The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection is Fran Krause’s at times chilling, at times whimsical, at times disturbing compendium of daily (and nightly) fears and paranoias, each one a few quick pages long at most in rough illustrative form that has, in alliance with its slim voiced text, has a surprisingly effective intimacy.

The fears run a gamut in tone and grimness and originality. This is a collection best dipped into over a period of time rather than read straight through; otherwise one runs the risk of the separate fears blurring one into the other and diluting the impact of any single one. I had my own favorites, and I’m sure individual readers will have their own that will speak to them. Some elicited a shrug, some were too familiar, but several lingered for some time in the mind or evoked a wince, a shiver, a sense of grief/sorrow, or, more than once or twice, a chuckle. Personally, I’d pick it up as a library book as I didn’t find enough here in terms of depth, consistency, or length, and I wouldn’t reread it. But I’m quite pleased I read it once and would happily recommend it.

An adorable, simple little collection of people's fears. Could have been much shorter. Most pages only have a couple of panels on them.

I rather enjoyed this. It got a few laughs from me but mostly, I just enjoyed it. This book reminds me of Charles Addams or Edward Gorey. It's macabre and human. It puts fears out on paper and gives them a voice. Several times, I found myself appreciating the confession. I really felt that I was connecting with the characters.
The artwork is simple and light which gave a lighter tone to the dark matter of book. All in all, I would recommend this book if you like macabre comics. If you don't, you may find the book disturbing and you may not connect to it.

I enjoyed this title more than the previous book. I liked the fact that more short stories were included instead of just one page comics.

This was a fun, creepy little graphic novel. It's a quick read that plays well on people's fears and anxieties. I sometimes teach a class on fear & scary stories, and I'm definitely going to be adding this book to the reading list.

Fran Krause brings nightmares to life in the most artful, delightful manner. If my nightmares were this well-rendered, I'd consider myself quite lucky.

A short little book of comics that express a wide range of substantial and irrational fears. The author had people submit their fears, regardless of how real or imagined they were, for him to turn into mini comics. I can’t lie, I mostly laughed through this whole thing. Honestly, it’s because we can all attest to having inane, stupid, and ridiculous fears. Some were obvious, others were ones I wouldn’t have been able to think of in a million years. Quite entertaining overall.

Copy received through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fran Krause's followup to "Deep Dark Fears" (originally a comic blog on Tumblr) is as charmingly creepy as the original. Krause's artwork is appealing and easy to interpret, and the fears depicted in "The Creeps" are a delightful mix of the truly terrifying and the mildly mundane. This is an excellent comic collection, and can be recommended to fans of "Deep Dark Fears," more sarcastic fans of "Sara's Scribbles," and self-aware readers who have a strong appreciate for visual art and visceral discomfort.

I'm ashamed to admit that I had no idea that the different fears were submitted by people. I never gave it much thought. I just assumed all of the comics were about the author's weird fears. They were always so out there that I thought drawing them out was the way the author made light of their chronic fear condition. I am happy to have learned that the author is not in fact plagued by all of these fears at once. I was starting to get worried that the author might be in constant fear of everything. 

I love the art style of the book. It is rough and perfect. I am always drawn to darker and rougher art styles. They feel so much more intense to me than the prettied up art. I for example only read A Monster Calls because of the art style. That is the main reason I wanted this book too. I had seen some of the art and really liked it. It fits the fears perfectly. It isn't overly grotesque or dark, but it is the right level to portray the fears that fans have submitted. 

The fears themselves may not have been ones I shared, but there is something delicious about getting an intimate look into someone's fears. Its like you know them more intimately than you could have known them meeting them and just talking. It hit so many buttons for me. 



5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book!

I loved this book! With quirky illustrations, these comics tapped into urban legends, campfire stories and other irrational (or so we're made to believe) fears we already have, along with some new ones spawned during reading The Creeps.

While reading I vacillated between "Me, too!!" and "Oh, I never thought about that before", the whole time with a potentially creepy grin plastered on my face. I was compelled to read this book from cover to cover as soon as I received it, which unfortunately was in the morning.

My second reading will definitely take place at night in the dark, with only the light of my iPad protecting me from the ghosts surrounding me and the creature under the bed ready to hold my hand during the night if I dare fall asleep with my arm hanging over the side of the bed.

