Spookhouse Industries’ CEREAL KILLERS is Full of Creepy Fun [Review]

Not to be confused with the Cereal Killers trading card set, this terror tome of “bone-shivering art” is the hellspawn of indie publisher Spookhouse Industries. Featuring over 50 creepy contributors, CEREAL KILLERS VOL. 1 contains cereal-inspired box art with a fun, but seriously twisted, horror theme that includes gut-munching adolescents, soggy “ladybits,” braided turds and even—yes—Satan himself.

As Maxwell Atoms (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) mentions in his introduction, “when you’re a kid cereal and cartoons and monsters and that’s all you got.” This book very much captures that mentality with inspired (by what inner demons, we’ll let you guess) takes on all three of those tenets of childhood nostalgia. Are these cereals gross? Oh yeah, but are they any worse than some of the cavity-inducing crap we ate growing up? …okay, maybe they’re a little lot more vomitous, and that’s half the fun. It’s not every day you get a gander at the level of creativity and artistic talent on display here—including Jay Stephens, Everett Peck, James Groman, Gabe Swarr, Chris Savino, Neil Camera and plenty more.

Speaking of which, the quality of artwork on display here is pretty astounding. Despite a few pieces that don’t quite fit, each and every piece showcases a superb illustrative talent or a sharp wit… in most cases, both. There’s even an abridged Odds & Ends section at the back of the book with assorted sketches, which is a nice touch. That said, I do wish there was a bit more content—perhaps a short statement from each artist (or a select few) about their concept or process would have been a perfect way to pad things out another 20 pages or so. A minor complaint for an otherwise skin-crawlingly delightful “coffin table” book.

For more information on future releases, but sure to keep it locked to the official Cereal Killers blog.

Cereal Killers Vol. 1 was reviewed using a digital copy (PDF) provided by Spookhouse Industries.