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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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 had a foster child whose fear of nighttime monsters approached yours in severity. He seemed tormented at the thought of going to bed each night. He was too old or too savvy for "tricks" to work. Of course, I set him up with a psychologist, which didn't help (at least with that issue). My husband and I took shifts so we could get some sleep, but the poor child was still left fighting the monsters on his own, since we couldn't see them. Finally, I brought in one of my dogs, a big shepherd mix, to sleep right on his bed with him. It's the only thing that brought him comfort and rest. Since dogs really do spot danger before us, and really will fight to protect us from even the worst monsters, it was no trick, and the child knew that, and slept. He was later sent to live with a distant family member, (breaking my heart for the thousandth time), and I'll always wonder whether the monsters found him again in his new home. I hope not, and I hope they had a big dog.
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His FOOT!! It could just.....hang!!! And that would be the end. Tuck. It. In.
HaHa, he won't have a foot to tuck in the next night if he doesn't tuck it in NOW.
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This reminds me of a silly Tweet I read recently. Basically it was a person lying in bed, one foot hanging off the side but it was covered by a blanket. There are two monsters under the bed and one goes to reach for the foot, but the other monster stops him and says something like, No, you must honor the blanket.
And then The Grudge 2 comes along and messes up the whole "safe under the blanket" thing. I won't spoil it but I didn't sleep without ALL the lights on for days after watching that!!
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There were crocodiles under my childhood bed, and I had to leap from the bed through the door to go to the bathroom at night for years.
"When she spoke, I knew that death had driven her insane. "Give me that," she hissed. "It's my dust-catcher." She snatched it out of my hand before I could offer it to her. For a moment our fingers touched, and hers were as cold as twigs after a frost. She opened the book to her place, the playing card fluttering out, and placed Somerset Maugham over her face -- a shroud of words. As she crossed her hands on her bosom and lay still, I realized she was wearing the blue dress I had buried her in. She had come out of her grave to hide under our bed." (Bag of Bones, Stephen King)
BOTH feet under the covers. Take no chances! I learned this from Stephen King.
I'm laying on my bed right now, and now I'm afraid to get up. I've always had a fear of what could be hidden under my bed since some of these things are DEFIANTLY real. But this is probably the scariest. I know there's a little girl in my room. A ghost, obviously. She's left notes saying how it's her room and she wants me to get out. I never reply to the notes and sometimes, when I come home from school, I find something destroyed like a picture/drawing or a book. I've learned that, if I want to keep my things alive, unlike the ghost girl, that I should write back.
My rules: 1.)NEVER sleep in houses where somebody died. 1.)NEVER EVER EVER sleep in the dead person's ROOM
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
