Smalltown Tales by Iain McCaig

I am genuinely vexed that this is the first time that I, a pop culture maximalist, have ever heard of Iain McCaig. Ofc, as I was just discussing with another Learned League Llama yesterday, my mind dwells more on story than on details, but it still seems bizarre to me that this name has never stuck in my brain as being well worth noticing, the way so many other artists’ and storytellers’ have. Have I just never encountered him before, or at least not in a context where his name was ever given?

Regardless, I love how the back bio of this book describes Mr McCaig as someone who encourages people to draw and tell stories, because that is 100% what I felt like doing after finishing this book. Between this, Zoje Stage’s Dear Hanna and Tim Hutchings’ A Collection Of Improving Exercises, I am starting to want to get back into sketching again. My art has definitely fallen by the wayside this summer — and who has time! Not me! — but the gorgeous pencil and charcoal works in this book remind me of how much I enjoy drawing, even tho my art is nowhere near the level of this author’s.

Pencil and charcoal aren’t the only mediums he uses tho. Inks, pastels and watercolors are all applied to excellent effect here, along with other techniques that I couldn’t necessarily pinpoint. But whether drawing mermaids, aliens, dinosaurs or ghosts, all the work is phenomenal, with an uncanny eye for light, especially, that sets his work apart. Even his grotesque drawings are possessed of an uncanny beauty, the kind of majesty that compels the gaze and refuses to let you look away.

But Smalltown Tales isn’t just an art book. It’s also a collection of scary stories that touch briefly on almost all of the genres of horror, from monsters and spirits to robots and extraterrestrials. And they’re not all uniformly terrifying: there is romance and humor and happiness to be found here too. Honestly, my only complaint is that some of these stories sound like the seeds for truly epic novels, which I would also love to read. Better, I suppose, to commit them to and share them in these jewel-like forms before the very ideas are lost back into the great storytelling ether. The author could always revisit the concepts later, after all, if time and the No Time described in one of the standout pieces here permit.

I did sometimes wonder which came first, the story or the accompanying art. Some of the stories did feel a little underexplained (I could have done with a little more background on The Bell-Ringer’s Apprentice, for example) but others, tho short, are perfect as is. I did very much love how there’s an overarching narrative tho, and very much want to read more of Smalltown and its inhabitants/creators.

With the days getting shorter and the nights getting colder, this is the perfect book with which to welcome in the darkening of the year. Tho spooky, it’s also filled with the warmth of humanity, even in the face of heart-stopping horror. I can’t wait to pass it on to my eldest kid and see if he loves it, too.

Smalltown Tales by Iain McCaig was published yesterday August 27 2024 by Titan Books and is available from all good booksellers, including