Small town terror makes for the best scary stories. To my everlasting horror I’ve lived in Utah my whole life. I know, I know, I feel bad for me too, but it couldn’t be helped. One of the odd parts of this state and I suspect every other states are these teeny tiny little postage sized towns scattered here and there around the state. Whenever I drive through one of these places I can’t help but wonder…. What dark purpose holds them captive to this cursed land? What manner of twisted soul would willingly choose to remain in this blighted hellhole when light and life are a mere half an hour away. Small Town Terror is a perfect setting for nightmares and madness.
That thought is immediately followed by the knowledge that my Wife is from one of these small towns…. Suddenly a great many horrifying things make sense. (Small Town Terror indeed… I’m scared now!)
This is also when I realize I read too much H.P. Lovecraft. I can’t help but picture, debased townsfolk, cults, and dark and ancient secrets from these horrifying small towns. It’s in the writings of some of my favorite horror authors that they will just make up a small town as a setting to have all manner of evil happen. H.P. Lovecraft has Innsmouth and Arkham, Steven King has Castlerock and Derry.
For my comic I haven’t really written much about where my zombie characters “live.” To be honest when I started the comic I didn’t care, I just wanted an excuse to keep drawing. Now that I’ve been doing this for a while my characters are feeling more real to me (The start of my madness perhaps) and I start wanting to know more about them and where they live. When I get done with the current road trip storyline maybe I’ll take some time and flesh the place out. I like the idea of a little bit of world building for my comic.
Utah huh … nothing to the preconceived ideas of the state I live in – West Virginia. Trying driving through some of the small towns in our state. You lose finger and toes just thinking about it.
Here in Missouri pronounced Misery, we call them you blink and you miss them towns. My town has a population of 4,000 and we share our high school with an even smaller town.
Having been to both places I have to agree with Stupid. WV’s small towns are MUCH more terrifying than Utah’s. Just not as dry…
Try driving through Aurora when you get back. You can see the hungry residents pressed against their windows hoping your car stalls. And if it does the whole town runs out the door, forks and knives at the ready, screaming MEAT! MEAT!! MEAT!!!
It’s a little intimidating to say the least.
I dont know… there are some places in utah out in the desert where no one can hear you scream
Wait a second that sound a bit too much like speaking from experience. CONFESS!
While they are in the area, they need to visit Collinsport. His ex could get some pointers.