The horror genre has always found a way to creep out of the darkest corners and reach its audience. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped establish horror as a popular form of entertainment, particularly through the rise of the “weird menace” subgenre (aka shudder pulps), which offered readers stories filled with sadistic villains, gruesome violence, supernatural threats, and sensational imagery.
By the late 1930s, the success of Universal’s horror films helped bring many of the genre’s most recognizable figures into comic books. Vampires, mad scientists, werewolves, monsters, and other creatures began appearing alongside superheroes, while horror gradually developed into a genre of its own within the growing comic-book industry. Its popularity reached a peak in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when horror comics became some of the medium’s most commercially successful and controversial publications. Growing concerns over their allegedly harmful influence on young readers eventually led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, placing severe restrictions on depictions of horror, violence, crime, and the supernatural. Many horror titles disappeared, while others survived by substantially toning down their content.
During the 1960s, publishers found ways around some of the Code’s restrictions by turning to magazine-sized, black-and-white publications, which were not subject to the same regulations as conventional comic books. As the Code gradually loosened its restrictions during the 1970s, horror returned to the mainstream in full color.
Today, horror comics encompass far more than the traditional monsters and supernatural tales that dominated the genre’s early years. Contemporary creators draw from psychological horror, body horror, folk horror, cosmic horror, survival horror, crime, science fiction, and many other traditions, while independent publishers and graphic novels have considerably broadened the medium’s possibilities.
And while October may be the month when horror receives the most attention, there is no shortage of frightening comics to discover throughout the rest of the year. The following selection brings together comics from different periods, publishers, and subgenres, offering plenty of material to frighten you, unsettle you, and make your skin crawl.
1. Universal Monsters by various authors and artists
Dracula, Frankenstein, The Creature of the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, and even the Phantom of the Opera. If you know your classics, you are familiar with all of them, and if you know your classic movies, you have seen all of them in the 1930s and 1940s Universal Monsters films. They were immense successes on the black-and-white silver screen, and those versions are back in color in comics from big-name creators like James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Dan Watters, Ram V, Faith Erin Hicks, Michael Walsh, working with artists like Martin Simmonds, Matthew Roberts, Lee Loughridge, Dani, Toni Marie Griffin, and Leomacs to introduce a new timeless and creepy takes that makes revisiting those familiar horror tales with a modern feel.
2. H.P. Lovecraft’s adaptation by Gou Tanabe
As we explored at length in our list of 36 Lovecraftian Horror Comics and Graphic Novels, there are legion of Lovecraftian tales, but ultimately, you have the ones inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s original ideas or the straightforward adaptations. In that latter category, the work of Japanese manga artist Gou Tanabe has become a celebrated reference during the last decade. His faithful and atmospheric adaptations are stunning, with their black-and-white artwork rich in texture and shadow. These adaptations capture the decaying landscapes, the unknowable horrors, and the psychological unravelling at the heart of Lovecraftian horror.
3. The Courtyard/Neonomicon/Providence by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows
To stay in the exploration of comics going into the Cosmic Horror created by H.P. Lovecraft, among those who didn’t adapt, but contributed to the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ in their own way, it’s hard to ignore the work of the legendary Alan Moore. His take on Lovecraft and the Cthulhu cult started in a short piece he wrote in 1994, one that was converted into comic book form by artist Jacen Burrows (and adapted by Antony Johnston). Moore was then inspired to write more Lovecraftian tales that could be illustrated by Burrows. The result was the 4-part series Neonomicon, followed by the 12-issue comic book Providence. A work that explores Lovecraft’s body of work and the man himself, a slow burn that descends more into mania with each issue.
4. Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? by Eric Powell and Harold Schechter
You might not know that you’ve already heard a little bit about what Eddie Gein did, as he was a murderer and body snatcher who inspired many tales, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Eric Powell and Harold Schechter’s graphic novel is as compelling as Alan Moore’s From Hell (see below!) as an in-depth exploration of a dramatization of a horrific true story. Gruesomely researched and illustrated, this graphic novel explores Ed Gein’s tragic and psychotic tale in a way that has never been done before.
5. The Goon by Eric Powell
Talking about Eric Powell, it’s hard not to recommend The Goon, his long-running horror series full of monsters, very, very dark humor, and tragedy. It takes us to Lonely Street, a crumbling American town filled with zombies, mutant creatures, ghostly priests, fishmen, mad scientists, hobos, and monstrous babies, where the Goon and his best friend/sidekick Franky are mob enforcers maintaining order by getting themselves into gorgeously painted and cartoonishly anarchic adventures, grotesquely inspired by 1930s-50s pulp Americana, mixing noir-style crime fiction, horror, slapstick humor, and supernatural.
6. Hack/Slash by Tim Seeley and Emily Stone
Cassie Hack is Tim Seeley and Emily Stone’s Final Girl. The one who survived. And she is hellbent on hunting and destroying the monsters, known here as slashers, that intend to hurt other teenagers. Alongside the gentle giant known as Vlad, Cassie cut a bloody path through those who deserve to be put down and, along the way, met some truly famous characters from the horror genre, such as Re-Animator and the iconic Ash Williams from Evil Dead/Army of Darkness. And she’s been doing that for some time now.
