Southern Gothic: Chapter Fourteen

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Hello Y’all—

It’s the third Wednesday of the month, so it’s time for another titillating tale of literary terror from Southern Gothic! Welcome to Chapter Fourteen: “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.”

It’s Ben here and I am freshly back home after spending seven weeks taking care of my family in Virginia. My most sincere gratitude to all of my friends, family, chosen family, and folks who read this Substack for your messages of support. I appreciate every single one of you for helping me through the last couple of months. And I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back with The New Futurists!

Boy howdy, do we have a doozy of a story for you today! But first a little business. A hearty welcome to all of our new subscribers! If this is your first time receiving Southern Gothic, here’s what you can expect: we provide the latest chapter to all of our readers for free. For all of our paid and Visionary subscribers, below the paywall you’l get bonus content including a look behind the scenes of this chapter and preview art from our next installment by co-creator Ezequiel Rubio.

We love hearing from our readers and regularly respond to your messages in the Southern Gothic reader correspondence feature, The Purloined Letters. If you have a question, comment, fan-theory, or joke, drop us a line at thenewfuturists@gmail.com! As always, remember to include “Southern Gothic” in the subject and if you’re okay with your letter being featured please indicate “OKAY TO PRINT.”

Now please join me in welcoming today’s cover artist: Greg Van Dyke! I met Greg at HeroesCon in June and was super excited that he was available to do the cover for this chapter. Greg is a designer, artist, and illustrator based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Follow him on social media, treat yourself to some art, and check out his design work. As paid subscribers will see in today’s “The Drawing Board,” I had a BLAST working out this chapter’s cover with Greg. He’s a brilliant artist and his lifelong interest in visual storytelling shows in all of his work. Greg is currently working on a new comic called The State of Nowhere with Odd School Studios. Keep your eye on Odd School Studios on social media and don’t sleep on their upcoming stories!

I also want to give a special shout-out to my friends and fellow writers Jamie, Meagan, and Lauren for reading early drafts of this chapter and bolstering my knowledge of 19th-century American literature!

Finally, please remember that Southern Gothic is a horror comic and is not suitable for all readers. Chapter fourteen features depictions of blood, gore, confinement, supernatural horror, racial violence, physical abuse, violence against women, gun violence, and fascist imagery. Reader discretion is advised.

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