Fullmoon Stories
Story and Artwork by Johan Hoff
Dusk Comics
Release date August 29, 2011
Cover Price: $11.68

In today’s pop culture, when a story is branded as horror, one thinks of violent serial killers slashing people to bits or monsters chasing teenagers down by a creepy lake. While these elements certainly evoke terror, it is refreshing to see a more classic take on horror every once in a while. In Johan Hoff‘s Fullmoon Stories, the author has collected five short pieces of classically styled horror that have all the best elements of your favorite campfire fare.

In the first story, entitled “She Was Loved”, our mysterious narrator tells a tale of a love lost before it’s time, and the lengths a man would go to to see it restored. The masked narrator then takes us to the world of a lonely young woman who, after finding a companion in an odd place, finds herself doing something she never thought possible. An explorer gets more than he could have asked for in “Her Name Was Tragedy” after unrequited love for a member of his expedition is finally returned in a strange alternate reality. Through the narrator we also meet a projectionist who becomes obsessed with something he can’t explain, and the family of a young girl who has been keeping a terrible secret from her.

In all the stories, Hoff portrays supernatural events that attempt to warn as well as scare. A few of the stories have the kind of “Be Careful What You Wish For” endings that can be found in “The Twilight Zone” or “The Outer Limits”, but they don’t feel hackneyed or forced. Hoff’s usage of the never named narrator offers an outsiders perspective of the supernatural events, never commenting on or second guessing the protagonists. Though we are viewing the events through the eyes of someone else, the reader is never steered in a specific direction, and that’s just how the narrator would like it. When he does address the reader directly it is intended to have the reader pause for reflection and digest the story being told. It’s almost as though he takes pleasure in viewing your reaction, to see if you enjoy in their pitfalls as much as he does.

Hoff’s artwork is perfectly geared to send a chill up your spine while you watch the characters deal with the consequences of their actions. The effect of using each page as a large panel consisting of multiple scenes means that there is no break in the terror when things go awry. Each dark, beautifully crafted page is packed with as much ominous fun as possible.

Johan Hoff’s world of morality and the macabre is one that demands exploration. You should certainly seek it out, but be careful of what you might find!