So you've worked your way through all your favorite horror movies. You've binged the latest and most terrifying shows on Netflix--maybe more than once. You've played through all the best and most disturbing horror video games around. What's left to do for someone still jonesing for a little terror this Halloween season?
Time to pick up some comics, of course!
We've compiled a list of 13 of our favorite comics and graphic novels that cover the whole spectrum of delightfully harrowing Halloween favorites, from serial killers to eldritch monsters, from the classic to the modern. We've got cannibals, haunted houses, demons, and witches. We've got ghosts and superheroes, vampires and heist crews, cursed towns and conspiracy theories. Body horror? Check. Human sacrifice? Yeah, that too. What more could you ask for?
So kick back, turn down the lights (but not too low, don't strain your eyes) and prepare yourself to be deeply disturbed, or delighted, or both by thirteen spine-tingling horror comics to cap off your spookiest Halloween season.
Severed
What ought to be a charming coming-of-age story about a twelve year old boy finding his mysterious biological father turns into a harrowing tale of monsters and murders in Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft's Severed. Set in 1916, young Jack Garron entrusts his search to a strange man who is, secretly, a monster that feeds on children. Things go just about as well as you could probably imagine.
Ghosted
Joshua Williamson and Goran Sudzuka's Ghosted is part horror story, part heist, focusing on a recently convicted criminal tasked with a very unusual job: to steal a ghost from a supposedly extremely haunted house. Think Ocean's 11, but a whole lot more violent. Also, there are cults. And murder. You know, the works.
Through the Woods
Artist and writer Emily Carroll has been terrifying the internet with her eerie webcomics for years with stories like The Groom and Some Other Animal's Meat. In Through the Woods, she's created and published four original horror stories and collected a fan favorite, His Face All Red, in print for the first time. Come for the haunting, ominous atmospheres, and stay for the supernaturally beautiful art.
Gideon Falls
Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Gideon Falls is as ominous as they come. Partly about a small town with a secret, partly about an otherworldly, teleporting structure called the Black Barn, this is the comic to turn to if you're looking for looming threats of danger, extra-dimensional gateways, and unreliable narrators. Told across multiple perspectives with the Black Barn's murky influence never too far out of mind, Gideon Falls is one part cosmic horror and one part mystery.
Infidel
A totally unique spin on the tried and true haunted house genre, Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell's Infidel tells the harrowing story of a Muslim woman and her neighbors being terrorized by monstrous entities that feed of xenophobia. With stunning art that evokes equal parts disturbing surrealism and grit, Infidel is as much a bone chilling horror story as it is a brilliantly topical commentary.
Redlands
If Southern Gothic is more your speed, Jordie Bellaire and Vanessa R. Del Rey's Redlands is for you. A brutal, contemporary look at the folktale-tinged world of witch covens, this is the comic to read if you're looking to covens of witches, brutal human sacrifices, and swampy, magic-coated atmosphere.
Uzumaki
A classic horror manga by modern master Junji Ito, Uzumaki is the book for you if the disconcerting, skin crawling world of J-horror is more up your alley. Uzumaki is an anthology-style story about a small town enduring a truly horrifying curse that involves a repeated spiral ("uzumaki" in Japanese) pattern showing up again and again. It's as grotesque as it is beautiful.
Clean Room
If psychological horror is more your speed, Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt's Clean Room is for you. The story of a journalist who uncovers a life threatening secret--otherworldly creatures hiding in plain sight, sneaking onto Earth to kill, maim, and control humanity--that pulls her into a spiraling world of cover ups and deadly secrets. Think X-Files, think They Live but with a considerably darker and more monstrous bent.
The Saga of Swamp Thing
Want something a little more cape-and-cowl leaning? Alan Moore and Stephen Bissette's The Saga of Swamp Thing is a famously beautiful reconstruction of one of DC's most off-the-wall properties, Swamp Thing, a plant-based entity who is connected in one way or another to all green life on Earth. If you like your superheroes with a side of gothic-flavored, monster-based horror, this one's for you. Also, Swamp Thing's getting his own James Wan produced live action show on DC Universe in the next year, so consider this some required reading if you want to prepare.
Nailbiter
Slashers more your style? Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson's Nailbiter is the place to go. The story follows investigators looking into a town where the majority of the country's serial killers originate from, and they enlist the help of a brutal serial killer, obsessed with chewing off the nails of his victims (get it? Like in the title?) to get answers about the town and other murderers. Nailbiter brings a different style of horror to the forefront, forgoing monsters and magic and highlighting the most basic, no-frills fear: people killing other people.
American Vampire
We'd be totally remiss to not include some of your traditional Halloween monsters on this list, but rather than going for your standard issue Draculas and Werewolves, we're going to put something else on the table. Horror legend Stephen King joined comics mainstays Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque for American Vampire, a historical reimagining of the vampire legend as a secret, branching subspecies with unique traits and skills.
Wytches
If you haven't already guessed by now, writer Scott Snyder has a bit of a predisposition towards horror. He and artist Jock teamed up for Wytches, another monster-based splatterfest focusing on a species of cannibalistic creatures known as "wythches" who can grant power to the people who serve them--but, as you could probably guess, that power usually comes at a horrible, horrible price.
Locke & Key
It's hard to really categorize Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's Locke & Key into any one definable horror subgenre. It's got demons, monsters, and a haunted house. It's got magic and mystery and the looming threat of the apocalypse. But most importantly, it's got keys. Centered around a collection of mystical keys forged from demonic iron and told anthology style with "miniseries" story arcs, Locke & Key is a horror epic worthy of every one of its many accolades.
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