Read This Book Before You Go to Sleep

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland has always creeped the holy hell out of me. I first read it back in high school when I was on a Lovecraft bent and a friend suggested it. Being such a slim volume, it didn't take long to read. But when I finished it in the wee hours of the morning, I found myself glancing around at random shadows and flipping the lights on before I walked down the hallway on the way to bed. You know, for safety and stuff. *AHEM*

Anyway, this little book turned out to be one of the most disturbing, satisfying horror stories I'd ever read. When I found out a few years ago that Vertigo was due to publish an adapted version with art by Richard Corben, I came as close as a mild-mannered bookstore employee can to completely flipping out. I immediately got that sucker all pre-ordered up and when it came in I set aside a whole hour to read it. I'm happy to say I wasn't the least bit disappointed.

This adaptation has everything you could possibly want from a good horror story.

Creepy-ass mansion overlooking seemingly bottomless pit?

CHECK

Crazy unreliable narrator dude trapped in asylum?

CHECK

Scary-mean locals that don't take kindly to strangers?

CHECK

Forbidden ruins just outside of town?

CHECK

Journal from last dude who messed with unknown forces warning you that you're about to die but that you keep reading anyway?

CHECK

Crazy, naked, portentous dream?

CHECK

Happy, unsuspecting new homeowners?

CHECK

Half-glimpsed, shadowy beings?

CHECK

Believed to be doomed animal companion that shows up again at last minute to save his master's life?

CHECK

Hideous race of other-dimensional, subterranean pig-men?

CHECK

Barricade that probably won't hold?

CHECK

Prolonged and bloody siege followed by brief, false victory?

CHECK

An axe to the back of a porcine head?

CHUNK...er, I mean CHECK

Gateway to Hell?

CHECK

Ill-advised trip to the basement?

CHECK

Secret passageway that was probably sealed up for a pretty good reason?

CHECK

Sudden mood swing brought on by infected monster bite?

CHECK

An uncomfortable number of incest-laden panels?

CHECK

Yet another ill-advised trip, this time into the yawning cavern where all the evil stuff lives?

CHECK

Gory transformation scene?

CHECK

And we top all this off with a breathless escape followed immediately by

a horrible, bloody death via pig-monster.

from William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland adapted by Richard Corben and Simon Revelstroke with Lee Loughridge