These illustrations are an exploration of the horror genre in comic books/ graphic novels. I wanted to look at the line between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the comfortable and the uncomfortable. It is almost like taking something that is seemingly innocent and perverting it. It is the use of familiarity that makes the situation so much more insidious. My intention is to make the audience unsettled through the medium of graphic novels. I looked at the works of acclaimed horror mangaka Junji Ito, particularly his use of texture and pen strokes in creating truly terrifying illustrations.
The Plot:
A young boy gets glasses for the first time; however there is something wrong with them. They warp the viewer’s vision and show the world in a horrifying, gruesome manner, in a way that seems extremely real. Here the familiarity comes from the glasses- a very normal and regular object. The glasses act as a physical “edge” between the known and the unknown in this case.
Storyboard:
