In Victorian England, gathering around a fire to share ghost stories was a beloved Christmas tradition.
It is these tales that Guelph artist Seth became unexpectedly familiar with a decade ago.
Biblioasis will celebrate the award winning cartoonist's illustrations on the 10th anniversary of it's annual Christmas Ghost Stories series.
The the publication of the trio of stories is set to be released on Oct. 29th.
Biblioasis, a literary press based in Windsor, is committed to publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction in beautifully crafted editions.
Ten years ago, Biblioasis partnered with Seth, who at the time, was already passionate about the Victorian tradition of Christmas ghost stories.
"The funny thing about it was that the project was brought to me by the publisher, Daniel Wells. He came to me after he had been over in England and had said that he had seen some little volumes of ghost stories," Seth said.
"He asked me if I'd be interested in editing and illustrating a series of these."
Funnily enough, Seth was already well versed in 'old ghost literature'.
"But Daniel had no idea at all that I had such interest in it. It is strange to me in retrospect because it was more of a guilty pleasure I did on the side, so I was really surprised when he asked me," Seth said.
"And of course, I was interested."
Everyone knows about Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the most famous example of a long-running Victorian Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories during the holidays.
"I became very interested in what they would call the the classic Victorian era ghost stories," Seth said.
"What interests me about them is that they are all about atmosphere. I don't think I had a calculated plan to become interested in them. I just started reading some in the 1980's and 1990's."
Soon, Seth began to look for every ghost book he could find.
"Over a period of about 10 years, I started to get increasingly more interested in them," he said.
"And I was surprised at how many ghost stories had been written at that time. It was a widely popular genre. I had never even hear of these ghost stories at Christmas."
According to Seth, the original Christmas ghost story was a particularly British experience.
"Certainly they used to do it in Canada, but long before I was born. Once I found out that they were a Christmas tradition, I was quite perplexed at first. I thought ghosts don't seem to really have anything to do with Christmas. I thought that's more Halloween sort of material," Seth said.
"But of course with the Christmas Carol, you think, oh yes! That's a ghost story. "
And that particular story, Seth says, is just the tip of the iceberg.
"If you go back far enough, you realize, oh yes, Christmas is in winter, a dark time for telling ghost stories," Seth said.
"By the time you get into the late Victorian period, it was kind of a tradition. And many magazines were produced with special Christmas ghost stories. And most of these ghost stories have nothing to do with Christmas."
For Seth, it's all about finding the perfect scary story to include in the annual series.
"It has to be a real ghost story and it's got to be evocative in some way," Seth said.
"A story should have a strong sense of place, a real feeling of atmosphere, and needs to be creepy in some way."
Each pocket-sized ghost story is selected and illustrated by Seth, and results in a collectible yearly production.
Seth's original illustrations capture the chilling atmosphere in three featured tales.
Podolo by L. P. Hartley is about a peaceful afternoon that soon turns into a nightmare as a group of tourists visit the island of Podolo, soon to discover they are not alone.
In The Amethyst Cross by Mary Fitt, a young woman rents an old cottage in the moors for her visiting aunt. It is haunting tale of greed and murder soon comes to light.
A sudden thunderstorm during an afternoon walk in Captain Dalgety Returns by Laurence Whistler forces Captain Dalgety’s life to take an unexpected and unsettling turn.
For more information about the series, visit here.
"It surprises me that it's been 10 years," Seth said.
"It feels like it's been about five. I'm glad it's still going and I hope we can do another 10 years of it."
