Horror comics range from grungy, gothic, pulpy, and everything in-between, with the current landscape of indie comics producing some of the best science-fiction and horror comics a reader could hope for. From Wytches to Constantine’s adventures in Hellblazer, the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead to the vampiric 30 Days of Night – the latter two well known for their televised and cinematic adaptations – and plenty of others. So many, in fact, that one list simply won’t do! Here’s a small selection of comics from the crypt to read on a dark haunted night that are sure to send a chill or two up your spine.
Just keep a wary eye on the dark corners and shadowy hanging trees outside…
1 – Wytches
Image Comics
Scott Snyder’s Wytches has been one of Image comics most popular horror titles to date. The premise for this six issue series was based on a childhood game he would play, where he and a friend would make up stories involving a family of satanists who dwelt in the nearby Pennsylvania forests, constantly trying to ensnare the two boys. Upon revisiting the area as an adult years later, however, Snyder was inspired to develop these childhood experiences into a comic in which the witches patiently waited for their victims to come to them – knowing the children would be drawn back – expanding on the lore, and transforming them from witches with magical properties, to bestial creatures who lived deep in the woods. One of the greatest feelings of fear, however, comes from the parental fear that a parent can’t always be there to protect their children, despite how hard they might try…
To Scott Snyder, witchcraft isn’t all Harry Potter and Quidditch: it’s deeper, darker, and much more grisly, like a twisted Brothers Grimm tale. The story follows the Rook family, who have moved to Litchfield, NH, following an incident between their daughter, Sailor, and a vicious bully. During this incident, Sailor was attacked and Annie disappeared, sparking rumours that Sailor snapped and killed her. It just so happens that the town they chose to move to has its own supernatural secrets, and a tradition involving townsfolk pledging one another to the wytches in return for a boon…
While Snyder’s mythology and concepts are frightful enough, and the townsfolk as dubious and disturbing as the residents of Stephen King’s Derry, Jock’s art is both shocking and enticing, adding layers to Snyder’s writing that add to the intense creepiness of the story. Matt Hollingsworth also manages to aid by adding a moody colour pallet. This is one of those rare occasions where a comic book can instil a sense of dread by a mere page turn, competing with some of the more recent cinematic supernatural thrills on offer.
2 – The Belfry
Image Comics – One Shot
Gabriel Hardman’s moody horror one-shot, The Belfry, is the perfect length for a self contained story! It follows a group of survivors, who become the unfortunate survivors of an airline crash, stranded in a remote jungle… always a good start. While they’re able to walk away relatively unscathed, matters take a much darker turn as The Belfry becomes a story of survival. Gabriel Hardman’s dark story writing is perfectly complimented by his adequately dark artwork, with heavy, grungy textures that convey its oppressive tone. It’s likely to appeal to fans of gothic horror, and if the cover work doesn’t catch your attention, maybe the large winged vampiric beasts will…
3 – Uzumaki
VIZ Media
Only the master of horror manga and suspense could make the unassuming spiral into a symbol of fear and dread, injecting every bit of terror he can into the pages of Uzumaki! Uzumaki tells the story of a bizarre occurrence when the fictional town of Kurōzu-cho becomes plagued by a supernatural curse involving spirals. Originally inspired by an attempt to write a story about families living in long terraced houses, using the shape of the spiral to add an illusionary sense of length, the true horror behind Uzumaki comes from the subversion of an otherwise abstract symbol or idea. That and his ability to structure “jump scares” by the turn of the page. This is a running theme in some of Ito’s most effective horror stories, managing to be both unnerving and more psychologically despairing than having a physical creature lurching behind corners – such as in Gyo or typical slasher horror.
For fans of psychological horror, Uzumaki will send your sanity spiralling into madness as you come to realise you’re constantly surrounded by spirals everyday without even realising it – whether it’s in grass, snail shells, storms, swirling water going down a sink… or even in your own body!
4 – Gideon Falls
Image Comics
Urbane horror and rural mystery come together in this supernatural horror, toying precariously with obsession, mental illness, and questions of faith. Comic book superstar Jeff Lemire crafts a disturbing tale that bridges two intertwining narratives: one about a reclusive young man wrapped up in his obsession with a conspiracy that naturally involves him digging through the city’s trash (of course…), the other featuring a troubled priest struggling with his past, arriving at a small backwater town with its own fair share of dark, twisted secrets. But how are these two connected in a mystery revolving around the dread “Black Barn” – an unassuming building that seems to appear throughout history in the city and small town of Gideon Falls, signifying the coming of chaos, death, and madness…?
