The frightening yet comic clown is one of the best and most enduring characters in literature, theater, television, and film. Across the centuries, from Shakespeare's Porter in Macbeth to Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog," or Stephen King's Pennywise, horror and comedy have blended to create the perfect recipe for entertainment. This volume gives an in-depth analysis of the clown horror genre, including essays by revered horror scholars such as Kevin Wetmore, Dale Bailey, Kim Hester Williams, Jennifer K. Cox, and Joanna Parypinski. Their essays cover topics such as nostalgia, race, class, and new portrayals of the scary clown as zombies or phantoms. It also offers interviews with actors and directors working in the clown horror genre: Eoghan McQuinn (Stitches), Kevin Kangas (Fear of Clowns), and Jaysen Buterin (Kill Giggles). Some of fiction's most terrifying creations--like the Killer Klowns, Captain Spaulding, Art the Clown, Krusty, Frowny, the Joker, and Twisty--jig through these pages of analysis and deconstruction, asking what these many iterations of scary clowns have to say about our society and its fears.

The frightening yet comic clown is one of the best and most enduring characters in literature, theater, television, and film. Across the centuries, from Shakespeare's Porter in Macbeth to Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog," or Stephen King's Pennywise, horror and comedy have blended to create the perfect recipe for entertainment. This volume gives an in-depth analysis of the clown horror genre, including essays by revered horror scholars such as Kevin Wetmore, Dale Bailey, Kim Hester Williams, Jennifer K. Cox, and Joanna Parypinski. Their essays cover topics such as nostalgia, race, class, and new portrayals of the scary clown as zombies or phantoms. It also offers interviews with actors and directors working in the clown horror genre: Eoghan McQuinn (Stitches), Kevin Kangas (Fear of Clowns), and Jaysen Buterin (Kill Giggles). Some of fiction's most terrifying creations--like the Killer Klowns, Captain Spaulding, Art the Clown, Krusty, Frowny, the Joker, and Twisty--jig through these pages of analysis and deconstruction, asking what these many iterations of scary clowns have to say about our society and its fears.

"So view, and get over it." And so begins the lighthearted attempt of Scary Clowns to relieve coulrophobes of their fear of "grotesquely made-up men wearing overly large trousers, huge shoes, and a red nose." This fear may seem as amusing as the characters that inspire it, but numerous support groups and hundreds of Web sites are dedicated to coulrophobia. Horror movies featuring killer clowns, as well as notorious clown/serial killer John Wayne Gacy, have only fed the fear. Over 80 full-color photographs-from the surreal to the grotesque-populate Scary Clowns, bringing readers face to face with their worst nightmares. A pop-up clown in the middle of the book forces the reader to confront his darkest fear in 3-D. It is all done in the name of good, clean fun, of course. Why are seemingly innocuous clowns so horrifying to so many people? The introduction in Scary Clowns attempts to demystify the strange phobia. By nature silent, a clown makes no noise or complaint as he falls over, throws things, plays with knives, walks on high wires, tumbles, turns, and collapses. Maybe it's the silence that makes him so scary.

Creepy clowns are everywhere, sighted all over the world. They are watching YOUR children. Why?Put your best face on... The circus is coming to town!A creepy clown stares at a young boy from the woods next to his grade school. The boy tells his father. The father wants to get to the bottom of it. Who are they? What do they want? Questions he never should have asked... The answers are here. This is the terrifying story of a desperate father, a simple medicated "beauty lotion," a secret clinical study at a big Pharmaceutical company north of Chicago, and how SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS changed MY life forever. Nothing will be the same again, for me OR for you. Creepy Clowns: Who are they? What do they want? The answer is as clear as the big red nose on your face.

Bad clowns—those malicious misfits of the midway who terrorize, haunt, and threaten us—have long been a cultural icon. This book describes the history of bad clowns, why clowns go bad, and why many people fear them. Going beyond familiar clowns such as the Joker, Krusty, John Wayne Gacy, and Stephen King’s Pennywise, it also features bizarre, lesser-known stories of weird clown antics including Bozo obscenity, Ronald McDonald haters, killer clowns, phantom-clown abductors, evil-clown panics, sex clowns, carnival clowns, troll clowns, and much more. Bad Clowns blends humor, investigation, and scholarship to reveal what is behind the clown’s dark smile.

A short history of the earliest clowns -- The despicable rogue Mr. Punch -- The unnatural nature of the evil clown -- Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns -- Bad clowns of the Ink -- Bad clowns of the Screen -- Bad clowns of the Song -- The carnal carnival: Buffoon boffing and clown sex -- Creepy, criminal, and killer clowns -- Activist clowns -- Crazed caged carny clowns -- The phantom clowns -- Troll clowns and the future of bad clowns

Help children face irrational fears with this uniquely creative, full-color children's book addressing fears of clowns and nightmares. This book helps children challenge their fears of clowns and nightmares, and can be applied more generally to any irrational fear that children may have. The book shows children that clowns are not scary, and that what we see in nightmares is not real. The book is in bright, brilliant full-color. Each of the pages of text are full-color as well. Children will love the story, the pictures, and the message it sends, which helps kids realize that what may first be thought of as scary, can be viewed in a different way.