Pinpricks is published by Bughouse Comics. It is written and drawn by creator, Jason Pell.
Pinpricks is different from your regular graphic novel/comic format. Rather than one over-arching story, it is made up of a series of short stories with an illustration to go with them. Some of the stories are a full page, some are just a paragraph or two. But you are given the entire story in that short amount of text due to the picture that goes with it. That’s why we have pictures, after all – to speak the unspoken.
It is an eerie book. The stories are strange (in a good way) and none of them are related to another. The characters in each story are completely new, the subject matter changes as well. For example, there’s a story that involves Elder Gods but there is also a story about werewolves. Even though the stories have a tone of horror, some genuinely made me laugh at the end. Some ended ominously and made you think, but some were just funny. In that sort of morbid sense of humor kind of way. It’s balanced too, but it’s not an annoying, totally obvious pattern like every other story is funny, sometimes you go a few stories that are creepy and then bam! You suddenly hit a ridiculous one and laugh about it.
Jason Pell’s writing is fantastically dark, but his art is what truly takes it to the next level. The creatures, the people, the buildings that sprout tentacles and run away, all of these things range from beautiful to demented. Some illustrations are light, even colorful, they give you a small sense of hope for the poor soul you see in this book – then others are coated with shadows, made up of shades of black, white, and red, and the feeling of utter despair. They’re gorgeous in their terribleness.
Probably the strangest thing about the book though is that you find yourself relating to these weird tales. I did, at least. In a weird way, there were stories that I related to on an emotional level, which is odd because I’ve never encountered aliens or met a Siren, and yet I still understood what the character was feeling. Each story is unique and out of 101 stories, I’m sure there will be one where you find yourself feeling some kind of relation to. This is a book that reminds you that you are weird. That we are all weird, in some way or another. Maybe you’re reading this thinking how normal you are – but to me, that’d be incredibly weird. But there is nothing wrong with being weird because it makes you who you are.
One last thing, my favorite story is either page 21 or 104. This was actually a pretty hard decision to make, but I finally landed on those two as my favorites. Though, all of them are great in their different ways. If you’re a fan of horror, especially authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, and Edgar Allan Poe, then this is right up your alley.
Interested? You should be. Make sure you check out the Pinpricks Kickstarter and get your order in before time runs out:
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
