Childhood trauma figures into a lot of urban legends and folk tales, but the more modern form of spooky stories plays specifically on the sort of shared cultural identities kids growing up in the age of television, films and video games have. One particularly effective (read: pant wetting) example is that of Candle Cove, a forgotten public access show that aired only in the Huntington-Ashland-Ironton metropolitan area of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio and was creepy as all heck. Like, it was all broken porcelain dolls chatting with poorly-made pirate puppets, like Chucky and that thing from Insidious hanging out. The story originates from a fake set of message board correspondence created by webcomic artist Kris Straub back in 2009, where numerous posters share their memories of Candle Cove and the terrifying nightmares it inspired in their young minds. The big twist at the end was that the show didn't actually exist, and the kids had just been watching thirty minutes of static when they thought the show was on. DUN DUN DUN. Even with that slightly cheesy finale we can't shake the image of characters like Horace Horrible and a marionette called the Skin-Taker from our head, though.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
