THERE’S a grimness throughout a new graphic horror novel illustrated by a Breconshire master of dark imagery.

Bleak, bizarre and disturbing, Klaxon was perfect for Hay-on-Wye artist Dix to illustrate in his dullest palette.

He said it was as though it had been written for him and he’s made the pages so grey they can only be read with the lights on.

Dix teamed up with author, Si Spencer, to produce the comic strip style novel, described by Tank Girl comic series creator, Alan Martin as an “Urban nightmare of finely balanced dialogue and artwork, as if Raymond Briggs teamed up with Daniel Clowes and they dropped the bad brown acid.”

It’s his idea of an evening well spent.

The dark comedy appeals to Dix too but many people are uncomfortable with it.

“It’s a horror story with things like demon possession, but without the clichés. It’s not that sort of scary, which has been done to death.

“Blood gets replaced by liquorice allsorts. There’s a confectionary theme running through.

“I don’t find it scary, it’s humorous. I find it funny all the way through. The story and language is bizarre but there’s nothing shocking or horrific. There is a grimness throughout,” said Dix.

Set in a depressed 1980s northern town, Klaxon is the stuff of nightmares for some and was actually imagined in its entirety in a dream by Si Spencer.

He took his thoughts to publisher, SelfMadeHero, who liked the dark and creepy tale featuring three slackers high on candlewax and cavity wall insulation and their new neighbours, a woman and her grotesque and weeping mother.

Both homes are plagued by a malign landlord and his minion halfwit son and the residents become afflicted by milk binges, metamorphoses and indoor confectionary storms.

Dix and Si both have a history of working in the comic book industry and met around 20 years ago when Si was editing the comic, Deadline. He has also created strips for Judge Dredd.

Si now writes for DC Comics in America and has written for television too including episodes of East Enders, The Bill and Grange Hill.

The dream that inspired Klaxon was from Si’s earlier life when he shared digs in a northern town with three friends.

Dix became known for his cartoon strips in The Guardian and was the co-founder of Purr, described as a “gun to the head in print” collection of writing, comics, illustration and music from the darker side of life.

Dix and Si launched Klaxon this autumn and are already working on a second graphic novel.

“It’s a similar format and probably strange and disturbing and has a crab in it,” said Dix.