With my new horror anthology, Behind the Shadows on the way, I’m not laying on my duff. I am already on the fifth chapter of my next horror novel which I am already proud of, since TJ and I began fleshing it out on our honeymoon.

Back to Behind the Shadows, however, I would have to say it came from a combination of Bram Stoker, Twilight Zone, our weekly Saturday night “Ghost Host” theater on Baltimore UHF Channel 45, EC horror comics from the 1950s and a near lifetime burrowed into Stephen King’s works.

Creepshow, especially, which you can see my passion for here, including the film, John Harrison’s jangly synth score, a first print edition of King’s graphic novel collaborated with comics master, Berni Wrightson and Japanese t-shirt. That film poster you see in many of my office photos is an authentic original, scored decades ago through an old Gore Zone ad.

I was 12 when the movie came out and those in my area who remember Golden Ring Mall will attest to the wild positioning of the movie theater, spread over two levels and on opposite ends of the mall. This poster hung not only in the multiple movie lobbies, but inside a pizza shop across from Kay-Bee Toys. I will never forget gnawing on pizza slices staring intently upon the Creepshow poster while my family jawed over their own concerns. Mine was getting to see this film at all costs. That entire moment and the eventual viewing of the movie two years later was invaluable fuel to telling my stories in Behind the Shadows.

The Creepshow sequels, revival t.v. show and comics series are all fun, but nothing matches that first encounter with a decapitated head cake, eating machine monsters in crates, an army of roaches, a truly frightening drowning revenge arc and of course, “meteor shit.” Creepshow was an unapologetic love letter to the EC classics and it becomes even more apparent as I’ve been pounding through those old horror and suspense reprints.

Strapping on the Creep once again hoping the same mojo spills into my current story.

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.