About the Comics Anthology
Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities anthology series exploring the paranormal lore of the
Cincinnati region. The stories range from hauntings and cryptids to urban legends retold by Cincinnati and Tri-state local artists and writers.
The third issue of the anthology debuts at the 2025 Loveland Frogman Festival in Loveland, Ohio.
If that isn’t enough creepy creatures and weird history for you, check out our sister podcast the Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities: Hometown Haunts Podcast which updates Wednesdays at midnight. It is hosted by the anthologies leading ladies, Christina Wald and Kat Klockow, and Jen Koehler.
Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities Issue 3 Featured Stories
Eden Park’s Lady in Black
Written by Jen Koehler
Illustrated by Lauren Sparks
One of Cincinnati’s most iconic ghosts, the Lady in Black, has haunted Eden Park’s gazebo since 1927. How the poor soul has come to haunt the park is a reminder of Cincinnati’s gruesome mobster past.
Shanty Boat Murder Mystery
Written and Illustrated by Brandon Wagner
The oldest cold case in Cincinnati is the 1890 murder of Billy Fee on the Ohio River.
Grassman
Writen by Jay B. Kalagayan
I, Ghosthunter
Written by Aieha Little
Illustrated by Kat Klockow
A retelling of Aiesha Little’s personal expierence investigating a haunted property in Ohio.
Witch Hill
Written by Braden McEachren
Illustrated by Scott Booth
Alexandria, Kentucky has some hexed history by these three New England transplants.
The Roebling Bridge Serpent
Written and Illustrated by Kat Klockow
In 1878, Cincinnati newspapers reported on a rash of sightings in the Ohio River, sea serpents! Kat retells one of the most memorable eye witness accounts in her story for the anthology.
Meet the Team of Issue Three
The Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities brings together writers and illustrators from the Cincinnati region. This is our team for the thrid issue.
Kat Klockow
Editor, Project Manager, Contributing Artist- I, Ghosthunter and The Roebling Bridge Serpent
Kat Klockow is an enthusiast of all things grim and macabre which shows in her work as a haunted history author and horror illustrator. She is the editor of the Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities anthology series, host of Hometown Haunts, and author of Ohio’s Haunted Crimes by Schiffer Publishing. Find her work at redcatcomics.com and @redcatcomics on social media.
Tim Fuller
Art Director and Contributing Artist
– Grassman
Tim Fuller is an illustrator living in Northern Kentucky and active in the Cincinnati, Ohio comic scene. He writes and draws comic books, mostly about talking animals. His Sham Comics series takes public domain material from the 40s and 50s and rewrites them as social satires. Tim is the art director for The Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities comic anthology of local paranormal legends. Tim’s current projects also include “Cap’n Catnip & Womble the Wonder Gerbil.” with writer Craig Boldman and cartoonist Daryll Collins. His work can be seen at www.hoohacomics.com and www.indyplanet.com/hooha-comics
Jay B. Kalagayan
Promotional Director and Contributing Writer- Grassman
Jay B. Kalagayan is a Filipino-American creator and director of Creative Mussel, an the indie publisher of MeSseD Comics, The Intrusion and other creative projects. Creative Mussel, now in its eighth year, seeks to be a publisher that supports diverse artists, promotes creators and makes untold stories accessible. Jay’s work has been published with Corpse Flower Press, Sol-Con Anthology through Ohio State University, Columbus Scribbler, Xavier University Newswire, Citybeat and The World Toilet Organization.
His work can be found at www.messedcomics.com
Jen Koehler
Writer- Eden Park’s Lady in Black
Normally a short story writer, “Lady in Black” is Jen’s first comic. She loves to talk about all things creepy with Kat Klockow and Christina Wald on the Hometown Haunts Podcast. She loves photographing creepy old buildings while on ghost hunts and hopes to one day have photographic evidence of the paranormal. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her cats Lady Clover of the Fields and Lord Jensen Winchester. She is also a huge fan of the TV show “Supernatural”.
Lauren Sparks
Artist- Eden Park’s Lady in Black
Lauren Sparks is a visual storyteller who lives physically in Covington, Kentucky and on the internet at @WingedElfGirl. She works most often in ink, watercolor, Photoshop and Illustrator. Her comics have appeared in projects such as the Ringo Award-nominated “Votes For Women: The Battle For The 19th Amendment” comics anthology from Little Red Bird Press, and the “Tidelines” zine series from Cincinnati-based Cereal Box Studio. You can follow her on social media, or purchase her illustrations, comics and zines via the links on https://linktr.ee/wingedelfgirl.
