When you were a kid you were afraid of the dark because of monsters lurking in the shadows, well Irish illustrator Brian Coldrick has cast these creatures as the stars of his ongoing webcomic and book "Behind You: One-Shot horror stories." Each of the cool drawings is a beautiful and haunting one-panel illustration that shows a monster hiding just in arms reach, along with darkly humorous one-sentence captions. The London-based artist states that although none of his short scary stories are direct adaptations of existing narratives, they do touch on "well-worn horror tropes."
Coldrick told Bored Panda that his inspiration for the series of creepy stories sprung from his love for horror films, books, and spooky internet stories. "Just before I started the series I'd been reading through some Creepy Pastas, the internet's version of spooky folktales, and also lots of horror stories of 'real life' supernatural encounters on sites like Reddit."
An illustrator since 2003, he began 'Behind You' in April 2015 and confessed it was partly borne as an attempt to tackle his laziness. "I had wanted to do a continuing webcomic for a while, but I was worried I'd lose interest after starting a story I thought if each installment was a snippet of different scary stories I could start each time afresh. It also had the great side effect of leaving much of the story to be decided by the reader. It's probably the main reason people enjoy these scary drawings."
With a style all his own, these murky pictures have a charm you can't ignore. The artist said he uses a hand pencil to create his characters but works with Photoshop to create the backgrounds, add texture, and make the animations. Although he has many artistic influences, (such as horror comics Junji Ito and Emily Carroll), he said GIF illustrators Rebecca Mock and Sachin Teng had a direct impact on his attempts to make his own illustrations move.
When it comes to Coldrick's creative process, the order can vary. "I almost always start with the image first but once or twice a phrase has popped into my head, and I've worked back from there. Rather than a coherent story, the first step is usually one element. In the early days of the series it might have been a desire to draw a particular kind of creepy monster, but later on, it's been the setting. A kitchen at night illuminated by a fridge light, or an escalator on the Underground. Sometimes it can be something darker like the loneliness, doubts or anxieties that emerge once no one else is around."
In addition to "Behind You," Coldrick draws editorial pieces, posters, book covers, and character designs. Check out some of his short horror stories from this quirky webcomic series below!
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Me: *Turns around* Hows it goin? Monster: ... Me: I don't know why I fukin bother.
My bedroom is down one hallway. When you walk from my bedroom and down into the hallway, the living room is to the right and the kitchen is right in front of you. The hallway continues to the front door, and there is a halfwall in between the little front door hallway and the part of the kitchen that has the refrigerator. When you open the fridge you are facing away from the front door. This always makes me nervous that something is slipping through the front door and hiding behind me when I get to to get a snack from the refrigerator at night.
Ack, now I'm going to remember this everytime I go down into the kitchen at night
So many of these remind me of "Fuan no Tane" (Seeds of Anxiety) by Masaaki Nakayama. I wonder if that's deliberate.
OHNMY GOD THAT"S SO BAD LORD JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY I HATE THAT JESUS CHRIST
Yes. We have milk and cookies. Wait there at the table and Ill serve you in a jiffy! Thank you kindly! said the monster as he waited for his midnight snack.
Reminds me of Pink Floyd...YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY PUDDING, UNTIL YOU EAT YOUR MEAT!!!
I am always afraid of hidden creatures under my bed, after spending thousands of bucks on psychologists an no avail, my friend who is a carpenter too, simply cut down the legs of my bed and now it sits on floor. I won a little battle with monsters, though when I travel it again becomes hard, I cant sleep on floor too as I keep looking beneath nearby beds. It has rotten my whole life. I started keeping small portable LED lights with me which brighten up the underneath of beds and that gives me some consolation when sleeping on floor.
I was a librarian before at school. One time, when I was on duty to look after the library, I was alone and I'm pretty sure no one was with me, since I lock the door, so I able to arrange the book to the bookshelf before any students come in. Then suddenly, I heard like someone was reading book at the table next to the bookshelf I'm arranging. Then I take a look, buy no one was there. I then the book at my back suddenly fall. I was shocked and at the same time I heard the same sounds again. I gradually get out of the library.
Ah yes, the tree-spider-wolf that has haunted the nightmares of so many...
Ah, so this is what the Wild Hunt is up to these days. Where's Ciri when you need her?
The only passenger left? There's a little kid and Pinocchio there too...
Note: this post originally had 94 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
This is one of the most beautiful and fascinating pages I've ever seen on here.
I didn't really find any of these "scary" but maybe I've gotten tough to scare. However, I did enjoy them - the art is really nice.
cause youll be scared out of your wits and probably have ghouls appear behind you
Load More Replies... It's the same "scary" thing 94 times...over and over. The art is nice, but there is no real scare factor or originality.
