Vivid tales of next-door strangers

Dead rats and voodoo threats replace a newcomer’s gift basket at a Brooklyn apartment complex. A little old lady, dressed like Strawberry Shortcake, finds solace with her dolls and cats. Sinister scents and a nervous neighbor make one man wonder what might really be happening on the other side of his shared wall.

These are all snippets of private lives, witnessed through open curtains or over backyard fences. They are also the riveting real-life material documented in an online comic-book project called “Next-Door Neighbor.”

“These are like Hallmark cards. They keep us connected,” said Dean Haspiel, editor of the project at Smith magazine, a site that allows its contributors, both amateur and professional, to post their stories, writing projects and other creative media. “We are celebrating humanity, from the kid next door to the raging alcoholic upstairs with the night terrors.”

The 42-year-old Haspiel is an artist of growing acclaim, after his comics collaborations with leading figures such as Harvey Pekar (“American Splendor”), Michael Chabon (“The Escapist”) and Jonathan Ames (“The Alcoholic”); many of his panels have captured sad or seedy moments of real lives. That informs the sensibility of “Neighbor,” which is led by Haspiel and Smith co-founder Larry Smith, whose site previously hosted the landmark Web comics “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge” and “Shooting War.”

Moving in

“Neighbor” ( www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor) launched in April 2008 and, with the posting of Tara Seibel’s “The Vestibule” last month, has grown to include 29 stories, each by a different creator or creative team. It’s comics meets Hitchcock, the grotesque glossed over with a little touch of fantasy and realism; they vary wildly in tone, texture and illustrative style, but they also feel as linked as the numbered doors that share an apartment building hallway.

“They are all different, yet all connected,” Smith said. “They are all personal, idiosyncratic experiences. Whether you live in an apartment or a mansion, there is always that neighbor that creeps you out. Neighbors have been an object of fascination, speculation and occasional voyeurism for storytellers ranging from Jane Austen to Alfred Hitchcock.”

The project came about after Haspiel noted the resurgence of comics anthologies as templates for storytelling. He began searching for a linking concept that would inspire, rather than restrict, his contributors. “I had a bunch of ideas in my mind,” Haspiel said, “and I wanted to come up with something that would get people talking.”

The conceit was an instant winner with Smith, whose online magazine launched in January 2006.

“We are a personal storytelling site,” said Smith, who added that he gave the go-ahead on “Neighbor” within five minutes of hearing the idea. “As long as it is personal and passionate, there is no one way to write a story.”

The storytellers

The series began with “Next Door Neighborless: A True Story” -- created by Ames, the novelist, and Nick Bertozzi -- about a man’s paranoia regarding his lack of neighbors, at least of the human variety.

The sweaty-palm angst of Ames and Bertozzi may feel like a mash-up of “Barton Fink” and Kafka, but another contribution, “I Heart NY?” by Nicole Kenney, lives on a far sunnier street. It’s no surprise, considering the winking whimsy of the Atlanta native’s past work, such as “Boys in My Life Thus Far,” which illustrates her past flames, from flings to long-term boyfriends.

But even in her upbeat artwork there’s a yearning to get past the impersonal: Kenney’s installment shows teeming life in little boxes, tenants of an apartment building living alone and apart despite the shared walls between them.

“I wanted to write about a period of my life that I knew other people could relate to,” said Kenney. “There are these lonely people that want to connect but have trouble connecting.”

Another contributor was Joan Reilly, one of Haspiel’s colleagues at the Brooklyn-based comics collective Studio Deep Six.

Reilly’s works often present themes dealing with relationships, city life and absurdity, which plays well into the “Neighbor” approach; her installment, “Hank & Barbara,” tells the story of Reilly and her innocent friendship with a girl named Cass in a not-so-innocent neighborhood.

The story climaxes when Cass mysteriously leaves without saying goodbye.

“It was a simple idea that people can latch onto,” said Reilly. “She was my secret friend.”

For the readers

In addition to the professionals, Smith magazine launched a contest inviting fans to submit their neighborhood narratives. Last month, winner Michele Carlo saw her story “Night of the Black Chrysanthemum” premiere, with illustrations by veteran Rick Parker. It was also the final installment under Haspiel’s supervision, though the series will continue under the auspices of Smith magazine.

There are also talks about a print-edition collection of the series, which would fit the trajectory of “Shooting War” and “A.D.” as online ventures that made it to bookshelves in handsome bound volumes.

Smith said that would be a secondary success to the first achievement of “Next-Door Neighbor”: “That we found a way to take something so ‘top-down’ and bring in our readers, that is Smith’s mission manifesting itself perfectly -- professional mashing up with the amateur to deliver intimate, addictive, personal storytelling.”

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