There's different kinds of evil. What I'll be talking about here is creepy evil...the kind that gets under your skin and makes you almost nauseous to think about. Creepy evil was all over kids media in the 80s and 90s. It was an intellectual fad in the publishing industry.
That was the era when horror novels were big sellers and Stephen King was a household name. Amazingly PHDs in the book biz felt they had to bring that sensibility to little kids. Even Maurice Sendak bought into the idea. Sendak's a terrific artist but you have to wonder what he was thinking when he did the book above.
Evil kids media was all the rage. Here's (above) an award winning book by Chris Van Allsburg. The cover looks like something out of "The Shining." And what is that medallion on the cover? Good Grief, did this get a Newberry Award?
I guess you could argue that creepy horror always had a toehold in kids media. When I was a kid I used to watch a puppet show called "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" (above). Yikes! They looked like something out of Hieronymus Bosch. Kukla, the round guy, was especially horrific. I can't tell you how many unsettling dreams he inspired. Watch out, I think he's giving the camera the Evil Eye!
But who am I to lecture? I did "Tales of Worm Paranoia" which was as creepy as anything else.
There's different kinds of evil. What I'll be talking about here is creepy evil...the kind that gets under your skin and makes you almost nauseous to think about. Creepy evil was all over kids media in the 80s and 90s. It was an intellectual fad in the publishing industry.
That was the era when horror novels were big sellers and Stephen King was a household name. Amazingly PHDs in the book biz felt they had to bring that sensibility to little kids. Even Maurice Sendak bought into the idea. Sendak's a terrific artist but you have to wonder what he was thinking when he did the book above.
Evil kids media was all the rage. Here's (above) an award winning book by Chris Van Allsburg. The cover looks like something out of "The Shining." And what is that medallion on the cover? Good Grief, did this get a Newberry Award?
I guess you could argue that creepy horror always had a toehold in kids media. When I was a kid I used to watch a puppet show called "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" (above). Yikes! They looked like something out of Hieronymus Bosch. Kukla, the round guy, was especially horrific. I can't tell you how many unsettling dreams he inspired. Watch out, I think he's giving the camera the Evil Eye!
But who am I to lecture? I did "Tales of Worm Paranoia" which was as creepy as anything else.
