustrated by artists such as Larry Watts (Evil Dead 2), Chandra Free (God Machine), John Broglia, Olivia Pelaez, Thomas Boatwright, Fabio Ramacci, and more.

In addition to the book itself which features a frightening cover by Mike Capprotti, we have a beautiful variant by Romina Moranelli, prints, a pin, an original score, a trading card game exclusive to this campaign, and an opportunity to get drawn into the book and killed on the page – if that's your thing.