Something at the Window is Scratching

by Roman Dirge, Roman Dirge (Illustrator)

Overview

A collection of short poems all telling macabre and twisted tales for children of all ages. 

As Roman Dirge, creator, author and artist of LENORE: THE CUTE LITTLE DEAD GIRL describes it, 'This is collection of children's tales for disturbed Children.' From serious sinister one page poems like, 'Critter Pie' and 'Pear Head Man and Bread Boy' to longer stories such as 'The Sideways Man' and the title story, 'Something at My Window is Scratching'. This is Roman at his most macabre best, short stories with creepy stings in their tales. This collection has been recoloured by Roman Dirge approved artist, Adam Bolton who also recoloured Roman's other non-Lenore book, Cat With The Really Big Head.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782763499
Publisher:	Titan
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Roman Dirge created Lenore in 1992 for the San Diego alternative magazine Xenophobe. In 1997 he launched the Lenore comic in the US, which quickly became a publishing phenomenon. In 2009, Titan Books started publishing the new collections in full-colour. Currently Roman is working on issue #11 of the ongoing comic, as well as an all-new book called, I Can Count to Ten as well as an exciting new animated kids show for Nickelodeon.

Table of Contents

	The coo coo lady	8
	Critter pie	16
	The sideways man	18
	Something at the window is scratching	30
	Mister seephis	52
	Little lisa loverbumbs	54
	Pete the pirate squid	58
	The ghost in the spider	60
	Pear headed man and bread boy	68
	The alien ballerina	70
	The bunny came back	72
	The captain	84
	Devil bunny	86
	The reindeer and the bumblebee	88
	Weird family, weird baby	96
	Flypaper	98
	Dance of the bedbugs	100
	Boodini and choobie	108
	The guy with a thing on his head	110
	Eddie poe	112

Editorial Reviews

"I like the way Roman Dirge draws stuff!" - Neil Gaiman

"An unholy union betweem Tim Burton and Dr. Seuss!" - LA Times

“If you can put at least three ticks next to these five options of: Spike Milligan, Roald Dahl, Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, then you can happily read this book” - Flickering Myth 

“Dirge has managed to maintain that lunacy; that firm grasp on childlike celebration of the wonderfully weird, and has given readers a fantastic journey into the depths of it.” - Geekmom

"This hardcover edition has a solid binding, glossy pages that highlight the illustrations, and features a cute, if slightly creepy, cover. While definitely not a book for everyone – and one that many may find more disturbing than charming – dark humored individuals may want to take a look, and fans of Lenore will want to get their hands on this colorful and creepy collection." -  Portland Book Review

From the Publisher

01/01/2016
Gr 7 Up—First published in the United States and Canada in comic book format (Slave Labor Graphics, 1998), this collection of darkly humorous poetry is written in a carelessly rhymed style and accompanies the bizarre—often grotesque—art that has made Dirge's "Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl" series (Slave Labor Graphics) a cult favorite. The tone is macabre, and the use of purposely unsynchronized words is jarring. Here, a reindeer and a bumblebee consummate their love with a kiss that accidentally causes the bee to sting, ripping out the insides and killing the allergic reindeer. A bear discovers bedbugs that eat him when he falls asleep. Eddie Poe, who greatly resembles the famous poet, loves pumpkins so much that he turns into one while visiting the pumpkin patch, and someone "who loved pumpkins/in a different way/…made him into a yummy pie." Dirge's artwork features a Frankenstein-like chef cooking up a "critter pie," a dough-headed vampire who "liked to take pictures/of all his victims/as they died," and a girl who walks into the sea and just floats away. VERDICT Dirge's ghoulish sensibility will appeal to teens and adults who have retained a child's appreciation for that deliciously disturbing sort of nonsense once provided by scary stories told in the dark at sleepovers.—Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, OH

School Library Journal