The Creeps is delightfully creepy but it's also funny, imaginative and sometimes all too real (in a fun way). I'll be revisiting this book many times and will be recommending it to my fellow eccentrics and everyone I know with a sense of humour.

I received an ARC from NetGalley (thank you very much to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

I’d give it a 3 outta 5. It lost two points mainly because I wasn’t familiar with the author’s work, so a large problem I found with the book was that I didn’t understand the context behind the stories, for instance, if the scary stories described were the author’s fears and true stories, or just random fears he had dreamed up that sounded entertaining, or if they were supposed to be random thoughts that he may have figured cross everyone’s mind at one time or another? But as it was explained only at the very end in the acknowledgements, the author illustrates the fears fans send him, this should have been explained at the beginning in a foreword!!
Aside from this, on a more positive note, a lot of the stories were entertaining, at least the ones I believed to be believable, and especially the ones that my own imagination has dreamt up previously to spook me. There were also two longer panel sequences described as “short-stories” which I liked because there was a bit more suspense to them.
I would say the book is suitable for all ages, as it takes a playfully mocking tone on people’s irrationalities or humorously describes the naïve beliefs they held as children (mostly from parental trolling). The drawings were simple but creative, and they possessed enough detail to adequately communicate a story in a short panel sequence with the intended effect.

The Creeps is a comic that is based around people's weird, quirky fears.

I really enjoyed this book and a few of the fears are one's I have. It was nice to see that other people also think about these irrational things. The artwork did a great job illustrating these fears and explaining the logic behind the illogical ideas we all have.

Are there fears you have? Did you wonder if your parents were going to move while you were at school, and you would come home to an empty house? Did you fear that the tooth fairy would take your regular teeth if you swallowed a baby tooth, and you had nothing to give her? Did you worry, while slicing an apple, that the knife would slip and you would impale a part of yourself? If not these fears, were there others you had? I bet none are as odd, and peculular as the ones that Fran brings up.

Here are a sample of some of them: "Sometimes I read out loud, because there might be ghosts that want to hear the story too." or "I fear walking on the tiles in the kitchen that are black and white, because the black ones look like holes that I will slip through." Or "When you go to bed at night, don't point your shoes away from you, or a ghost will slip into them, and walk away with them."

These are all done in the form of cartoons. It is a fun, and peculiar collection.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This graphic novel was a whole lot of fun!

The basic gist of it was endless pages of odd/scary fears that people have condensed into (mostly) a 4 picture comic.

I have to admit that the entire time I was reading this I was either giggling, slightly creeped out, or shocked that someone else had the same fear as me!

It's a really fun read that you will be able to relate to but at the same time laugh at all the silly things that people are truly afraid of.

This collection of fears and ghost stories is cute and quirky. Some are funny, some are creepy and some are very weird. It was a short but very enjoyable read.

Having not read the first in the series, I was unsure what to expect but I ended up loving it. You know those odd, irrational fears you have? This book is full of them, plus illustrations to go along. It's funny and relatable.

Prior to reading this book I had never heard of Deep Dark Fears (the first book in the collection), but I'll for sure be looking into it after reading The Creeps. Both books contain comics and illustrations of the fears that various people have. What I really liked about this book was that although all the fears included are completely irrational, they are also totally relatable. Everyone at some point has worried about the tree branch on their window, seeing the wrong reflection in the mirror, etc. Some of the fears are silly - some are genuinely terrifying. Either way, this book will give you The Creeps.

This comic artist has a very STRANGE and CREEPY sense of humor which makes the title extremely relevant.

I enjoyed the twisted, yet entertaining vignettes.

That was a fun and quirky little read.
I loved this one-not only because I could completely agree with some of these irrational fears-but now seeing some other fears, made me think, and realize I now have those too, haha.
Honestly, this was a delight to read. Illustrations were phenomenal and made me giggle at a lot of them because some were just down right silly.
Can't wait to check out some more work by Fran Krause.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest opinion. My thanks to Fran Krause and
Ten Speed Press for the opportunity.

This is the second book of cartoons published by Krause and it follows the same simple premise as the first - Krause takes people's odd and unusual, but entertaining, fears and illustrates them. That's it. It's delightful to read and the best part is not seeing the strange fears of strangers (although that is definitely fun) but stumbling across something you are secretly and oddly afraid of as well. I highly recommend this one.