Joe Hill is not the writer's real name. Born Joseph King, Hill is a member of the acclaimed King family of writers. That's right, Stephen King is Joe Hill's papa! Hill is an abbreviation of his middle name, Hillström, as well as an off-tribute to his love of comic books as Joe Chill is the man who killed Batman's parents. Wanting to make a name for himself based on his own works and not the gravitas of the King family moniker, it was a struggle to get the attention of even the smallest of publishers.
20th Century Ghosts is a reflection of Joe Hill's evolution from relative unknown writer to award winning author. No less than 2 stories in this collection have been adapted into films. Love the growing horror franchise of 'The Black Phone'? The short story that gave birth to those Ethan Hawke led thrillers is here. A couple more were adapted into comic books. This was an amazing collection where just about every story was a masterpiece.
I've got 2 favorites: 'Pop Art 'and the title story of this collection are tied for first. 'Pop Art' is about an unusual friendship between a lonely young boy and his best friend Arthur, a living child made of inflatable plastic! '20th Century Ghost' is a sweeping epic love story to the silver screen in which a small time movie theater is haunted by the ghost of a young cinephile.
Other notable tales that I really, really liked was 'Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead', an ersatz high school reunion between 2 former love birds setting in the Monroeville Mall during the filming of the George Romero classic Dawn of the Dead! It was a new addition to this anniversary edition. 'Best New Fiction' sees a struggling literary review editor looking for the next thing in horror fiction. I both loved and was similarly creeped out by the Tales From the Darkside level ending.
'Abraham's Boys' tells of 2 boys whose demanding father reveals his secretive past. 'Voluntary Committal' was a trippy adventure about a spectrum child and his creative process that has an unforgettable ending on par with Richard Bachman's 'The Long Walk'. In 'The Cape', a previously unpublished work, I found myself rooting for the bad guy! That's how freaking amazing a writer Joe Hill is!
I can't forget 'Last Breath' about a family that visits a museum that displays the last gasps of both the world famous and the common man. Another new addition to this book, it's a quirky story on par with another 90s horror anthology series I grew up with, Monsters, as the tongue is definitely in cheek with this clever episode.
The one story that I wasn't such a fan of was 'My Father's Mask'. It starts off with tremendous intrigue as a family sneaks away with their son in the dead of night, supposedly trailed by a mysterious cadre. However, things go downhill the next morning when the boy awakens. The suspense molds into some bizarre S&M Oedipal fantasy with nearly nude parents wearing domino masks. By the time this story ends, readers encounter a cherubic lad riding a bike in a nightgown and an unusual round of cards. Oh, and questions. A whole lot of questions. I went online afterwards in hopes of getting some answers about how the story ends. Turns out I wasn't the only one confused by it. Yet it seemed after getting responses from several so-called 'experts', I became even more confused about the symbolism and wasn't really sure what the hell I had just read.
1 dud out of 17. Terrible odds if you were a manufacturer of hand grenades. But for entertainment purposes, that's pretty good. If it's coming from Joe Hill, I'd take those odds any day.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars
