Without having to worry about the tyrannical Comics Code Authority or something like the MPAA, horror comics are freely (or at least more freely) allowed to push the limits a little further than other narrative mediums. So when you see a comic called Basketful Of Heads with the name of horror master Stephen King’s most famous and accomplished horror writer son (no offense to famous white rapper Chet King*) alongside it, you might expect something truly gruesome and borderline offensive.

In fact, you could read the premise and still think that: Basketful Of Heads is about a girl named June who visits her boyfriend on the last day of his summer job working with the police department of a small community on Brody Island (presumably a nod to Chief Brody and Amity Island from Jaws). While taking shelter from a storm at the boyfriend’s boss’ house, a group of convicts who escaped from nearby Shawshank Prison (oooh!) attack and take the boyfriend hostage. Forced to defend herself, June breaks into the house’s huge collection of Viking artifacts and decapitates one of her attackers with a magic axe.

June is horrified by what she did… but then the head starts talking. In a panic, she grabs the head, stuffs it in a basket, and goes to try and find her boyfriend. But, of course, the book isn’t called Basket With One Head In It. Eventually, that basket is going to become full of heads.

Seems like a gruesome horror story, right? Well, to take it a step further, you could read the entire text of the story and still think it’s terribly bleak and possibly in poor taste. Just a twisted thrill for the real bloodthirsty horror fiends out there.

It’s not, though. Not entirely. Once you factor in the art from Leomacs, it becomes clear that Basketful Of Heads is a cartoon. It’s funny — in a dark and violent way, of course, but funny nonetheless. Leomacs’ art has these really expressive faces, which is helpful in a story like this where people are constantly manipulating and misleading people. He also occasionally deploys these little bugged-out eyes that are pretty hilarious, and it’s the little touches like that that elevate the art in a way that keeps the story from becoming overwhelmingly dark.

It’s a brilliant use of the form, and a reminder of why horror is such a great genre for comics. The art and the narrative can work in concert, or they can work in opposition, or some careful middle-ground, and it all benefits this collaborative version of storytelling. This seems to be the conclusion of most Untitled Comic Book Newsletter essays, but: Comics are cool!

*Just kidding, there is no Stephen King child named Chet King who is a rapper.

Starting next week, and then maybe once a month after that, I’m going to do a new special miniseries that I call The Untitled Comic Book Newsletter Book Society. I’ll be reading and recapping every issue of Gotham Central, and YOU, the reader, are encouraged to read along with me. It’s sort of like that website that does recaps of classic TV shows, except it’s me doing it and I’m writing about Gotham Central instead of The Simpsons.