You Approach A Dark Manor
Artzine, Trevor Henderson and Tait Howard (editors), 64 pgs, etsy.com/listing/250435320/you-approach-a-dark-manor, $10
You Approach A Dark Manor is quite possibly the world’s first-ever haunted house compilation zine. Released last Halloween, it features the work of 60 different artists. Editors Trevor Henderson and Tait Howard assigned each of these artists a room in the house, and they submitted their depiction as a black-and-white illustration. The results range from Jordan Rosenberg’s sweet geometric foyer to Mary Verhoeven’s drawing of an unnamed creature lurking in the crawl space. It’s interesting that such a wide range of drawings are possible without any one work drawing on the same scary house trope. I’m also very impressed by how refreshing each new illustration feels even though they’re all using the same theme and colour palette. The dark manor is full of surprises, but in the zine it’s generally more exciting (rather than scary) to find what’s around the corner. On a side note, I also love the quality of the zine itself, with its smooth paper and thick cover. The inclusion of links to every artist’s Tumblr page at the end of the zine – something which some collaborative zines often opt out of – is also really useful. This is a really impressive work and I’m can’t wait for part 2. (Rachel Davies)