“Think of all the Horrors that I promised you I’d bring….”
-The Amazing Devil
“Those Who Sleep” broke 10k+ subs on webtoon canvas! Im absolutely blown away
TWS is a supernatural/horror inspired webcomic about classic movie monsters, gothic horror, cryptids, folklore, vampires, and two unusual friends who are caught up in the middle of it.
I’ve watched “Dracula, The Musical” and it’s the first (out of five!) Wildhorn’s musical that didn’t make me cry – so, what the hell? I came here specially, for crying. Every musical before had at least one and most of the time two songs which squeezed a tear out of me, but here – nothing. Probably you just can’t make a thrilling musical out of such a boring book. By the way, reading the book (the first half of it, but still) helped me dearly to understand the plot, because otherwise, I’d probably be still wondering: “What the hell, there was a guy eating flies?”. Okay, they tried to make it a little more interesting than in the book, I would even say they tried to make a little more “Tanz der Vampire”-ish (this vampire musical appeared a few years earlier, so…) – (Spoilers!) they made Mina fall in love with the Count and him fall in love with her too so that he, not wanting the life of a vampire for her, asks her to kill him and she does and mourns him at the end. I checked – in the book, Harper and Quincey kill Dracula, and Mina was being a vampire and controlled by the count for a short time. By the way, getting back to the music, “The Heart is Slow to Learn” sounds so much like “His Eyes” and “Someone like you” (from “Jekyll and Hyde”) and “If I Could Fly” also sounds so familiar, but I can’t name a particular piece it reminds me of… Probably, I should stop listening to Wildhorn’s musicals for some time…
Gothic fiction is a genre that combines both horror and romance, two of my most favorite things. I’m currently trying to write a novel with gothic energy, but I realized, I didn’t actually know what a gothic novel entailed outside of social commentary and dark aesthetic, and what separated it from plain horror. After doing some research, here are the common elements you’ll find in a gothic novel.
The main character behind as a nice, decent person, but must ultimately face the monster within them. Gothic characters tend to be representative of own desires to go buck wild feral and release a “darkness” within. A prime example of this is Henry Jekyll from Jekyll and Hyde.
Gothic literature is about transformation, an element that is not necessary when writing straight horror.
In Gothic literature, the past haunts the present. Whether that’s a dark act or memory for the protagonist, or an actual literal ghost, there is always some form of a past the MC would rather forget.
Romance in goth lit is tragic or bittersweet. Also, general romanticism levels are through the roof. Nearing melodrama.
The drama of despair drives goth lit; violence and blood drives horror.
Heightened, almost melodramatic emotions.
A gloomy, decaying, or abandoned setting with an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. An old decaying mansion or estate is a popular location in goth lit.
Often features a prophecy, legend, or omen.
Often features supernatural or otherwise unexplainable events.
Turns out I have less gothic elements in my story than I thought, but now I know how I can fix it! Hopes this helps somebody else too!!
a haunted portrait commission for @librarianpigeon! i’ve got a couple slots for this kind of commission open this month, so hit me up via email if you want one (and don’t forget to back my haunted house artbook on kickstarter!)