Aiesha Little
Writer – I, Ghosthunter
Aiesha Little, a writer/editor based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the co-founder of the Midwest Black Speculative Fiction Alliance and a member of the multicultural steampunk group Airship Ashanti. From journalism to public relations/marketing, Aiesha has been in the business of storytelling for 25 years.
Brandon Wagner
Artist and Writer- The Shanty Town Murder Mystery
Brandon Wagner is a born and raised Cincinnatian, a comics writer, illustrator, educator and celebrator. After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA, he returned home to the Queen City and joined the Cincinnati Comic Creators and later got a chance to help with a comics class with the Art Academy of Cincinnati. This is his second time having a featured story with Cabinet of Curiosity and is hungry to continue his comics journey.
@brandonwagnercomics
Braden McEachren
Writer- Witch Hill
Born and raised near the Witch City of Salem, Massachusetts, Brendan McEachern is a lifelong comic book and toy collector. He has a son with Type 1 diabetes and wrote about this condition in his first book, Bolus Blues. Brendan has been teaching in middle schools since 2007. He is currently an English teacher at The Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brendan manages the school’s Power of the Pen student writing program and was the 2022 recipient of the Schilderink Faculty Chair for Distinguished Teaching. When not reading or writing, Brendan enjoys traveling with his family and kayaking with his wife.
Facebook: AuthorBrendanMcEachern
Amazon.com: Bolus Blues
Scott Booth
Artist- Witch Hill
Born on the eve of Halloween (the second spookiest day of the year), Scott Booth grew up in the hills around Olde Salem Village. Little is known of his childhood aside from this list we recovered of his favorite things at 10 years old: LEGO, mountain biking off sweet jumps, comic books and video games. Fast forward 30 or so years and now Scott is a professional artist living and working in the scariest city in America, Salem, Massachusetts. He spends his days drawing, painting and playing with his frightening family and demonic dog.
Sherwin Quiambao
Front Cover Artist
Sherwin Pagal Quiambao is an illustrator/ artist, aspiring comic and game creator out of Findlay Ohio. He is also a traveling art vendor. He mainly does monster shows, festivals, and celebrations of unique and interesting creatures. Everything from Bigfoot, Mothman, Lake Erie monster, Ohio frogman, Hodag, Squonk and more.
Jeff Ebbeler
Back Cover Artist
JEFFREY EBBELER is a New York Times best selling illustrator. He has illustrated and occasionally written over 60 books for young readers. His published work includes picture books, middle grade and chapter books, and graphic novels.
Michelle Littlejon
Pin-up artist
Michelle Littlejohn is a Cleveland, Ohio native. She is a mixed media concept artist and crafter. Michelle took to anime in the early ’90s. Some of her most inspiring were Vampire Hunter D, Fist of the North Star, and Fatal Fury. Working with children motivated Michelle to put her storytelling skills to good use. In 2018, she created her first Children’s book. Crafting cute characters in other mediums is another fun pastime.
Meet the Artists & Writers
The entire team of Cincinnati Cabinet of Curiosities Issue #1 lives and works around the Tri-State region.
Christina Wald
Product Management
Podcast Producer
Christina Wald has always liked the strange and unusual because she IS strange and unusual. She has illustrated over 60 books for children in addition to countless games, toys, gifts, and almost anything one can put art on. She has a weekly webcomic called Embrace the Crone.
She is convinced they have a poltergeist in their house family members call Peeves. One night, in the middle of the night, they woke to the cat hissing when the ceiling fan turned on by itself even though all were sleeping. There have also heard unexplained footsteps, unseen forces setting off the security system, and had small batteries explode.
Kat Klockow
Editor
Podcast Host
Legend has it that if you chant her name three times in front of a mirror, a mug of coffee will appear before you. Others have seen her stalking the foggy streets of town in search of the perfect
brew. Kat Klockow (Cabinet of Curiosities Editor) is the creator of the
graphic novels Witches & Sorcerers and Miss Grey with RedCat Comics for Line WEBTOON. She is also the author of two haunted history books; Ohio’s Haunted Crimes and Haunted Hoosier Halls: Indiana University with Schiffer Publishing. An ardent lover of the strange and spooky, she is a graduate of Indiana University and Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.
Tim Fuller
Art Director
Growing up in an unsettled house has given Tim Fuller a unique perspective on the paranormal. By nature a sceptic, Tim cannot discount the odd events he experienced as a child. He grew up in a large older house. Moving from room to room, he would find his mood would abruptly shift from happy to melancholy to fear. In particular the rooms in the basement caused a complete panic. Tim passed it off as childhood fears. But when he inherited the house as an adult and moved back in after college, the old feelings persisted. Especially when he tried to set up an art studio in the basement. Working late at night he felt he was always being watched. There were unexplained noises, objects would be gone from where they were laid down, only to turn up in other rooms. And Tim’s dog was constantly reacting to things that could not be seen. She would wake from a sound sleep and quickly leave the room. It was only after he sold the house that Tim learned that a woman had hung herself in the room he’d tried to use as a studio. Since then he has maintained a healthy respect for the paranormal.