I just stopped at I guess 5th or 6th one, I already will be sleeping with lights on tonight! Why even I opened this thread :(
I didn’t listen, now I’m scared. But these are so goo! Superb artwork and chilling stories.
Wonderful artwork but if I wanna see horror stories I just look at the News, thats scary enough!
These are absolutely superb! Especially the animation ones some of which are incredibly subtle. You really have to watch and wait so you engage extremely well with each one, fantastic stuff of nightmares and awesome creativity 😱😍👍
Great, now I won't be able to sleep. Which is a good thing because I'm at work.
this is very creepy and fun in an Edward Gorey sort of way
You know, the second time I read through these (they're so good :D), I started imagining some of the creatures as benign or at least neutral. Instead of horrible monsters, they're like protective guardians, or tricksters who turn off the lights, or cursed people just looking for someone to help them. I'll admit, some are more difficult than others, but it puts a nice twist on things :)
So VERY cool! I love the short sentences too, the writing style reminds me of the game Braid for some reason. Excellent work!
Great artwork and atmosphere. Also I like the feeling that there is a whole story behind every picture.
I think Charles Addams would be proud someone got him. Nice job. I can barely look. Guess who's sleeping with the lights on tonight???
These remind me of an exceedingly creepy dream I had a couple of years ago. I guess it was brought on by left alone for a few days in the unfamiliar rented apartment I shared with my boyfriend (I've never lived alone), having an overactive imagination and being generally afraid of the dark. The place was in an old building, in a remote part of town and I was a little on edge as I went to bed. When the dream began, it felt very realistic - it was as if I had simply woken up and something was inside the apartment. I saw odd glimpses of shadows. I got up and went to the bathroom where I saw a weird "sigil" thing on the wall, drawn in blood. I knew I had to remove it - the shadows were using it to call a scarier being to us. I somehow removed it and then went back to bed. The moment I laid down I woke up for real and I realized it was just a dream. I slept uneventfully for the rest of the night though. Needless to say I was very happy when bf finally returned home.
The atmosphere in these reminds me of the gothic victorian ghost stories, absolutely splendid! O.O
This is one of the most beautiful and fascinating pages I've ever seen on here.
I didn't really find any of these "scary" but maybe I've gotten tough to scare. However, I did enjoy them - the art is really nice.
cause youll be scared out of your wits and probably have ghouls appear behind you
Load More Replies... It's the same "scary" thing 94 times...over and over. The art is nice, but there is no real scare factor or originality.
I just stopped at I guess 5th or 6th one, I already will be sleeping with lights on tonight! Why even I opened this thread :(
I didn’t listen, now I’m scared. But these are so goo! Superb artwork and chilling stories.
Wonderful artwork but if I wanna see horror stories I just look at the News, thats scary enough!
These are absolutely superb! Especially the animation ones some of which are incredibly subtle. You really have to watch and wait so you engage extremely well with each one, fantastic stuff of nightmares and awesome creativity 😱😍👍
Great, now I won't be able to sleep. Which is a good thing because I'm at work.
this is very creepy and fun in an Edward Gorey sort of way
You know, the second time I read through these (they're so good :D), I started imagining some of the creatures as benign or at least neutral. Instead of horrible monsters, they're like protective guardians, or tricksters who turn off the lights, or cursed people just looking for someone to help them. I'll admit, some are more difficult than others, but it puts a nice twist on things :)
So VERY cool! I love the short sentences too, the writing style reminds me of the game Braid for some reason. Excellent work!
Great artwork and atmosphere. Also I like the feeling that there is a whole story behind every picture.
I think Charles Addams would be proud someone got him. Nice job. I can barely look. Guess who's sleeping with the lights on tonight???
These remind me of an exceedingly creepy dream I had a couple of years ago. I guess it was brought on by left alone for a few days in the unfamiliar rented apartment I shared with my boyfriend (I've never lived alone), having an overactive imagination and being generally afraid of the dark. The place was in an old building, in a remote part of town and I was a little on edge as I went to bed. When the dream began, it felt very realistic - it was as if I had simply woken up and something was inside the apartment. I saw odd glimpses of shadows. I got up and went to the bathroom where I saw a weird "sigil" thing on the wall, drawn in blood. I knew I had to remove it - the shadows were using it to call a scarier being to us. I somehow removed it and then went back to bed. The moment I laid down I woke up for real and I realized it was just a dream. I slept uneventfully for the rest of the night though. Needless to say I was very happy when bf finally returned home.
The atmosphere in these reminds me of the gothic victorian ghost stories, absolutely splendid! O.O
