The spooky season is upon us as the calendar turned to October. With this, we put together a list of horror comics to read getting you in the mood for Halloween.
We compiled the list of horror comics in alphabetical order instead of a ranking the series.
Basketful of Heads
Publisher: DC Black Label
Debut Release: 2019
Writer: Joe Hill
Artist: Leomacs
The rain lashes the grassy dunes of Brody Island, and seagulls scream above the bay. A slender figure in a raincoat carries a large wicker basket, which looks like it might be full of melons… covered by a bloodstained scrap of the American flag.
This is the story of June Branch, a young woman trapped with four cunning criminals who have snatched her boyfriend for deranged reasons of their own. Now she must fight for her life with the help of an impossible 8th-century Viking axe that can pass through a man’s neck in a single swipe-and leave the severed head still conscious and capable of supernatural speech.
Each disembodied head has a malevolent story of its own to tell, and it isn’t long before June finds herself in a desperate struggle to hack through their lies and manipulations… racing to save the man she loves before time runs out.
Bitter Root
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2018
Writers: David Walker, Chuck Brown
Artist: Sanford Greene
In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance is in full swing, and only the Sangerye Family can save New York-and the world-from the supernatural forces threatening to destroy humanity. But the once-great family of monster hunters has been torn apart by tragedies and conflicting moral codes. The Sangerye Family must heal the wounds of the past and move beyond their differences… or sit back and watch a force of unimaginable evil ravage the human race.
David F. Walker and Sanford Greene, the creative team of Power Man and Iron Fist, along with indie veteran Chuck Brown (Trench Coats, Cigarettes and Shotguns) bring you 24 action-packed pages of monsters, mayhem, and family dysfunction.
The Electric Black
Publisher: Black Caravan
Debut Release: 2019
Writers: Joseph Schmalke, Rich Woodall
Artists: Joseph Schmalke, Rich Woodall
The Electric Black is a cursed antique shop, appearing in any time or space, soliciting customers it hungers to corrupt or devour. The mysterious Julius Black is the store’s demonic proprietor and narrator. He, along with his psychopathic employees, regularly manipulates patrons for their own devious purposes. Inside the eerie emporium, all of the forbidden objects have secrets to unlock. The poor souls that enter never leave without something. Its dark light will shine on macabre mysteries, grisly murders, and other frightful occurrences. Dare you step within its sinister halls?
Gideon Falls
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2018
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
The lives of a reclusive young man obsessed with a conspiracy in the city’s trash, and a washed-up Catholic priest arriving in a small town full of dark secrets, become intertwined around the mysterious legend of The Black Barn, an otherworldly building that is alleged to have appeared in both the city and the small town, throughout history, bringing death and madness in its wake.
Rural mystery and urban horror collide in this character-driven meditation on obsession, mental illness, and faith.
Grim
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Debut Release: 2022
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Flaviano
Jessica Harrow is dead. But her journey has only just begun!
Discover the world of the afterlife, where Jessica has been recruited as a Reaper, tasked with ferrying countless souls to their final destination.
But unlike the rest of the Reapers, she has no memory of what killed her and put her into this predicament.
In order to unravel the mystery of her own demise, she’ll have to solve an even bigger one – where is the actual Grim Reaper?
From acclaimed writer Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn) and fan favorite artist Flaviano (New Mutants) comes a bold new vision of what comes after, and the nature of death itself!
Ice Cream Man
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2018
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, drug addiction, musical fantasy…there’s a flavor for everyone’s misery. Ice Cream Man is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate “one-shot” tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man-a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers-lickety split!-can change the course of your life forever.
Written by W. Maxwell Prince (One Week In The Library), with art by Martin Morazzo (Great Pacific) and Chris O’Halloran (Generation Gone).
Locke & Key
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Debut Release: 2008
Writer: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Acclaimed suspense novelist and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box) creates an all-new story of dark fantasy and wonder: Locke & Key. Written by Hill and featuring astounding artwork from Gabriel Rodriguez (Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show, Beowulf), Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them…. and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all…
The Me You Love In The Dark
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2021
Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona
Writer Skottie Young (I Hate Fairyland, Twig, Strange Academy) and artist Jorge Corona (No. 1 With A Bullet, Super Sons, Feathers) follow up their critically acclaimed series Middlewest with a haunting new tale. An artist named Ro retreats from the grind of the city to an old house in a small town, hoping to find solace and inspiration-only to realize that the muse she finds within may not be what she expected. Fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman will enjoy this beautiful, dark, and disturbing story of discovery, love, and terror.
Nailbiter
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2014
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Mike Henderson
Joshua Williamson (Ghosted) and Mike Henderson deliver a mystery that mixes Twin Peaks with the horror of Se7en!
Buckaroo, Oregon has given birth to sixteen of the vilest serial killers in the world. An obsessed FBI profiler investigating the town has suddenly gone missing, and now an NSA Agent must work with the notorious serial killer Edward “Nailbiter” Warren to find his friend and solve the mystery of “Where do serial killers come from?”
“If Josh died I wish he’d leave Nailbiter to me in his will so I could say it was my idea.” – Scott Snyder (Severed, Batman, American Vampire).
The Nice House On The Lake
Publisher: DC Black Label
Debut Release: 2021
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Álvaro Martínez Bueno
Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter—well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter’s always been a little…off. But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter’s invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake.
It’s beautiful, it’s opulent, it’s private—so a week of putting up with Walter’s weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime? Why not? All of them were at that moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn’t a chance to reconnect be…nice?
With Something Is Killing The Children and The Department of Truth, James Tynion IV has changed the face of horror in modern comics. Now get ready for his most ambitious story yet, alongside his Detective Comics partner Álvaro Martínez Bueno!
Something Is Killing The Children
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Debut Release: 2019
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Werther Dell’Edera
James Tynion IV (Memetic, The Nice House On The Lake) teams with artist Werther Dell’Edera (Briggs Land) for a limited series of horror comics about staring into the abyss to find your worst fears staring back.
When the children of Archer’s Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories-impossible stories of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows.
Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to see what they can see.
Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it must be done.
Stray Dogs
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2021
Writer: Tony Fleecs
Artist: Trish Forstner
It’s scary being the new dog.
Sophie can’t remember what happened. She doesn’t know how she ended up in this house. She doesn’t recognize any of these other dogs. She knows something terrible happened, but she just… can’t…recall… wait! Where’s her lady?
A five-issue Don Bluth-style suspense thriller by My Little Pony comic artists Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner, Stray Dogs is Lady and the Tramp meets Silence of the Lambs in the form of horror comics.
The Walking Dead
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2003
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard
How many hours are in a day when you don’t spend half of them watching television? When is that last time any of us really worked to get something that we wanted? How long has it been since any of us really needed something that we wanted?
The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled, no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start to live.
We Don’t Kill Spiders
Publisher: Black Caravan
Debut Release: 2021
Writer: Joseph Schmalke
Artist: Joseph Schmalke
In the early Viking Age, a faithless Norseman detective is summoned to a Scandinavian hamlet where a series of murders have occurred. Discovering the dark and bloody history of the village he investigates the local outcast, a necromantic witch who brings his atheistic values into question. Determined to prevent further homicides the two band together to discover the identity of a serial killer.
Wytches
Publisher: Image Comics
Debut Release: 2014
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jock
Across the globe, century after century, men and women were burned, drowned, hanged, tortured, imprisoned, persecuted, and murdered for witchcraft. None of them were witches. They died protecting a terrible and hidden truth: witches, real witches, are out there. They are ancient, elusive, and deadly creatures that are rarely seen and even more rarely survived.
