The Ring meets Empire Records in THE NASTY, a coming-of-age horror story splattered with dark comedy, as a group of horror movie-loving teens bites off more than they can handle when the most sought-after video nasty ever slips through their fingers, and they are forced to film their own video nasty slasher movie - where evil, screams, and nightmares bleed into reality. Keep telling yourself: "It's Only a Movie. It's ONLY a Movie! IT'S ONLY A MOVIE!!!
Isn't it? CALLING ALL SCARY MOVIE FANS!
MACABRE MAYHEM! SATANIC PANIC! Scotland, 1994.
Eighteen-year-old Graeme "Thumper" Connell still has an imaginary friend: the masked killer from his favorite slasher film. Thumper is obsessed with horror and always has been. He fills his time with scary VHS rentals and hanging out with his friends and fellow fans, The Murder Club. But everything changes when his local video shop acquires one of the notorious films known as "video nasties" -- films so scary they're the target of the British Moral Decency League's crusade to ban and burn.
But it's only a movie, right?
It's all just imaginary, isn't it? The Nasty is a story about the perception of evil, the power of genre, the love of fandom, the need to create art, oh, and crap-your-pants TERROR! Become a bonafide member of The Murder Club: pick up this book! For fans of Stranger Things, Stand By Me, IT, The Monster Squad, Donnie Darko, Empire Records, My Best Friend's Exorcism (Grady Hendrix), Silver Nitrate (Silvia Moreno-Garcia), Horror Movie (Paul Tremblay) and other books by Grady Hendrix, fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, Little Monsters (Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen), The Closet (James Tynion IV), The Me You Love in the Dark (Skottie Young & Jorge Corona), Giant Days, Afterlife With Archie, Killadelphia (Rodney Barnes & Jason Shawn Alexander), and Proctor Valley Road. PRAISE FOR THE NASTY "... dips slyly into the politics of censorship, and celebrates the passionate community that comes from rebelling against it." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "... a perfect blend of history, heart, and kitsch." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) Horror Comics To Watch For in 2023 - Fangoria "This rollicking dark comedy...brings Britain's 1980s "video nasty" moral panic into the spotlight in a delightfully updated way." -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "There is no other title I have been more excited about than this because it is a love letter to horror while tackling the conservatism we are seeing rise in pop culture today..." - Fangoria "If you're a fan of slasher movies, creative plot twists, and 90s nostalgia, you need The Nasty in your life." -- You Promised Me Comics "The Nasty is a bloody valentine to slashers and the outsiders who love them."- AIPT "A blood-splattered love letter to VHS and horror. " -- Dave Scheidt (Avatar The Last Airbender, Adventure Time, Mayor Good Boy) "This is an over the top kind of story..., and it makes the horror FUN!" - Big Comic Page "The Nasty is a love letter to slasher flicks and a generation of kids who loved them. Tender, funny, surprising, endearing, with an emerging horrific twist. We had Faces of Death as the taboo underground horror tape that was whispered about but it wasn't cursed. The Nasty takes a fun nostalgic trip down memory lane and elevates it to a new level of horror. - Lotusland Comics "The Nasty is a wholesome horror romp... pay(ing) homage to horror classics." - Jake's Take Horror Journal "Everything about this story is pumped full of nostalgia and slasher movie goodness that will keep the pages turning so quickly that you might just burn a hole in the comic." - You Promised Me Comics