Rodney Fyke
Artist& Writer
Rodney Fyke is a writer and artist from Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s been working on and off in Independent comics since the early 90s. His art style varies from highly detailed illustrations to cartoony drawings. His published comics projects include The Superior Seven, Peanut, Puddin’ n’ Jelly, Pitter Patter, Unchained and Roadkill Rampage. Since hearing tales as a child of family encounters with the “The Greys,” Rodney has always possessed a strong interest in the paranormal and the unknown. Several ghost encounters as a young adult cemented the fascination in the field and he has spent many a night wondering, researching, and creating fantastical tales of wonderment drawn from his numerous experiences.
Jay B. Kalagayan
Writer
Jay B. Kalagayan (MeSseD creator, writer and publisher) has been an annoyingly consistent entrepreneur and arts advocate in Cincinnati for more than twenty years. A Xavier University graduate from Erie, PA, Jay is founder of Know Theatre of Cincinnati and a co-founder of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He is a writer of plays, cartoon strips, reviews, articles, marketing collateral, fundraising appeals, and geeky event calendars. His major influences are his wife Jan and daughters Meggie and Fi.
Gordon Dunn
Artist
Dylan Speeg **(MeSseD illustrator) was born in Cincinnati in 1971 in which he has lived his entire life. He attended The Art Academy of Cincinnati in the early 90s and has worked as a portrait painter and illustrator ever since. He is also a musician in the band Heavy Hinges. His major influences are lurid pulp novel covers and Robert Williams, R. Crumb and other comic book artists. His spray paint stenciled illustrations for The CityBeat “Best Of Cincinnati” issue received the Best Illustrated Series Award from the Cleveland Press Club. He likes to use his home town Cincinnati and the people he knows as subject matter. He works nights as a bartender and performs standup comedy on occasion.
Brandon Wagner
Artist & Writer
Brandon Wagner: Ancient stories speak of a creature that dwells in the lower levels of its home, only coming up to feed and participate in light social activity before returning to its lair of darkness. Local Cincinnatian Brandon Wagner was thought to be one of these monsters, but it was revealed he was just a cartoonist, writer and illustrator, and understands how that could be confusing. Brandon’s first published work was the webcomic PigQuest found on Tapas.io, and is currently working on his first physical comic book: The Good Knights.
Thomas O. Miller
Cover Artist
Local science fiction and fantasy artist, you can find more of Tom’s work at https://atomicart.com/
Eamon Hill
Back Cover Artist
A tattooer and cartoonist located in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife Lish Crossland-Hill, comprise Pigbone Comics; the studio responsible for the gothic horror-western Arcana Vaquero. In addition to providing the art for Arcana, Eamon is also the artist on Roadkill Rampage, as well as a handful of other comic projects. Follow @eamonhilltattoos and @pigbonecomics to see more of his work. Look for him @brandonwagnercomics on Instagram.
Featured Video
Issue #2 Kickstarter!
Our second Kickstarter of the series launches October 4, 2021 and runs until midnight November 3rd.
This year’s offerings of stories prove to be as spine-tingling and astonishing as last year’s, with new and returning Tri-State artists.
Some stories are personal encounters such as the specters at the Sorg Opera House and the ethereal editor of the Chillicothe
Gazette. The weird side of the Queen City is highlighted with the urban legend of the Screaming Bridge at Maud Hughes Road
who haunts these pages with its dark apparitions, while the weird history is highlighted with the Magic 8-ball and its connection to
Price Hill Medium Laura Pruden. Finally, the anthology holds fantastical takes on the strange snake creature who stalked the
citizens of Crosswick.
Our goal with this yearly anthology series is to shine a spotlight on the superb local talents of Tri-State area artists.
Click Here to visit the Kickstarter Page
Featured Stories in Issue #2: Trails, Trains, and Terror
The Crosswick Monster: Written by Aziza and illustrated by INKY
Cryptids Together Written and Illustrated by Steve Stegelin
Specters of the Sorg: Written and Illustrated by Kat Klockow
The Curious Tale of the Price Hill Medium and the Invention of the Magic 8-Ball Written Jeff Suess and Illustrated by Christina Wald
The Gazette Ghost Written and Illustrated by Kevin Necessary
The Screaming Bridge at Maud Hughes Road: Written and Illustrated by Thomas O. Miller
Cover Art by David Michael Beck