Dave McCluskey

Picture the scene.

It is dark, the nights are long and cold. It is past mid-winter on that long and lonely stretch of year easing away from Christmas, waiting for the light and warmth of spring to arrive.

A five year old boy lies in his single bed, the only light in the room is the thin shaft coming from his ajar door allowing in a weak light that barely scratches its way into the room.

His mum left the bathroom light on for him, she knows he has a fear of the dark, and she truly believes that she is doing him a kindness. But the light makes things worse.

It casts shadows everywhere.

He pulls his football emblazoned blankets up to his face, and his wide eyes blaze as they absorb the true horrors of his room.

He can hear the muffled strains of Quincy MD coming from downstairs, these sounds are less comforting than they should be. They should give him safety and comfort knowing his parents are still awake, but it merely proves to him that they are so far away. They are safe, downstairs in the Living room, sipping on a piping hot cup of freshly brewed tea, almost a million miles away from the torments that are lurking… upstairs.

His eyes roam the room, he takes in the hideous form of his Millennium Falcon, and the wicked shadows that his AT-AT cast, anything could be lurking in those dark crevices. Something nasty, something scary… something hungry.

He forces his eyes to pass these once friendly play things and regard his wall at the foot of his bed. He and his father had spend a fantastic day picking out special transfers to stick on that wall, he remembers with longing and fondness the joy and the laughter they shared as the boy picked out all is favourite Muppet characters to adorn this wall.

It is all folly now. At the time he did not know what the word ‘luminous’ meant, but now he did. Oh yes, the terror of the word ‘luminous’ was now etched onto his heart.

Fozzy Bear glowed brightly, the hungry looking grizzly bear smiling a toothless grin at him. Zoot, a purple faced saxophone player holding his saxophone with malice, looking poised to strike at any moment glared at him in eerie green light. But worst of all, Gonzo. What was he? Was he even from this planet? His long crooked nose, much like a witch’s, pointed at him, the green glowing eyes seemed to follow his gaze, the sinister way his arms raised, in the daytime this was a comical pose as he was dressed in a leotard getting ready to jump into a safety net (that invariably wouldn’t be there), but here in the dark of the night it just reminded the boy that this monster should be dead, dead a thousand times over. What if Gonzo couldn’t be killed? What if he was in this very room now, waiting, ready to crawl out from under the bed, or the cupboard. No-one would be able to stop him, not even his mum and dad… If he could survive multiple high falls and being shot from a cannon, then what was a bus driver and a woman who worked in a biscuit factory going to be able to do?

The boy slowly slips his head under his blankets, he does not want his motion to bring any attention to himself from the legion of demons lurking in his room.

‘Sleep… sleep, I must go to sleep.” He thinks.

Then something happens, something so scary that he can feel his rapid heartbeat not only in his chest but in his head, his arms and legs too.

He tightens the covers over his head and prays that it will go away.

But it doesn’t.

“David…” The scratching, whispering voice calls to him. “Have you been a good boy?”

This was my introduction to horror. Yes, I was that that small boy, and all those things did actually happen to me. You see, I was in the unfortunate position of being six and nine years younger than my older sisters. They thought they were being nice to me, pretending to be Tinkerbell, allegedly an agent of Father Christmas, sent out to make sure that all the boys and girls had been good, so she could report back and he could make an informed decision about the Naughty List.

In time these same sisters got themselves boyfriends, and those boyfriends liked to watch horror films, so once again I would be lying in bed listening to chainsaws and girls screaming, and spooky music.

It is a wonder that I am such a horror fan today after that traumatic childhood.

But I am, and I am here with the guys from TheSlaughteredBird.com to tell you all about it.

I love horror, I love the suspense and the mystery of horror. Some of my favourite films are The Blair Witch Project and the first and original Nightmare On Elm Street.

Both of these films pray on basic instincts of horror, the first being lost and not knowing where to run to, and the second, most scary aspect of dreams. No-one can control their dreams, so what if someone, or something was able to access, and worse still, influence them? Scary stuff.

I love fantasy horror too, early Tim Burton is a major influence on me. He has a short, stop motion films out called Vincent. This films calls out to me in its beauty and simplicity, the way the boy sees horror in everything he dos as he strives to be like Vincent Price. Brilliant.

So, anyways, I write horror. Comics graphic novels and short stories mostly. I am the author of the Interesting Tymes series, a horror anthology that is written for kids, but has more than enough content in there to amuse and entertain the adults.

I also have a number of adult based horror graphic novels that will be available very soon, most notably a tale called Wooden Heart.

My website is www.dammaged.com and I am available on Facebook and Twitter to (@IntTymes and @dammaged_comics).

I am going to be writing a web based serial comic for this website, entitled Edward D’Ammage Presents… The first story I have commissioned will be entitled The Wedding. Keep a look out for it.

I will also be doing some reviews and a few editorials, I am really happy to be working along side these guys as we strive to keep up the quality of this fantastic website.

I also play in a bad and am a big football fan, although I am not telling you which side as I never mix my comics with football or politics… Sex and violence, yes but not football and politics.