Dark Fantasy/Fiction Grimm and Grisly Style or Inspired
Read this book in the late 2000s or early 2010s. I believe Grimm and Grisly were directly mentioned on the cover, but not necessarily a part of the Grimm and Grisly stories. The entire book, including the cover, was filled with occultic-esque ink arts. The back cover or page protector had a drawing of a demon-cherub playing a trumpet/horn with his anus.
I only vaguely remember the stories. They were all dark fantasy or dark fiction but with very interesting and unique writing styles. One was written with a Chaucer-like influence about a guy named Randal or some other name starting with R, but every time a name or word was repeated it was spelled differently (phonetically). Another story was a Grocery List that slowly revealed the character of a single mom who planned either a suicide or murder suicide, going from things like "whoopie wheatsie treats" to some sort of pills (can't remember the exact, only the death plan revelation)
The book was paperback, black and white. It was rather small, not very thick. The overall tone was, despite the nature of the stories, humorous and satirical of life and death. Definitely an adult-targeted book. I believe the stories were a collection, but probably from modern authors- I think there was an ink art of a car on one page driven by skeletons. Most of the stories were one-pagers, but some could have been a bit longer. I'm not really sure where I originally encountered the book, maybe a thrift store. I'm unsure if the book was American or British.
I could be wrong but I want to say its title was something like "Dark and Twisted Tales." All the ink artworks were in a sort of gothic-esque style.
Posted Oct 10, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC