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The 59 Best Horror Comics You Should Read
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The 59 Best Horror Comics You Should Read

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5th October, 2025 update: An additional 14 picks have added to the list.

Horror is a genre that’s constantly mutating. There are always new ideas and fresh takes on classic ones. The genre can be used to explore a broad range of themes, be a vehicle for characterisation, or be good old fun. As a result, the genre is a rich tapestry that has garnered a passionate fanbase from it.

Most people associate horror with film. However, the genre also has a healthy output through comics. This list highlights the best horror comics out there, scouring the disparate corners of the comic book world to cover as many types of horror as possible. Browsing it, you’ll discover vampires and demons, creepy cults, terrifying monsters, malicious murderers, ghastly ghosts, and other unspeakable evils. As a result, we’ve created a varied and exciting list that will have you returning for more.

Are you wondering why a particular comic didn’t make the list? There are so many fantastic horror comics out there that it’s impossible to cover them all – at least not straight away. At the same time, we created a few restrictions for the sake of variety. We limited creators to three inclusions, narrowing the selection to their most interesting horror works. We also kept a few of the more obvious choices off the list in favour of spotlighting lesser-known reads.

It’s worth noting that these horror titles, and many others, will likely make it on the list later. This list will be updated occasionally with new additions, casting an even wider net of horror comics for you to discover.

Happy reading!

Most of the comics below can be found at all good comic book shops, online retailers, eBay, or Amazon/Kindle.

30 Days of Night Volume 1 cover by Ben Templesmith.
30 Days of Night Volume 1 cover by Ben Templesmith.

30 Days of Night

Written by Steve Niles. Art by Ben Templesmith. Published by IDW Publishing.

The town of Barrow, Alaska, is so far north that during parts of winter, the sun goes down and doesn’t come up for 30 days. A group of vampires arrive at the town to take advantage of the unique condition. Now, the residents must survive the month-long darkness or be eaten by the deadly visitors.

30 Days of Night is a tale about survival in the harshest conditions. With the odds against them, the remaining townsfolk will be forced to decide between hiding and fighting. What lengths will they go to avoid being eaten?

Artist Ben Templesmith uses darkness to his advantage by combining it with his atmospheric mixed media style. There’s a distorted roughness to his art that’s combined with textured scratches and veiled in a dark colour palate. This gives the effect of a fuzzy nightmare. It feels like everything is out of reach until the horror strikes out with crimson-red splatters. – Trevor Van As

Issues: 30 Days of Night #1-3 [original series] + sequels
Collected editions: ’30 Days of Night Volume 1′ or ’30 Days of Night Deluxe Edition Book One’
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

American Vampire #1 cover by Rafael Albuquerque.
American Vampire #1 cover by Rafael Albuquerque.

American Vampire

Written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King (first 5 issues only). Art by Rafael Albuquerque and others. Published by Vertigo Comics/DC Black Label.

Before Scott Snyder became DC Comics’ biggest writer of the 2010s, he excited readers with a horror series that looked at vampires from a different angle. The comic follows the American bloodline of vampires, which can withstand sunlight but are far more vicious than their European counterparts and their various conflicts.

Readers track the movements of this new breed, such as highway outlaw Skinner Sweet and his first convert – Pearl Jones. By doing so, American Vampire explores the evolution of the United States at the same time. Readers see the country go from the Wild West all the way up until the 1970s. In the process, witnessing how it has changed for better or worse. – Trevor Van As

Issues: See reading order
Collected editions: American Vampire Volume 1-8
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

The Autumnal cover Chris Shehan.
The Autumnal cover Chris Shehan.

The Autumnal

Written by Daniel Kraus. Art by Chris Shehan. Published by Vault Comics.

Kat Somerville, single mother to Sybil, is called back to the hometown she barely remembers – Comfort Notch – when she hears her mother has died. When she gets home, she begins to notice that it’s more than just her punk rock style and laissez faire attitude that means she sticks out in this quiet community. No, there’s a deeper and more sinister reason she feels out of place, and as the story unfolds she becomes more and more sure that there’s no place for her and Sybil at Comfort Notch. If only the town felt the same way…

There are so many layers to pull apart, that by the time you’re done, you almost don’t know what to do with it. All you really know is that you have an ache in your heart and chill down your spine. The Autumnal doesn’t settle for surface level scares. It reaches deep down, into the things that matter to us most, and coaxes out a terror that won’t soon be forgotten. – Zac Owens

Issues: The Autumnal #1-8
Collected edition: The Autumnal: The Complete Collection
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

A Walk Through Hell #2 cover by Goran Sudžuka.
A Walk Through Hell #2 cover by Goran Sudžuka.

A Walk Through Hell

Written by Garth Ennis. Art by Goran Sudžuka. Published by Aftershock Comics.

A pair of FBI agents walk into a warehouse in search of two fellow agents. What they discover is a disorienting hell that links back to the evils they experienced in a recent case. The creative team unravels this evil through present-day events and flashbacks in this shocking tale.

A Walk Through Hell is an exploration of contemporary evils. It details horrific crimes through a horror lens, linking them to the current political climate and how that has shaped society for the worse. No one is safe, as Ennis and Sudžuka take aim at those who facilitate the evils and those who do nothing to stop them. – Trevor Van As

Issues: A Walk Through Hell #1-12
Collected editions: A Walk Through Hell Volumes 1-2 or A Walk Through Hell: The Complete Series
Buy:Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth Deluxe Edition cover by Dave McKean.
Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth Deluxe Edition cover by Dave McKean.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

Written by Grant Morrison. Art by Dave McKean. Published by DC Comics.

Batman is a very malleable character that can operate in many different storytelling and genre modes. In this 1989 graphic novel, the Caped Crusader delves into the horror of the prison for the criminally insane – Arkham Asylum. Here, Batman confronts terrifying interpretations of his rogues’ gallery as he treks deeper into its twisted body to save hostages at the risk of his sanity.

Morrison and McKean echo Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Batman has fallen deep down the rabbit hole, with each villain he encounters being akin to the menagerie of characters that Alice meets in the book. Of course, these have a more sinister approach thanks to McKean’s twisted renderings, often including exaggerated features and shrouded in grainy darkness. – Trevor Van As

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Beautiful Darkness cover by Kerascoët.
Beautiful Darkness cover by Kerascoët.

Beautiful Darkness

Written by Fabien Vehlmann. Art by Kerascoët. Published by Drawn and Quarterly.

Aurora and her friends lose their house, a young girl’s corpse, so now they must venture into the real world. Its beauty overshadows its dangers as the characters continue to die off, blissfully unaware of how to live in it. But they’re also innocent of the cruelty in each of them.

Beautiful Darkness takes elements from fairy tales, the cute aesthetics, talking to animals, and romance, and shoves them into a dark setting. But your eyes are glued to it. Like with a slasher movie, you find yourself upset but excited about all the ways the characters might die. It’s one of those rare stories that gives you the feeling that no one is safe. – Gabriel Rodrigues

Buy: Amazon | eBay

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees trade paperback cover by Patrick Horvath.
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees trade paperback cover by Patrick Horvath.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

Written and art by Patrick Horvath. Published by IDW Publishing.

What if Dexter and the work of Richard Scarry were put in a blender? The result would be Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, an anthropomorphic small-town thriller. The comic follows Samantha, the local hardware store owner with a secret – she’s a serial killer. While she maintains the small town charm by never killing any townsfolk, that balance is knocked out of whack when a new serial killer appears in town.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees walks a delicate tightrope, balancing a quaint charm with the frightening. It lulls you into thinking it’s cozy horror. However, that’s just so it can be juxtaposed with bloody dismemberments and a baleful coldness. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees #1-6 + sequels
Collected editions: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
Buy:Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology cover by Junji Ito.
Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology cover by Junji Ito.

Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology

Edited by Fawn Lau and Mayuko Hirao. Japanese manga by Ryo Hanada, Aki Shimizu, and Shima Shinya. American manga writing by Michael W. Conrad and Leslie Hung. American manga art by Becky Cloonan, Sloane Leong, and Huahua Zhu. Published by Viz Media.

Betwixt: A Horror Manga Anthology collects six stand-alone short stories from Japan and the United States from a diverse roster of star creators. Although the bespoke cover art is drawn by horror veteran Junji Ito, these stories eschew Ito’s dark comedy and instead aim for a more subdued tone of creeping dread.

The six short manga offer a wide range of characters, settings, and art styles, but what unites them is their focus on uncanny otherness, both in their outcast protagonists and the strange creatures they encounter. Even within the normal confines of everyday life, the creators suggest, there are some things that simply can’t be explained or understood. – Kathryn Hemmann

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Black Hole cover by Charles Burns.
Black Hole cover by Charles Burns.

Black Hole

Written and art by Charles Burns. Published by Kitchen Sink/Fantagraphics/Pantheon.

Set in suburban Seattle in the 1970s, Black Hole revolves around a sexually transmitted bug that mutates those affected. Some are mutated in noticeable ways, while others are less apparent. The alternative classic follows the point of view of two teens affected by the bug, exploring their relationships with those around them and the alienation of their predicament.

Black Hole is not a horror in the traditional sense. Yes, it has mutants and a nightmarish psychedelic element to it at times. However, where it’s most frightening is through its display of human behaviour. There’s a savagery in how the mutated teens are treated, which eventuates into anxious self-destruction and murder. – Trevor Van As

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Black Monday Murders Volume 1: All Hail Mammon cover by Tomm Coker.
Black Monday Murders Volume 1: All Hail Mammon cover by Tomm Coker.

Black Monday Murders

Written by Jonathan Hickman. Art by Tomm Coker. Published by Image Comics.

The old banking institutions are not merely banks in the world of Black Monday Murders. Instead, they’re organisations that practise occult magic, with every exchange keeping the rest of us in place in service of an ancient god. It’s all very delicate work, but a power struggle looks to threaten the economic scales and jeopardise everyone.

Readers may see many similarities to Hickman’s X-Men run. This includes infographics, correspondence between characters, and tensions within organisational structures. However, the latter takes a far more sinister approach, with truly terrible beings taking boardroom backstabbing to a terrifying new level, an all-consuming analysis of capitialism. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Black Monday Murders #1-8 [#9-12 TBA]
Collected editions: Black Monday Murders Volume 1-2
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Black Stars Above: The Complete Series cover by Jenna Cha.
Black Stars Above: The Complete Series cover by Jenna Cha.

Black Stars Above

Written by Lonie Nadler. Art by Jenna Cha. Published by Vault Comics.

Set in 1887 rural Canada, Eulaie Dubois has been tasked with delivering a parcel to a mysterious town up north. At first, she thought battling family expectations and the harsh wilderness was all she needed to face. Little did she know that there was something more sinister and unknowable lurking the deeper she went.

This miniseries is a slow burn. It first focuses on Eulaie’s survival in the harsh winter environment. It then slowly escalates into eerie cosmic horror, introducing the unknowable and surreal. It’s intentionally disorientating at times but is always centred on a character-driven tale. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Black Stars Above #1-5
Collected edition: Black Stars Above: The Complete Series
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Bloodborne: The Healing Thirst cover by Piotr Kowalski.
Bloodborne: The Healing Thirst cover by Piotr Kowalski.

Bloodborne: The Healing Thirst

Written by Aleš Kot. Art by Piotr Kowalski and Brad Simpson. Published by Titan Comics.

FromSoftware’s hit 2015 video game Bloodborne is notoriously difficult, and its plot is infamously labyrinthine. Thankfully, the second volume of Aleš Kot and Piotr Kowalski’s Bloodborne comic series offers an original stand-alone story that allows novice readers to revel in the game’s gorgeously gothic atmosphere.

As the shadowed city of Yharnam is ravaged by an infectious disease that turns men into wolves, a priest and a scientist join forces to find a cure. Their noble intentions are undermined by the dangers stalking the besieged streets and the lurking threat of the church’s inquisition, as well as their own all-too-human natures. At its core, The Healing Thirst is a deeply human drama whose poignancy is enhanced by the horror of its unforgettable setting. – Kathryn Hemmann

Issues: Bloodborne #5-8
Collected edition: Bloodborne Volume 2: The Healing Thirst
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs Volume 1 cover by Mike Mignola.
B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs Volume 1 cover by Mike Mignola.

B.P.R.D.

Written by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and others. Art by Guy Davis, Peter Snejbjerg, Aaron Campbell, and others. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

When the B.P.R.D. series began, it at least appeared to just be a fun off-shoot of its parent series – Hellboy. It consisted mostly of one-shot issues that showed Hellboy’s friends in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense dealing with various ghosts and ghoulies. But as the series progressed, it began to form into a brilliant, slow, and intricate arc. With the first major arc of B.P.R.D., “The Plague of Frogs,” readers are introduced to a demonic conspiracy that ties to a subterranean race of frog people, as well as many of the world’s leading scientific minds. This arc would ultimately have repercussions throughout the entire series, culminating in the final issue of B.P.R.D: The Devil You Know, 15 years later.

Not only does B.P.R.D. contain a huge library of comics, many more than Hellboy, but it also leads us through the lives of countless characters you will fall in love with. The characters, with their incredible development and complex dynamics, are constantly evolving. The elaborate, inter-connected storytelling of B.P.R.D. – which not only ties its issues together seamlessly but also ties to related series like Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, and Witchfinder – breathes life into this vast, strange universe. Sometimes, after immersing yourself in these pages for long periods of time, you have to pinch yourself to remember there are no half-demon heroes, amphibious gentlemen, or pyrokinetic women protecting us all from the monsters under the bed, as disappointing as that might be. – Zac Owens

Issues: See guide
Collected editions: See guide
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Brain Damage cover by Shintaro Kago.
Brain Damage cover by Shintaro Kago.

Brain Damage

Written and art by Shintaro Kago. Published by Fantagraphics.

Shintaro Kago delivers stories made to elicit strong reactions from the reader in this four-story collection. The mangaka implements extreme methods – violence, gore, and some very uncomfortable elements – in inventive ways to catch readers off guard and create an unwanted pit in their stomach.

If you’re okay with extreme horror, then you’ll be treated to some unique takes on the genre. There’s a haunted house tale that takes a hard pivot into something completely different, a mystery involving horrible deaths in stationary cars, and plenty of weirdness throughout. – Trevor Van As

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Bongcheon-Dong Ghost

Written and art by Horang. Published by Naver/Webtoon.

This webtoon is simple but effective. Digging into a Korean urban legend, it focuses on a girl’s encounter with a ghastly figure in the street. Short and to the point, but what makes it great is its execution.

More than any other comic on this list, Bongcheon-Dong Ghost is a multimedia experience. It takes advantage of its digital nature through the use of an eerie soundtrack (read it while wearing headphones) and the use of unexpected animated panels. You’ll soon see why it went viral in the early 2010s. – Trevor Van As

Read

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Book One cover by Robert Hack.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Book One cover by Robert Hack.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Art by Robert Hack. Published by Archie Comics.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch is best known for its sitcom storytelling – whether that’s the original comics that follow the Archie formula or the Melissa Joan Hart television series. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reinvents the idea as a coming-of-age horror, diving deep into 1960s occult and the occasional gore.

Sabrina lives in two worlds – one of witches and another of mortals. As a result, the series is a tug-of-war of expectations and conflicting needs. Gone are the days when magic leads to zany antics. Instead, deadly consequences and dangers lurk in the shadows. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1-10
Collected editions: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Volume 1-2
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

The Closet cover by Gavin Fullerton.
The Closet cover by Gavin Fullerton.

The Closet

Written by James Tynion IV. Art by Gavin Fullerton. Published by Tiny Onion (via Substack) and Image Comics.

It’s common for children to be scared of the “monster” under the bed or in the closet. However, that monster rarely follows the child on a cross-country road trip. That’s what happened to poor Jamie, who continues to be visited by the sinister creature at night. All the while, his fuck-up father either doesn’t take it seriously or continues to mess up.

The Closet is a deeply unsettling exploration of childhood anxiety and how parents can affect their children. This is encapsulated in the comic’s disturbing monster – jet black, spindly, with a sinister grin being the only distinguishable features – that will scare even adults. It’s a comic that will shock you into being a better parent. – Trevor Van As

Issues: The Closet #1-3
Collected edition: The Closet
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Cradlegrave trade paperback cover Edmund Bagwell.
Cradlegrave trade paperback cover Edmund Bagwell.

Cradlegrave

Written by John Smith. Art by Edmund Bagwell. Published by 2000 AD/Rebellion.

Shane Holt returns to his housing estate home after an eight-month stint at a Young Offenders Institution. Over a stinking-hot summer, he reunites with bad friends and gets in all kinds of trouble. All the while, an ominous horror feeds on the estate, bringing a Cronengergian element to the real-world horrors.

In many ways, Cradlegrave is what you get if you combine Candyman with a Ken Loach film. It uses horror as a vehicle for social drama that dives into themes like austerity and social housing. As a result, sometimes the things that are more horrifying are the ones that are very real. – Trevor Van As

Issues: 2000 AD Prog 1633-1644
Collected edition: Cradlegrave
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The Crossroads at Midnight cover by Abby Howard.
The Crossroads at Midnight cover by Abby Howard.

The Crossroads at Midnight

Written and art by Abby Howard. Published by Iron Circus Comics.

Abby Howard, the co-creator of the lauded dark romance indie game Slay the Princess, has been drawing subtly strange and uncanny stories since 2013. Her 2020 solo collection The Crossroads at Midnight brings together five graphic novellas that openly embrace the more explicit elements of horror. 

In these stories, real-world terrors such as familial abuse and neglect are brought into sharp contrast by otherworldly entities whose savagery can seem tame by comparison. Howard’s distinctive monochromatic art breathes life into disturbingly grotesque monster designs, and even jaded horror connoisseurs will cringe at the unwholesome panoply of body horror on display in this collection. – Kathryn Hemmann

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Daybreak cover by Brian Ralph.
Daybreak cover by Brian Ralph.

Daybreak

Written and art by Brian Ralph. Published by Drawn and Quarterly.

Zombies have been done to death. There are many zombie stories out there, with very few differentiating themselves in interesting ways. Daybreak separates itself from the herd by dropping the reader directly into its world. The graphic novel is told through a first-person perspective, with the reader being the point-of-view character throughout. Here, you’ll interact with other survivors, avoid zombies (who are intentionally obscured for effect), and try to make the best out of a bad situation.

Daybreak’s world is a complete mess. Cartoonist Brian Ralph’s environments are in complete ruins, with wood and rocks piled everywhere. While it’s never explained, you know that it’s a world that has totally collapsed and no longer belongs to humans – it’s the zombies now. – Trevor Van As

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Department of Truth Volume 1: End of the World cover by Martin Simmonds.
Department of Truth Volume 1: End of the World cover by Martin Simmonds.

Department of Truth

Written by James Tynion IV. Art by Martin Simmonds. Published by Image Comics.

Some conspiracy theories are harmless fun, while others can do great harm. In the world of Department of Truth, if enough people believe in a conspiracy, it will manifest in reality. Academic Cole Turner is thrown into this world, working for the Department of Truth to stop these conspiracies from coming true while also trying to uncover something far more sinister.

The comic dives deep into conspiracies conceptually, looking at why people believe certain things and what happens when these beliefs become widespread. Some of these are harmless, like cryptids or flat earth theories. Others are much more dangerous and have harmful consequences if they are actualised. – Trevor Van As

Issues: The Department of Truth #1-
Collected editions: The Department of Truth Volume 1-
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Don't Read This by I Drink Mercury.
Don’t Read This by I Drink Mercury.

Don’t Read This

Written and art by I Drink Mercury. Published by Webtoon Originals.

It’s only natural for your curiosity to be piqued when a comic has the title “Don’t Read This”. However, this is less of a warning and more of a description of the series – a one-sided conversation with a non-descript character. Here, we witness them break the fourth wall to dialogue with the reader, chronically their loneliness and eventual journey into the unknown.

The series questions existence through the lens of mental health and anxiety. Big sections of episodes are shrouded in complete black, forcing the reader to scroll to escape the void. Through this, the Don’t Read This plays with the webtoon format in a way that many others don’t in order to elicit a feeling of abstract dread. – Trevor Van As

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Eat the Rich trade paperback cover by Becca Carey.
Eat the Rich trade paperback cover by Becca Carey.

Eat the Rich

Written by Sarah Gaily. Art by Pius Bak. Published by Boom! Studios.

Josephine has gone to spend the summer at an exclusive beach-side community with her boyfriend and her family. However, there’s something odd going on. An uneasy feeling that’s far more sinister than just a class divide.

Eat the Rich is an examination of how the rich use regular people as a commodity. How they use them up, even if they’re well compensated, until they’re no longer useful. On the other side, it also questions why anyone would want to be in that situation, highlighting that the rich create access to things regular people are unable to afford, like healthcare and higher education. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Eat the Rich #1-5
Collected editions: Eat the Rich
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Tales From The Crypt #28 cover by Al Feldstein.
Tales From The Crypt #28 cover by Al Feldstein.

EC Horror Comics (Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear)

Written and art by various. Published by EC Comics. Reprinted by Dark Horse Comics/Fantagraphics.

Many publishers were doing horror comics in the 1950s. However, none of them came close to EC Comics’ output. With anthologies like Tales of the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear, the publisher pushed the boundaries with shock endings and gore while digging into the societal anxieties of the time. The comics are still celebrated today, inspiring those in and out of comics (such as George A. Romero and Stephen King), and even causing a moral panic.

The EC horror stories covered a broad range of horror storytelling, including supernatural karma, revenge tales, creature features, and mad science. While other publications covered these topics, the stories were elevated by some of the best artists in the game, including Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Graham Ingels, and Jack Kamen, among others. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Tales from the Crypt #20-46, Vault of Horror #12-40, and The Haunt of Fear #1-28
Collected editions: The EC Archives or The EC Artists’ Library
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

RELATED: Your Guide To Oni Press’ EC Comics Revival

From Hell trade paperback cover by Eddie Campbell.
From Hell trade paperback cover by Eddie Campbell.

From Hell

Written by Alan Moore. Art by Eddie Campbell. Published by Top Shelf Productions/Knockabout Comics.

From Hell is Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s exploration of the Whitechapel Murders and Jack the Ripper. The pair untangle the knotted history of true events and speculation into a dense, heavily researched story that explores what drives someone to become a madman and the society that created him.

While From Hell appears to be a crime story at first, it contains many disturbing horror elements. Eddie Campbell’s depiction of the murders is gruesome, containing copious amounts of blood with medical precision. This is shrouded by an overarching sense of dread, driven by societal conditions, Freemason lore, and occult symbology. – Trevor Van As

Issues: From Hell #1-10
Collected edition: ‘From Hell’ or ‘From Hell: Master Edition’
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A Guest in the House cover by E.M. Carroll.
A Guest in the House cover by E.M. Carroll.

A Guest in the House

Written and art by E.M. Carroll. Published by First Second.

In A Guest in the House, we’re introduced to Abby. Abby is a shy newlywed, who has married into a little family of her own. Her husband, her step-daughter, and the house that they live in never really fully feel like hers. She seems like a visitor in her own story. But as she begins to hear more and more conflicting things about what really happened to her husband’s ex-wife, she also becomes aware of an otherworldly presence in the house, that’s following her into her dreams. 

E.M. Carroll’s approach to horror is quite simple: what terrifies us the most are the things we don’t really know. Throughout collections like Through the Woods, Carroll implements this tactic masterfully in their short stories and webcomics. Though A Guest in the House is a longer format for this same approach, Carroll never misses a step. It’s the kind of story that sparks a million fan theories to what is really going on, and forces you to accept that there are some things you really just cannot know, as unsettling as that might be. – Zac Owens

Buy: Amazon | eBay

Gyo hardcover cover by Junji Ito.
Gyo hardcover cover by Junji Ito.

Gyo

Written and drawn by Junji Ito. Published by Viz Signature.

Gyo begins with a creepy – yet simple – idea for an aquatic horror. Rotting fish with legs are making their way onto land and causing havoc. But that’s only the beginning, as Junji Ito successfully transforms the story into a body horror that will make your skin crawl.

Ito uses fine lines to densely render his horrific creations in spectacular detail. The result is creatures that are dirty, disgusting, and otherworldly. – Trevor Van As

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Harrow County Omnibus Volume 1 cover by Tyler Crook.
Harrow County Omnibus Volume 1 cover by Tyler Crook.

Harrow County

Written by Cullen Bunn. Art by Tyler Crook. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Emmy Crawford is turning 18 years old, in the town of Harrow County in the 1930s. While this should be a joyous occasion for most, for Emmy it is when she discovers the superstition among the townsfolk that she is, in fact, the reincarnation of an evil witch that was burned at the stake. When Emmy begins exhibiting supernatural powers, it becomes clear that the prejudice of the townspeople may spell the end of her young life.

Harrow County’s a story about not judging a book by its cover. Not only do we get to know Emmy’s incredible kindness, despite the prophecies about her, but we also learn about the strange creatures that live in the woods and watch the townsfolk from the darkness. Many are not as terrible as they would seem, and some are downright lovely. It’s fitting, then, that Tyler Crook paints such mesmerizingly beautiful scenes on each page, using watercolors throughout. His textured, stunning artwork perfectly underscores the hidden humanity and beauty of each and every character. Bunn’s writing is equally compelling, resulting in his script being a masterclass in character development. A truly magnificent series. – Zac Owens

Issues: Harrow County #1-32
Collected editions: Harrow County Volume 1-8
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The Hills of Estrella Roja cover by Ashley Robin Franklin.
The Hills of Estrella Roja cover by Ashley Robin Franklin.

The Hills of Estrella Roja

Written and art by Ashley Robin Franklin. Published by Clarion Books.

The Hills of Estrella Roja begins when a college student with a folklore podcast receives a tip to visit an isolated Texas town on the border of the Chihuahuan Desert. There she meets a young woman who’s concerned about her family’s odd behavior while in town for her grandmother’s funeral. As the pair investigates local rumors of witchcraft, they learn that desert cryptids are the least of their worries.

Ashley Robin Franklin is a South Texas native who incorporates the folklore and troubled history of the region into a gothic story of family secrets. Beneath its creepiness, The Hills of Estrella Roja is a love story that unfolds against the beautiful and haunting backdrop of Franklin’s expansive desert landscapes. – Kathryn Hemmann

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Home Sick Pilots Volume 1 cover by Caspar Wijngaard.
Home Sick Pilots Volume 1 cover by Caspar Wijngaard.

Home Sick Pilots

Written by Dan Watters. Art by Caspar Wijngaard. Published by Image Comics.

The Home Sick Pilots, the coolest punk band around (at least if you ask them), choose their next show venue: the Old James house. But things quickly go wrong when the haunted house kills a rival band and gives their lead singer strange powers, forcing her into a dangerous mission. She has to find the cursed objects tied to the souls of the house’s many dead residents, which are now scattered throughout the country.

Wijngaard’s use of color is breathtaking, perfectly fitting the punk and supernatural style. In a way, you feel even more immersed in Watters’ story and the teens’ struggles. It’s tragic seeing the situation drag them into the same cycles of hate they wish to stop. Still, it urges the reader to defy the institutions abusing them, be it the government or their own house. – Gabriel Rodrigues

Issues: Home Sick Pilots #1-15
Collected edition: Home Sick Pilots Volume 1-3
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Houses of the Unholy cover by Sean Phillips.
Houses of the Unholy cover by Sean Phillips.

Houses of the Unholy

Written by Ed Brubaker. Art by Sean Phillips. Published by Image Comics.

Brubaker and Phillips are an unbeatable creative team, and their newest work – Houses of the Unholy – is more proof of their brilliance. Houses of the Unholy follows Natalie Burns, a woman who grew up during the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s. When she was five years old, she found herself swept up along with her classmates, testifying about demonic rituals that never happened. At five years old, she was so impressionable she didn’t even seem to know if she was telling the truth or not, and yet as an adult she looks back on her past with shame and guilt. The human cost of her kindergarten mistakes follow her well into her adult life.

Brubaker and Phillips use Natalie as a vehicle to not only tell a truly compelling story, but to discuss how things like the Satanic Panic still affect our present day. They leave us with questions like, what’s this human need we feel to always be thinking it’s the end of the world? Do we simply feel it’s easier to blame the Devil, than to take responsibility for our part in the state of things? The plot and characters might all be fictional, but the angst, disillusionment and even the historical details it pulls from are all very real. – Zac Owens

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H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth cover by Gou Tanabe.
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth cover by Gou Tanabe.

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Written and art by Gou Tanabe. Translation by Zack Davisson. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Veteran horror manga artist Gou Tanabe has adapted multiple works of H.P. Lovecraft, always with a focus on recreating each story as faithfully as possible. While the settings, characters, and plot developments of the original stories are painstakingly recreated, Tanabe’s talent lies in creating visual designs for entities so alien that not even Lovecraft’s narrations can describe them.

Tanabe’s creative genius is on full display in his adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, in which the decaying gothic architecture of the ruined port town is just as marvelous to behold as the eldritch legions of fishpeople who inhabit its shadowed quarters. Tanabe’s uncannily realistic art proves that being able to see a monster clearly can be just as horrifying as keeping it hidden. – Kathryn Hemmann

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I Am A Hero Omnibus Volume 1 cover by Kengo Hanazawa.
I Am A Hero Omnibus Volume 1 cover by Kengo Hanazawa.

I Am A Hero

Written and art by Kengo Hanazawa. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Hideo Suzuki’s life is in the dumps. He’s 35, with a floundering career and a girlfriend who seems more interested in her ex. While he comes off as slimy, he’s the kind of guy that you feel for – even if you dislike him. However, Hideo gets the chance at a fresh start when the zombie apocalypse hits. Now, as one of very few who own a firearm in Japan, he has just become one of the more capable survivors fending for their lives.

I Am A Hero is a very Japanese take on zombies. Not just because of the setting, which is deep in Tokyo, but because of the character choices. For instance, Hideo is still a model citizen even when society collapses around him, using his gun per Japanese law, and always talking about how he will report his actions to the police when things quiet down. As a result, it’s a fresh take on the all-guns-blazing takes of zombie fiction of recent decades. – Trevor Van As

Collected editions: I Am A Hero Omnibus Volume 1-11
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Ice Cream Man Volume 1 cover by Martin Morazzo.
Ice Cream Man Volume 1 cover by Martin Morazzo.

Ice Cream Man

Written by W. Maxwell Prince. Art by Martin Morazzo. Published by Image Comics.

Horror is no stranger to the anthology format, with the genre benefiting from bursts of self-contained storytelling. W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Marazzo’s Ice Cream Man is the best example of it on the shelves today. Each issue tells a done-in-one story that explores the depths of human misery. The titular Ice Cream Man is the connective tissue that links all the disparate stories together – acting as the horror host, occasional aide, but chiefly a sinister force.

Ice Cream Man oscillates between grounded tales of misery and suffering and balls-to-the-wall, wild storytelling. Readers will be kept on their toes, with the comic offering plenty of surprises, unexpected ideas, and experimentation that plays with the comic book form. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Ice Cream Man #1-current
Collected edition: Ice Cream Man Volume 1-current
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Infidel trade paperback cover by Aaron Campbell.
Infidel trade paperback cover by Aaron Campbell.

Infidel

Written by Pornsak Pichetshote. Art by Aaron Campbell. Published by Image Comics.

Infidel is a new breed of haunted house story. It follows Aisha, an American Muslim woman haunted by ghosts in her New York City apartment. However, these are not run-of-the-mill ghosts – they’re racists too. They haunt and gaslight Aisha and other neighbours while feeding on the xenophobia of ignorant, mostly white tenants.

The comic explores racism and xenophobia and how its toxicity permeates throughout society. By setting it in a New York City apartment building, where these attitudes unfortunately exist, Infidel not only breathes new life into the haunted house genre but also gives the story some believability. Aaron Campbell renders the ghosts as distorted and horrid figures. They reflect the ugliness of xenophobia that the comic explores and only get more twisted as the comic progresses. It makes for a truly scary comic. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Infidel #1-5
Collected edition: Infidel
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John Constantine: Hellblazer Volume 1: Marks of Love cover by Bilquis Evely and Mat Lopes.
John Constantine: Hellblazer Volume 1: Marks of Love cover by Bilquis Evely and Mat Lopes.

John Constantine: Hellblazer

Written by Si Spurrier. Art by Aaron Campbell. Published by DC Black Label.

The Hellblazer title has been around since 1988, but dropped out of publication in 2013. When DC Comics decided to bring it back in 2019, under the banner of The Sandman Universe, they weren’t messing around. Spurrier takes his surroundings, a xenophobic UK living in the shadow of Brexit, and translates them into a horror comic that has a lot to say. John Constantine is dealing with the ways he’s been part of all of the problems he’s set out to solve. As selfish and egotistical as he might be, he’s also slowly realizing that he’s his worst enemy. 

Spurrier and Campbell also masterfully connect every instance of strange otherworldly voodoo to something real. There are issues that feature sleazy politicians, ghosts born out of racist ideologies, and creatures subjected to people’s misogynistic fantasies. Ultimately, Spurrier and Campbell assure us, we are the true monsters. That’s what needs to change if we don’t want to live in a world of horrors. – Zac Owens

Issues: John Constantine, Hellblazer #1-12
Collected edition: John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 1-2
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Locke & Key Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft cover by Gabriel Rodriguez.
Locke & Key Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft cover by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Locke & Key

Written by Joe Hill. Art by Gabriel Rodriguez. Published by IDW Publishing.

It’s hard to get a read on Locke & Key. At times, it feels like a middle school fantasy book – something like The Chronicles of Narnia or Percy Jackson. Other times, it feels like a YA book, where the main characters are learning the hard lessons of growing up and falling in love. And of course, it often seems entirely horrific, with plenty of scares to go around. But at a certain point in reading Locke & Key, you stop worrying about trying to fit it in a box because you’re so invested in all of it.

Hill and Rodriguez have created a series that is layered, balanced, and versatile. It feels like a million genres at the same time because it’s not populated by characters who were briefed ahead of time. They don’t know they’re supposed to be in a horror comic, and so they act like human beings with full lives and plans for the future. Locke & Key is a brilliant example of how the best horror stories are fueled by hope for the characters’ futures. You only get truly scared when you really care. – Zac Owens

Issues: See reading order
Collected editions: Locke & Key Volume 1-6
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Loving, Ohio cover by Sam Beck.
Loving, Ohio cover by Sam Beck.

Loving, Ohio

Written by Matthew Erman. Art by Sam Beck. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Loving, Ohio is set in an American town just like any other. There’s just one problem – almost everyone in town, from elected officials to local business owners, is a member of an Evangelical Christian cult. This religious organization provides comfort and support to a population left behind by the larger culture, but there’s something strange about how no one questions the recent series of disappearances.

The story of this unsettling graphic novel eventually takes a turn into supernatural horror, but its true monsters are human. Matthew Erman’s writing makes the mundanity of the cult’s evil seem all too real, while Sam Beck’s art poignantly conveys the eerie desolation of an economically depressed town in the Rust Belt. – Kathryn Hemmann

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The Low, Low Woods #1 cover by J.A.W. Cooper.
The Low, Low Woods #1 cover by J.A.W. Cooper.

The Low, Low Woods

Written by Carmen Maria Machado. Art by Dani. Published by DC Black Label.

The Low, Low Woods is set in a Pennsylvanian ex-mining town during the 1990s. It’s a place where a fire perpetually smoulders underground, where skinless men and deerwomen roam the forest, and where women have missing memories. Two teenage dirtbags experience the latter phenomenon, setting the girls on a journey to discover the cause and a darker secret in the town.

The creative team explores the economic and societal impacts small towns face when they lose their industry. Carmen Maria Machado and Dani discuss how this affects residents and what keeps them. However, without spoiling too much, the comics’ overarching theme is about consent and making your own choices, whether that’s about your body or your future. – Trevor Van As

Issues: The Low, Low Woods #1-6
Collected edition: The Low, Low Woods
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New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga trade paperback cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.
New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga trade paperback cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.

New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga

Written by Chris Claremont. Art by Bill Sienkiewicz. Published by Marvel Comics.

While superhero comics occasionally crossover into horror, few are as abstract as New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga. In a confrontation with a bear haunting her dreams, Dani Moonstar is left clinging for life on the operating table. The young mutants must stop this demonic bear from returning and finishing her.

The glue that holds this story together is artist Bill Sienkiewicz, who uses his unique style to create abstract horror imagery. The Demon Bear at the centre of this story looks like a regular bear, but as the tale progresses, it becomes more warped. Elongated claws, a mess of sharp teeth, and rougher line work all come into play to give it a frightening presence. – Trevor Van As

Issues: The New Mutants (1983 series) #18-20
Collected edition: ‘New Mutants: Demon Bear’ or ‘New Mutants Epic Collection: The Demon Bear Saga’
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RELATED: The Groundbreaking Superhero Horror Of New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga

Nocturne art by Nathan Koia.
Nocturne art by Nathan Koia.

Nocturne

Written and art by Nathan Koia. Published by WEBTOON Originals.

You know those things that go bump in the night? What if they weren’t just a cat or the house settling, but the monstrous imaginary friend of someone you were rude to at a fast food restaurant, a monster that punishes children for not brushing their teeth, or a sinister shadow in your new apartment instead? This anthology series dives deep into the things that your imagination thinks those things could be. As a result, the mundane becomes chilling stories rendered in grainy black-and-white with an urban legend/creepypasta bent to them. – Trevor Van As

Read

Not Drunk Enough Volume 1 cover by Tess Stone.
Not Drunk Enough Volume 1 cover by Tess Stone.

Not Drunk Enough

Written and art by Tess Stone. Published by Oni Press.

Two repairmen answer an emergency call from a biotech lab in the middle of the night only to find all manner of abominations stalking the darkened corridors. This is above their pay grade; and, as the title of this two-volume horror comedy suggests, they are simply not drunk enough to handle this nonsense.

The sharpness of Tess Stone’s dialogue is matched by the energy of his kinetic art style. Even as the characters begin to manifest mutations, they’re attractive and compelling. In fact, this corporate cautionary tale is so entertaining that you might be tempted to dabble in mad science yourself. – Kathryn Hemmann

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Providence cover art by Jacen Burrows.
Providence cover art by Jacen Burrows.

Providence

Written by Alan Moore. Art by Jacen Burrows. Published by Avatar Press.

Alan Moore is no stranger to deconstruction, having deconstructed superheroes with Watchmen and the public domain with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. With Providence, Moore takes aim at H.P. Lovecraft by crafting a postmodernist tale that blends Lovecraftian stories, ideas, creatures, and Lovecraft himself into one cohesive tale.

It’s a comic that’s rich in detail, meticulously and intentionally planned. As a result Providence breathes new life into Lovecraft’s material – celebrating the material and being critical of it at the same time – to create a story that’s eerie, terrifying, and sometimes unpleasant. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Providence #1-12
Collected editions: ‘Providence Acts 1-3’ or ‘Providence Compendium’
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PTSD Radio Volume 1 cover by Masaaki Nakayama.
PTSD Radio Volume 1 cover by Masaaki Nakayama.

PTSD Radio

Written and art by Masaaki Nakayama. Published by Kodansha.

The title of PTSD Radio is apt, as reading this manga feels like switching between stations of the most cursed broadcasting device imaginable. Although there are connecting threads between the short stories, each episode offers only a brief glimpse into the porous underside of reality.

PTSD Radio jumps freely between the city and the country while featuring a mix of urban legends and rural folk horror. While the stories are vague and shadowy, Masaaki Nakayama forces the reader to feel their impact through the power of his distinctly uncanny art, which is devilishly creative in its distortions of human faces and inhuman bodies. Every volume of this manga series is a truly haunted object. – Kathryn Hemmann

Collected editions: ‘PTSD Radio Volume 1-6’ or ‘PTSD Radio Omnibus Volume 1-3’
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Redfork cover by Nil Vendrell.
Redfork cover by Nil Vendrell.

Redfork

Written by Alex Paknadal. Art by Nil Vendrell. Published by TKO Studios.

In Redfork, a coal mining town in decline, things are not going well. The coal mine is slowing down production, causing tension between the owners and workers. It’s at this moment that a charismatic and mysterious figure rolls into town with a solution to everyone’s problems. However, everything comes at a devastating and gruesome price.

The comic is an exploration of the opioid epidemic through a horror lens. It delves into too-good-to-be-true initial effects and the ugly dependencies it creates – especially in collapsing communities that have lost their industry. – Trevor Van As

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The Sleep Stories by Michael Walsh.
The Sleep Stories by Michael Walsh.

The Sleep Stories

Written and art by Michael Walsh. Self-published.

Artist Michael Walsh illustrates his nightmares in a string of sequences that shift between childhood and adulthood. The reader witnesses frightening bouts of sleep paralysis, fever dreams, dread, and anxiety.

Walsh shares the nightmares in black and white, combining a crisp high-contrast style with a static-like graininess. This heavy use of black is enough to reveal the terrors while also creating an eerie atmosphere, often obscuring the terrors in darkness so the reader’s imagination can fill in the blanks. – Trevor Van As

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The Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One cover by Stephen Bissette.
The Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One cover by Stephen Bissette.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing

Written by Alan Moore. Art by Stephen R. Bissette and Rick Veitch. Published by DC Comics/Vertigo Comics/DC Black Label.

Saga of the Swamp Thing was on the verge of cancellation when a young Alan Moore took over writing duties in 1983. Due to this, he was given free rein to do what he pleased. His first issue (Saga of the Swamp Thing #20) tied up loose ends of the swamp monster’s adventures from the previous creative team. However, Moore and Bissette would take the character and title through radical changes, transforming Swamp Thing from a swamp creature on the run to an elemental being in service of a higher force known as “The Green”. 

With a tagline “sophisticated suspense” brandished on issues, Moore and Bissette used horror to explore complex themes and ideas such as identity, sexual connection, environmentalism, and much more. These themes hit hard through Moore’s prose-like narration, along with atmospheric and moody art, creating a chilling read that changed the character forever. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Saga of the Swamp Thing #20-64
Collected editions: Saga of the Swamp Thing Book 1-6
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Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories cover by Junji Ito.
Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories cover by Junji Ito.

Shiver: Selected Stories

Written and art by Junji Ito. Published by Viz Signature.

Junji Ito’s body of work is jam-packed full of short stories. These are collected in numerous volumes, but Shiver has the honours of being personally curated by Ito himself. This results in cover-to-cover bangers, each one creepier than the last.

Shiver covers a lot of different types of horror. Some of these include Hanging Balloon, a deeply disturbing story about sentient balloons with nooses hanging off them; Fashion Model, a creepy creature feature in the fashion industry; and Greased, one of the most putrid things I’ve ever read. – Trevor Van As

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Sweet Home art by Youngchan Hwang.
Sweet Home art by Youngchan Hwang.

Sweet Home

Written by Carnby Kim. Art by Youngchan Hwang. Published by Webtoon/Naver.

After losing his family, Hyun-soo finds himself closed off in his apartment building in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. But these aren’t your usual brain-eating monsters. Each person’s last desire turns them into something completely different, but all equally dangerous. And now, a voice in Hyun’s head asks what he wants to become.

As the boy encounters more monsters, you question what they desired to end up like that. So, every creature he finds is inherently more complex than a simple monster, having a richer story to tell. And the same thing goes for Hyun; Sweet Home keeps you guessing, unsure of when he’ll transform and what he’ll become. Even though you root for him, you also know he’s always one step closer to becoming the next threat. – Gabriel Rodrigues

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Thistlebone Book One cover by Simon Davis.
Thistlebone Book One cover by Simon Davis.

Thistlebone

Written by T.C. Eglington. Art by Simon Davis. Published by 2000 AD/Rebellion.

Avril escaped a pagan cult in her youth. 20 years later, she returns to the site with a reporter when she believes the group may be active again. Her quest for answers will test her sanity and uncover sinister details about the town of Harrowvale.

Thistlebone is a lushly painted folk-horror, with Simon Davis capturing the eeriness of the locations. He captures the foreboding darkness of the woods, hiding deep-dark secrets and frightening beings around every corner through colour and panel framing. It makes for a tense read that lulls you in with its allure. – Trevor Van As

Issues: 2000 AD Prog 2135-2144, 2221-2232
Collected edition: Thistlebone and Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots
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Uzumaki hardcover by Junji Ito.
Uzumaki hardcover by Junji Ito.

Uzumaki

Written and art by Junji Ito. Published by Viz Signature.

A quiet Japanese seaside town has been “contaminated with spirals”. This seems innocent enough at first, causing spiral patterns in the grass and clouds. However, the town soon becomes infested with them, causing all kinds of escalating horrors that affect inhabitants in detrimental and terrifying ways.

Uzumaki takes advantage of Junji Ito’s two signature styles of horror – psychological and body horror. Both are taken to the extreme, with characters displaying erratic behaviours and often meeting ends that warp their bodies beyond recognition. The results are unnerving for their shocking depiction and will stay with you for a long time. – Trevor Van As

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

RELATED: The Horror Of The Spiral In Junji Ito’s Uzumaki

Victor LaValle's Destroyer trade paperback cover art by Micaela Dawn.
Victor LaValle’s Destroyer trade paperback cover art by Micaela Dawn.

Victor LaValle’s Destroyer

Written by Victor LaValle. Art by Dietrich Smith. Published by Boom Studios.

