The Ghoul

The Corpse Eating, Under Graveyard Living, Monster of the Macabre!

Seems there’s a lot of confusion out there as to what differentiates a Ghoul from a Zombie as the names are often used interchangeably in pop culture. Surprisingly, its pretty straightforward. Zombies tend to be dead, but reanimated corpses that eat living folks. Where as your ghouls tend to be living (albeit poorly in many’s opinion) and rob graves to feast mostly upon the corpses. Now has a zombie at some point sampled another zombie or a ghoul feasted on a poorly timed ambulance driver… I mean there are a lot of dark corners in a cemetery so kinda safe to assume there’s been some experimentation. But we’re speaking in generalities here!

First mentioned in the famed “1000 and One Nights” Ghouls (in this case Ghuls) were described as a diabolic class of shape shifting spirits haunting graveyards. Their one consistent trait was a set of ass’ hooves for feet that could not be disguised. Well that and a hankering for hunks of recently expired humans.

Over time variations on the legend surfaced in old Europe and eventually even in America where ghouls became a favored subject of famously unhealthy looking authors like HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe… The later of the two’s described them as “neither man nor woman…neither brute nor human.” But that doesn’t really give you much to go on, and since the term now means anyone with an intense interest in the macabre, let’s try and widdle it down to a few beastly descriptors.

• Generally humanoid in limb placement with a large variance in acceptable sizing from enormous to small enough to ride a dog or hare.
• Hunched, sinewy, toothsome, clawed and potentially snouty
• The kind of dirty that comes from living with rotting corpses as your ceiling
• Pretty safe to assume they’ll have some vitamin C & D deficiencies
• They’re mostly nocturnal so you know, big eyes, pale skin, and teeth that seem brushed in poor especially lighting

There you go! Give em ass’s hooves if you want, but I ain’t holding you too it? Just have fun doodling and send it in by 11:59p, on the 11th!

WHat do you get when you combine new guy points with, a drumpf reference and a fun comic book horror presentation? well in this place: First place! Congrats new guy! Second place? I like him just cause his teeth look like they smell soooo bad and third really it’s the mysteries in this one, the missing hands, the loving way the corpse drags along behind him, and that damn hare! that’s really good hare! And with that, it’s another beast done! Don’t forget you can always add to the pile of Ghouls post contest now!

• The Ghoul Entry # 1 So this ghoul is giving exactly the same look that my bulldog makes when you try and drag him out of his favorite sunspot… Not active displeasure so much as a silently made decision that eventually… some day down the road… he’s gonna eat you for this…
• The Ghoul Entry # 2 “Man-sized ghoul, but giant corpse-eating ghoul hare!” – Ha, so fitting for jokes like “man I really like that ghoul’s hare!” And kinda funny given the elements but there’s almost something really sweet feeling here!
• The Ghoul Entry # 3 “the ghoul fishes for a steed” – This is also technically probably when the Ghoul thanks his stars that hare’s aren’t equipped with a mouthful of hand removing shark teef!
• The Ghoul Entry # 4 Hahaha, sometimes you just gotta let it get away from you… It’s after that you can really see that my worldview is solidly set in 1985, and was seemingly born during a commercial break between One Life to Live and General Hospital
• The Ghoul Entry # 5 Yes! Looks like midnight Ghoul karaoke on the old Drumpf plots! Now to decide what he’s singing, like something off “Age of Quarrel” would feel about right… but since we generally shoot for feeling wrong, I’m assuming it’s that Debbie Boone Monstrosity, “You light up My Life”! Oh and welcome ...
• The Ghoul Entry # 6 Hahaha You know I just cant see this as anything but the television’s perspective (that’s “telly” to you brits) of watching that annoyingly big headed kid put his well worn copy of Zardoz in the vcr again. But I mean that in itself is Ghoulish right?
• The Ghoul Entry # 7 You know I’m not entirely sure if he’s in the ghouls equivalent of a blow around money booth, if he’s just juggling parts, or simply wandering through a fantasy, but I know with one glance, those eyes have seen horror!
• The Ghoul Entry # 8 I love that even with the giant bone crushing skeksis style maw that somehow at its core, this still feels a lot like Mr Burns!