To celebrate the release of our Self Made Hero book of M. R. James adaptations – Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Vol 1 – we’re going to be counting down to Christmas in true Jamesian style, with a new ghostly image and nugget of info every day.
Day 22: “THE SCREAMING SKULL”
Luke Parker is the artist on Merrick: The Sensational Elephantman: a Victorian gaslamp pulp adventure comic set in 1880s’ London. Based on a fictional version of the life of Joseph Merrick, it steps between historical facts and turn of the century folklore juxtaposed with the American superhero comic conventions of super powers, masks, secret identities and fantastic adventures.
He does very good skulls.
A screaming skull is a paranormal object, a human skull which per legend speaks, screams, or otherwise haunts its environs. The legend is most found in England and other Anglo regions.
The Bettiscombe screaming skull of Dorset, England, is attested at least as early as 1897 in the book The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain. That book details an alleged visit to Bettiscombe in 1883 by curiosity-seekers to investigate a skull which per legend was of an African slave once owned by the owner of the house. Per local legend the slave had died determined to be buried in his homeland, and any attempt to bury his skull elsewhere would cause the skull to scream aloud.