7. Abbott by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä
Meet Elena Abbott, a tough, chain-smoking tabloid reporter living in Detroit in 1972. Her reporting on police brutality hasn’t helped her make many friends, but her editor, her ex-husband, and her community support her work. But that’s only the beginning for Abbott, who now is investigating several gruesome incidents of an otherworldly nature that the police have chosen to ignore. A mix of magic and mystery that Abbott knows she has to deal with, as she has sworn to destroy those dark occult forces that are right now in action in her city.
8. From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Jack the Ripper is one of the most infamous serial killers, and From Hell is the comic book masterpiece that gives life to the horror that engulfed Whitechapel and the Victorian London of the time. An exploration of the period, the gruesomeness of the crime, and how fact and fiction intertwine with each other. A dark tale that can be experienced in black and white (as it was originally released) or in color (made by Campbell himself).
9. Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette & John Totleben
And while we are still talking about Alan Moore, I would be remiss if I didn’t add to the list his celebrated run on Swamp Thing, the comics that launched his American career and planted the seed for the Vertigo Imprint as it reflected the need for a line of books for adults. It’s smart, brilliantly written, full of ideas, some being new takes on classic concepts, others fully formed and gross new ones. The art by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben elevated the writing by creating truly atmospheric, organic, and damp visuals full of life and gore.
10. Hellblazer by various writers and pencilers
Spinning off Swamp Thing, the long-running series featuring John Constantine, Vertigo’s longest-running antihero, England’s chain-smoking, low-rent magus, is one of the perfect reads for your October evenings next to the fireplace. Or any evening of the year, if you like dark stories with flawed characters, some good cynicism, and deadpan wit. If you haven’t read any Hellblazer stories yet, go no further than the first collection written by Jamie Delano, a trippy and disturbing classic that lays down the foundation.
11. Harrow County by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
The woods occupy a mystical and dangerous place in literature. They hide fantastical and dangerous creatures. Or, to be more precise, the woods of Cullen Bunn’s Harrow County are crawling with ghosts and monsters chillingly represented by Tyler Crook’s lush, eerie, and atmospheric watercolor and ink style art. It is something that Emmy Crawford always knew, but her life changed quite when she learned on the eve of her eighteenth birthday that she is connected to these creatures, and to the land itself. This witchy tale will satisfy every amateur in folklore horror.
12. Uzumaki by Junji Ito
When it comes to contemporary horror manga, the work of Junji Ito is among the most popular, especially Uzumaki, one of his defining works. This chilling horror tale focuses on an inexplicable obsession with spirals that gradually takes hold of the residents of the quiet town of Kurouzu-cho, leading them toward obsession, madness, grotesque transformations, and death. This is a mix of psychological and body horror that immerses us in an increasingly surreal nightmare.
13. The Hellboy Universe, created by Mike Mignola
He’s a half-human, half-Demon with red skin, a tail, two horns, cloven hooves, and an oversized right hand made of stone. Despite being nicknamed World Destroyer or Beast of the Apocalypse among others, Hellboy is actually here to help (with the B.P.R.D.) fight against the dark forces of the world, such as Nazis, witches, and other monsters. The Hellboy Universe is full of amazing and fascinating characters, haunting tales, and epic stories filled with Lovecraftian monsters, folk horror, fairy tale nightmares, creatures from Hell, and post-Apocalyptic dangers. For just a peek, check out Hellboy: Weird Tales, Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors, or even the spin-off Witchfinder featuring stories about Sir Edward Grey, an agent of Queen Victoria and paranormal investigator.
14. Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
Beginning with a tragedy, this dark fantasy horror series places a grieving family in the middle of the path of a vengeful murderer looking for the key to monstrous horrors. As the Locke children move with their mother Nina to the family estate of Keyhouse, located in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, they discover magical keys opening magical doors, but there are also dark forces in action and a relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all… Locke and Key delivers an emotional journey about family and growing up facing the monsters of the past and the present.
15. Gideon Falls by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino
A slow-burn, haunting horror series that follows two seemingly unrelated lives: Norton, a troubled young man obsessed with mysterious objects hidden in the city’s garbage, and Father Fred, a disgraced priest who arrives in the small town of Gideon Falls. Gradually, their stories converge around the legend of the Black Barn, a mysterious structure said to have appeared throughout history wherever death and madness have followed in its wake. Blending rural mystery with urban horror, Gideon Falls explores obsession, faith, isolation, and the fragile boundary between sanity and the supernatural, brought to life by Sorrentino’s striking layouts and unsettling imagery.
16. The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado & Dani
When your memories are stolen, what would you give to remember? In the mid-1990s, El and Octavia, two high school girls, woke up in an empty movie theater, uncertain as to what happened to them. They go on a search for answers to the questions everyone else forgot, which leads to an eerie and unsettling tale of friendship, female exploitation, and burying trauma with great art, creating an ominous mood at every turn. A haunting folk-horror mystery elevated by Dani’s atmospheric artwork.
17. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
A collection of five unsettling horror stories that venture into forests, isolated houses, and other places where the familiar gives way to the uncanny. Gothic fiction and folk tales build around disappearances, mysterious deaths, strange creatures, and supernatural forces that are often left deliberately unexplained. Emily Carroll’s distinctive artwork gives the book an eerie quality that makes its moments of violence and terror all the more disturbing.
18. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard
I almost forgot to put the landmark zombie horror comic that dominated the world of comics for so long, as it seems unnecessary to remind people it exists, but time passes, and a new generation of readers may have missed it, somehow. The story follows Rick Grimes and a growing group of survivors as they struggle to navigate a world overrun by the undead. While the series begins with the familiar premise of a zombie apocalypse, Robert Kirkman gradually shifts the focus away from the monsters themselves toward the psychological toll of survival, exploring violence, loss, fear, and the breakdown of social order. Charlie Adlard’s stark black-and-white artwork reinforces the bleakness of the setting and gives the series some of its sense of despair.
19. Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett
This celebrated run is a brutal reimagining of the Hulk that returns the character to his horror roots. When Bruce Banner discovers that death is no longer the end for the Hulk, he finds himself caught in a nightmare that becomes increasingly disturbing with each resurrection. Ewing transforms the Hulk mythology into a story of body horror, psychological terror, cosmic dread, and grotesque transformation, while Joe Bennett’s unsettling artwork gives physical form to some of the series’ most nightmarish ideas. It’s one of Marvel’s most genuinely horrific modern comics.
20. Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts
In 1804, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark set out on an expedition to explore the uncharted American frontier. This is a reimagining of the famous journey into the wilderness that tells us the untold story of what they discovered lurking in the wilds. This is a story of great exploration, filled with horrible and gruesome violence and death, with danger and horror taking many forms.
21. Nameless by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham
You know that a Comic Book Treasury Reading List would be incomplete without a Grant Morrison comic book! This one is a nightmarish cosmic horror story that follows an occult hustler known only as ‘Nameless’, who is recruited by a consortium of billionaire futurists to help prevent an apocalyptic event. This is Morrison’s take on Lovecraft mythos combined with ideas from occultism, Gnosticism, and contemporary science. The result is a disorienting high-concept story filled with some visual gore, a disturbing atmosphere, and occult references.
22. Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock
This book is a disturbing reinvention of the traditional witch story. It follows the Rook family as they move to the remote town of Litchfield, New Hampshire, hoping to escape their traumatic past. Instead, they discover that something ancient and predatory is lurking in the surrounding woods, watching the family from the darkness. In this supernatural horror story intertwined with very human fears surrounding family, guilt, and parenthood, Snyder turns the forest into a place of primal dread where the threat is rarely fully understood.
23. Ice Cream Man by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo
An anthology-style horror comic centered on a mysterious ice cream man named Rick, whose seemingly cheerful presence masks something far more sinister. Each story introduces different characters and situations, ranging from grotesque encounters and supernatural nightmares to tales of addiction, grief, loneliness, and despair, with Rick often lurking in the corner. Rather than relying on a single overarching storyline, the series constantly shifts its tone, style, and perspective, allowing Prince and Morazzo to explore a remarkably broad range of horror.
24. Rachel Rising by Terry Moore
After being murdered on Halloween, Rachel woke up and dug her way up to the surface. Now, she wants revenge but can’t remember anything of that particular night. And things are complicated by the little fact that she is dead. As she investigates, Rachel digs into the wicked secrets of small-town Manson and its terrible role in Earth’s final days. What begins as a murder mystery gradually expands into a supernatural horror story involving witches, demons, serial killers, and the forces of life and death, all in Moore’s distinctive clean black-and-white art style.
25. Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
The celebrated duo may be better known for its straightforward crime work, but they also mixed genres on multiple occasions. In Fatale, they deliver a hard-boiled, noir-ish story mixed this time with some cosmic horror. It is a character study of the femme fatale stereotype as it chronicles the life of Josephine “Jo”, who has survived from the 1930s to the present without showing signs of aging. More than being ageless, Jo also possesses magical powers and can hypnotize men into becoming intensely infatuated with her, whether she wants them to be or not.
26. Red Room by Ed Piskor
In the dark web, people anonymously pay in cryptocurrency to watch the “Red Rooms,” live-stream displays of horrific torture. For people with a strong stomach, Red Room delivers interconnected stories. A mix of splatter, crime, and technological horror exploring the depravity of both the people committing these crimes and the anonymous audiences willing to pay to watch them. Unflinching and deliberately extreme, Red Room was Ed Piskor’s disturbing examination of the darkest possibilities of online anonymity and human voyeurism.
27. Sucker Bait and Other Stories (and other EC Comics)
And finally, you cannot really speak of horror in the comic book sphere without making a detour by EC Comics. Drawn from Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, and Shock SuspenStories, Graham “Ghastly” Ingels delivers with his love of swamps, maniacs, and dismemberment, decaying corpses, grotesque faces, swamps, graveyards, and rotting flesh, giving the stories an unusually macabre atmosphere.
What are your favorite horror comic books? Tell us in the comments!