Horror Week at Capes and Tights is a week to celebrate a genre we love and it wouldn’t be complete without discussing our favorite horror comics of the year so far. We compiled this list based on the comic having at least two issue released in 2024 and is in no particular order.
Frankenstein (Skybound/Image)
(W) Michael Walsh | (A) Michael Walsh
A modern-day horror visionary resurrects one of the most iconic monsters. Award-winning creator Michael Walsh (The Silver Coin) presents an electrifying new vision of the horror classic. Each issue of the limited series tells the shocking story behind one of the body parts used to create the unforgettable monster in the original film. In this first issue, Dr. Henry Frankenstein begins his unholy quest to create life by robbing the grave of a decorated police officer. But little does he know that the corpse has a son who is mourning a father-and that this young boy will forever change Frankenstein’s life.
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (IDW)
(W) Patrick Horvath | (A) Patrick Horvath
Don’t. Murder. The locals. This is small-town serial killer, upstanding citizen, and adorable brown bear Samantha Strong’s cardinal rule. After all, there’s a sea of perfectly ripe potential victims in the big city just beyond the forest, and when you’ve worked as hard as Sam to build a cozy life and a thriving business in a community surrounded by friendly fellow animal folk, warm decor, and the aroma of cedar trees and freshly baked apple pie… the last thing you want is to disturb the peace. So you can imagine her indignation when one of Woodbrook’s own meets a grisly, mysterious demise-and you wouldn’t blame her for doing anything it takes to hunt down her rival before the town self-destructs and Sheriff Patterson starts (literally) barking up the wrong tree.
Into the Unbeing (Dark Horse)
(W) Zac Thompson | (A) Hayden Sherman
A group of climate scientists working in a remote base camp on the Australian outback discover an impossible landform. Led by botanist Hildur Johansson, the team sets out to conduct a routine exploratory mission to map the terrain, record their observations, and try to understand this anomalous landscape. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and the Unbeing delivers. The expedition discovers a massive, entirely novel, giant holobiont that threatens to upend everything they understand about the natural world. Propelled by hubris and the intoxicating charm of forbidden knowledge, the research team descends into a hostile alien environment allowed to thrive without human interference. The beautiful yet unforgiving landscape hosts strange flora, gorgeous fauna and dangerous predators lurking in the darkness. As the team pushes deeper, can they survive long enough to find what they’re looking for?
Blood Hunt (Marvel)
(W) Jed McKay | (A) Pepe Larraz
It’s an event like no other! As the skies grow dark, an army of vampires stalks the land by day. Now, Marvel’s greatest heroes must assemble to hold back an eternal night that threatens to consume the entire world in a wave of scarlet and chaos. Who will bite it?
Seven Years in Darkness: Year II (CEX/Midnight Press)
(W) Joseph Schmalke | (A) Joseph Schmalke
Welcome to Year Two at the Academy of Black Magic. The 59 surviving Apprentices advance into their second year of studies as the new class of Mages. This inaugural tale for year two follows a magically gifted student, Honey, who finds herself the target of a patristic entity intent on corrupting and ultimately devouring her soul.
Spectregraph (DSTLRY)
(W) James Tynion IV | (A) Christian Ward
For years, the mansion has sat strangely, nestled into the coastline just a short drive north of Los Angeles. Rumors have haunted the place for years. Its owner a titan of American industry, with a strange fascination in the occult and the paranormal. For decades, the richest men and women in the country have whispered to each other, trying to understand what he was building alone in that mansion for all those years. And now finally, with his death, and his estate finally open for sale… They are eager to find out for themselves.
Feral (Image)
(W) Tony Fleecs | (A) Trish Forstner
A new horror from the creators of Stray Dogs! Meet Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch, three indoor cats lost in the not-so-great outdoors during a nightmarish rabies outbreak. Without their humans to protect them, the cats rush to find their way home before they’re eaten by the forest full of rabid beasts on their tails. Don’t get bit. Don’t get scratched. Don’t become…feral.
Epitaphs from the Abyss (Oni Press)
(W) Various | (A) Various
From the publisher that drove Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, and many more into the depraved hearts of an unsuspecting world, the immortal EC Comics returns . . . with its first all-new series in nearly 70 years! What the Comics Code Authority couldn’t kill has only made it stronger . . . EC Comics lives again in Epitaphs from the Abyss!
Invasive (Oni Press)
(W) Cullen Bunn | (A) Jesus Hervas, Federico Sabbatini
Beyond excess, beyond ethics, beyond science…Enter a terrifying new experiment in pain from Eisner Award nominee Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun, Basilisk), 2023 Reuben Award Finalist illustrator Jesus Hervás (The Empty Man) and Federico Sabbatini (Moon Knight)!
Dr. Carrie Reynolds was a veteran trauma surgeon with a godlike mastery of muscle and bone. But outside the operating room, her rigidly ordered life spiraled into chaos when her daughter, Heather-a recovering plastic surgery addict-suddenly disappeared, only to mysteriously reemerge in a catatonic state, her vocal cords removed . . . the latest in a series of victims scarred by a battery of brazenly cruel medical procedures that have baffled police and left an alarming number of once-ordinary citizens maimed, mutilated, or dead on arrival.
Deep beneath the streets of Carrie’s city, a new kind of underground hospital has just opened its doors . . . and, once inside, there are no rules, no oaths, and no taboos too deep to not to be broken. Together, a new class of surgeon has sworn to pierce the final threshold of accepted medical orthodoxy one incision at a time. The scalpel is their tool. The alleys are their operating theater. Murder is their medicine. And only Carrie can stop what they’re planning next . . .
Something is Killing the Children (BOOM! Studios)
Journey into Erica Slaughter’s past during her formative years set before the events of the foundational Archer’s Peak saga. This unofficial “Year Zero” style anthology of the hit sensation that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide follows Erica during her journey to various small and remote towns in the American countryside, hunting monsters down before they do the unthinkable to unsuspecting children.
A perfect starting point for new readers and die hard Slaughterverse fans alike, each standalone issue from series creators James Tynion IV (Department of Truth, The Nice House On The Lake) and Werther Dell’Edera (House of Slaughter) highlights 5 different hunts that showcase the experiences that started Erica on her journey toward being the nearly unstoppable monster hunter she is today.