With Andreas Sorrentino’s gritty art, Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls offers a chilling story with a mystery that questions our perception of reality and sanity, with a supernatural edge that absolutely deserves a live-action adaptation!
5 – Aliens: Dead Orbit
Dark Horse Comics
Much like the familiar, if fateful tale of the Nostromo, the crew of the Sphacteria are pitted against Giger’s horrific vent-skulking insectoid baby, the Xenomorph. With limited resources, crew drama, and more than enough dark corners for an alien to hide in, despite being a bulky 8 ft., James Stokoe’s Aliens: Dead Orbit uses an aesthetic that recalls the dark, gritty visual of Scott’s cinematic universe, reading a little like one of Ridley Scott’s many discarded scripts. Familiar sequences we expect to see in an Alien outing are well represented, with the always exciting, if expected, Facehugger sequence, chest-burster in all its gory detail, and ventilation shaft fatalities. If you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, this four-issue mini series is a must read, perfectly translating Ridley Scott’s vision with it’s own cast of characters and told through a unique in media res structure, where the first and final pages take place after the events told during the rest of the story.
6 – Parasyte
Kodansha
Hitoshi Iwaaki’s classic manga is still just as unsettling today, telling a story wrapped with a sickening sense of paranoia. In this rather graphic, if comical, manga series, Earth is being invaded by a race of parasitic worms that take over peoples brains by crawling into ears and noses, with no-way to tell who’s been infected…
Well. There is one way. Ever seen Carpenter’s The Thing? When someone’s face opens up to a sharp toothed starfish and bites someone else’s head off, there’s a slight chance they’ve got a parasite issue.
However, Shinji Izumi – your average high-school student – manages to stop a lone parasite from invading his brain thanks to his headphones, forcing the little creature to dwell in his arm. Unable to erase Izumi’s mind, the two forge a symbiotic relationship akin to Eddie Brock/ Flash Thompson and Venom. The series can be humorous at times, which you’ll be thankful for because it certainly doesn’t let up on the gooey grossness that explodes across the panels as heads explode, bodies are shredded to pieces, and guts are secreted with all the bloody grotesqueness you might expect from Carpenter himself…
7 – Infidel
Dark Horse Comics
From Image Comics comes the writing debut of Pornsak Pichetshote in Infidel. At its core, Infidel is a 21st Century paranoia induced haunted house story about Aisha and her neighbours, plagued by disturbing demonic entities who feed off fear, paranoia, and xenophobia. Aisha’s apartment building had previously fallen victim to a terrorist attack, frightening neighbours out of the building and inducing xenophobic paranoia and fear in others. For Aisha, this creates a frightening situation that may seem recognisable to some in a post 9/11 America, though the added supernatural element ups the tension, alongside Aaron Campbell’s gritty art.
8 – Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
DC Comics
Batman’s colourful rogues gallery – including a psychotic homicidal clown, a guy who’s face has been half burnt by acid, and a superhuman zombie – lend themselves well to the horror genre, yet it is surprising how few straight up Batman horror stories there are…
Trust Grant Morrison to take a shot, choosing the already eerie Arkham Asylum as the setting for his Batman debut, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Doesn’t hurt that Dave McKean takes up art duties here, either! The Asylum itself, already a prominent feature in the world of horror, takes on a whole new character of its own, showcasing Batman’s rogues gallery at their darkest and most disturbing.
Having sparked a riot and taken over the facility, it starts with the Joker inviting the Dark Knight to his humble abode, demanding that he spends the night, and threatening to murder the asylum staff unless Batman agrees to his terms. With heavy use of symbolic references, Morrison deconstructs Batman’s iconic villains, showing their descent further into the depths of insanity since the last time the Dark Knight saw them. He uncovers the story of how the asylum itself was established, the history of Amadeus Arkham and his maddening fall from sanity, and the unexplainable supernatural and psychological mysteries that haunt the very earth the asylum stands upon.
With the likes of Clayface, Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, Maxie Zeus, and others, Arkham Asylum surprisingly features very few actual action sequences that tend to make up the superhero genre, showing Morrison’s decision to move away from the genre norms for this story in favour of something more atmospheric, that is at times cryptic but overall haunting. Be wary for Killer Croc, though: he becomes much more frightening this time round, becoming a massive, unstoppable monster you might expect to see in a B-movie horror flick…