Victor LaValle’s Destroyer is a modern-day sequel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Ballads of Black Tom author shows readers what would happen if the monster returned from the Arctic to enact its red-hot rage on the modern world. Along the way, it will cross paths with an ethically questionable government agency, a descendant of the Frankenstein family, and the 21st-century equivalent of Dr. Frankenstein’s work.

This science fiction horror uses ideas from the original novel, combining them with socio-political themes and science fiction elements. As a result, the comic explores police violence, race, unethical science, and post-humanism. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Victor LaValle’s Destroyer #1-5
Collected edition: Victor LaValle’s Destroyer
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The Walking Dead Compendium cover by Charlie Adlard.
The Walking Dead Compendium cover by Charlie Adlard.

The Walking Dead

Written by Robert Kirkman. Art by Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.

By far one of the most commercially successful comics on this list, when comparing comics originating from the US, The Walking Dead has gone on to spawn a media empire. Spanning 193 issues, the comic explored the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse from the perspective of the survivors. Along the way, it asks many morality questions as the character’s ethics are constantly questioned as new power struggles emerge. As a reader, you’ll soon question if the zombies are the real monsters.

The Walking Dead constantly keeps readers on their toes with many shocking surprises. No one is safe and could be gone at any moment. Because of this, the comic is never boring. – Trevor Van As

Issues: The Walking Dead #1-193
Collected editions: See formats
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Creepy #5 cover by Frank Frazetta.
Creepy #5 cover by Frank Frazetta.

Warren Horror Anthologies (Creepy and Eerie)

Written and art by Various. Published by Warren Publishing. Reprinted by Dark Horse Comics.

Horror comics all but died in the mid-1950s thanks to a moral panic and the Comics Code. However, almost a decade later, Warren Publishing used a legal loophole to revive the genre through Creepy and its sister magazine, Eerie. Picking up where EC Comics left off (in a literal sense, with many EC artists contributing to the early issues), the two anthologies crafted horror stories for the 1960s and beyond, living up to their namesake.

Creepy was a traditional horror anthology featuring spooky and haunting material. Eerie, on the other hand, had a more science fiction and fantasy bent. However, what both of them had in common was stunning art, featuring alumni of EC Comics; up-and-comers like Neal Adams and Bernie Wrightson; legends like Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, and Alex Toth; and some of the best artists that Europe had to offer. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Creepy #1-145 and Eerie #1-139
Collected editions: Creepy Archives Volume 1-29 and Eerie Archives Volume 1-27
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When I Arrived At The Castle cover by E.M. Carroll.
When I Arrived At The Castle cover by E.M. Carroll.

When I Arrived At The Castle

Written and art by E.M Carroll. Published by Koyama Press/Silver Sprocket.

E.M Carroll’s long-form comic is a sexually charged vampire tale that follows an unnamed protagonist who arrives at the Countess’ castle to slay her. Carroll hits the reader early on with an energy that’s equal parts sexual tension and dread. Throw in some voyeurism along the way, this tension builds throughout the comic and becomes a kind of courtship to the Sapphic sex and gore that will come later on.

When I Arrive At The Castle is a visually stunning comic, mixing gothic styles, surrealism, and a restricted colour palette. Pages are laid out with tension-building in mind, opening the door for some interesting use of fonts and hand lettering. – Trevor Van As

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Where Black Stars Rise cover by Marie Engers.
Where Black Stars Rise cover by Marie Engers.

Where Black Stars Rise

Written by Nadia Shammas and Marie Engers. Art by Marie Engers. Published by Tor Nightfire.

Amal is a trainee therapist who has just met her first patient. Her first client, Yasmin, is regularly visited by a dark presence that feels all too real. While the relationship between the two is initially shaky, it goes off the deep end when Yasmin disappears without a trace. Riddled with guilt and concern, Amal goes looking for her – traversing into the eldritch world of Carcosa.

Where Black Stars Rise is a stylish eldritch horror, reworking elements of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow. Here, the creative team crafts a story exploring anxiety, self-doubt, self-improvement, duty of care, and immigrant experience. Marie Enger’s rough geometric forms hum with a dark energy, drenched in darkness and contrasted with intense yellow to make a visually impressive horror comic. – Trevor Van As

Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Where Monsters Lie trade paperback cover by Piotr Kowalski.
Where Monsters Lie trade paperback cover by Piotr Kowalski.

Where Monsters Lie

Written by Kyle Starks. Art by Piotr Kowalski. Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Horror is filled with monstrous murders like Jason, Jigsaw, Hannibal Lecter, and many others. What if they live all together in a gated community? Where Monsters Lie explores this through a horror-comedy lens, diving into what happens when their secret homes become public with the police. Spoiler: all hell breaks loose.

All the murderers in Where Monsters Lie are stand-ins for classic film characters or tropes. This kind of parody can be a tightrope act, but it’s one that Starks and Kowalski walk easily, using it for characterisation, narrative progression, and plenty of great gags. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Where Monsters Lie #1-4 and Where Monsters Lie: Cul-de-sac #1-4
Collected edition: Where Monsters Lie
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Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland hardcover by Gabriel Rodriguez.
Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland hardcover by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland

Written by Joe Hill. Art by C.P. Willson III. Published by IDW Publishing.

Writer Joe Hill is no stranger to horror, being the son of Stephen King and a novelist in his own right. So when it comes to dabbling with comics, it’s no surprise that he goes down some terrifying roads. Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland is a prequel to his novel NOS4A2, highlighting another encounter with Charlie Manx. This time, a group of criminals and a pair of cops find themselves fighting for their lives when they’re taken to the demonic Christmas theme park of Christmasland.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read NOS4A2. Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland highlights some of the worst in humanity, the real-world horrors, and juxtaposes it with a warped Christmas world populated by eerie demon children. The two combined make for some scary reading that will make your skin crawl. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland #1-8
Collected edition: Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

Wytches #1 cover by Jock.
Wytches #1 cover by Jock.

Wytches

Written by Scott Snyder. Art by Jock. Published by Image Comics.

The Rook family has relocated to the remote town of Litchfield to escape the misfortune of recent events and to get a fresh start. However, something worse awaits them, with the teenage daughter pledged to the ancient creatures known as wytches. And once you’re pledged, they’re coming after you.

Artist Jock makes the wytches terrifying by concealing them for a prolonged period. They’re hidden in darkness or washed in an overlay of paint splatter. This forces the reader to fill in the blanks. And we all know that the most terrifying things are in your head. – Trevor Van As

Issues: Wytches #1-6 and Wytches: Bad Egg Special
Collected edition: Wythes Volume 1
Buy: Amazon/Kindle | eBay

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