Next to Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is one of the most influential American writers in the horror genre. Though largely unrecognized in his lifetime, his work in the genre of weird fiction went on to shape generations of horror writers and artists. His stories are built around themes of cosmic dread, forbidden knowledge, and humanity’s insignificance in an uncaring universe, and often center on incomprehensible alien entities, ancient gods, and the fragility of sanity.
This type of tale has come to be known as Lovecraftian horror, also referred to as “cosmic horror.” It emphasizes atmosphere and existential terror over gore or jump scares. The horror lies not in what is seen, but in what cannot be fully understood. Over time, this distinctive approach to fear has taken root in a wide range of media, including comics, where artists and writers have found rich material in Lovecraft’s mythos and mood.
There are two types of Lovecraftian comics. We have the direct adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s original works, and the comic books full of cosmic horrors inspired by the master of the genre.
Today, we invite you to explore the shadowy, unsettling world of Lovecraftian horror through our selection of comics. From quiet tales of creeping madness to confrontations with ancient, godlike beings, these works capture the essence of a genre where fear comes not from what is known, but from what can never be fully understood.
Comic Book Adaptations of Lovecraft’s Works
The most logical approach to creating a Lovecraftian comic book is to adapt the original works of H. P. Lovecraft. This list begins with a selection of comics that have brought Lovecraft’s original stories to life visually. These adaptations range from direct translations of his most famous tales to artistic interpretations that highlight atmosphere and dread. They aim to introduce Lovecraft’s work to a new audience.
1. Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft by Richard Corben
Published by Marvel Comics under its Max Imprint, this 3-issue miniseries by master cartoonist Richard Corben is a collection of adaptations, within each issue we find one short story and two poems by Lovecraft. We can find “Dagon,” “The Scar” (an adaptation of “Recognition“), “A Memory,” “The Music of Erich Zann,” “The Canal,” “The Lamp,” “Arthur Jermyn,” “The Well,” and “The Window.”
2. Lovecraft: Four Classic Horror Stories By I.N.J. Culbard
Graphic novelist I.N.J. Culbard gives terrifying form to four classic tales by H.P. Lovecraft: “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, “At The Mountains of Madness,” and “The Shadow Out of Time.” In Providence, Rhode Island, a dangerous inmate disappears from a hospital for the insane. At Miskatonic University, a professor slumps into a five-year reverie. In a mysterious and vivid dreamworld, a melancholy man seeks the home of the gods. And in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, polar explorers unearth secrets that reveal a past almost beyond comprehension – and a future too terrible to imagine.
3. The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume 1 & Volume 2 By various creators
A graphic anthology of tales from the renowned master of the eerie. Featuring collaborations between established writers and artists, as well as debut contributors like Jamie Delano, Steve Pugh, Simon Spurrier, Matt Timson, Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, Dan Lockwood, Leah Moore, Chris Lackey, Adrian Salmon, Dave Hine, Mark Stafford, and a lot more. 14 classic stories from “The Shadow over Innsmouth” to “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Colour Out of Space,” and lesser-known from”He” to “The Festival.”
When it comes to H.P. Lovecraft’s adaptation, Japanese manga artist Gou Tanabe has emerged during the last decade as one of the most revered in the comics world. His faithful and atmospheric adaptations are notable for their black-and-white artwork, rich in texture and shadow, which captures the decaying landscapes, unknowable horrors, and psychological unraveling at the heart of Lovecraftian horror.
4. The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe
What links together two bands of worshippers, one deep in the Arctic snows, one hidden in the bayous of Louisiana, is more than their shared practice of blood sacrifice. It is the inhuman phrase they both chant: Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’yeh wgah’nagl fhtagn–“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” Now these nightmares will disturb the sanity of Francis Thurston, a young man pursuing an investigation into the cult of Cthulhu that leads to the most forsaken spot in the vast Pacific…and to Earth’s supreme terror, the risen corpse-city of Rlyeh.
5. At the Mountains of Madness by Gou Tanabe
In 1931, an expedition team arrives at a campsite in Antarctica… to find its crew of men and sled dogs strewn and dead. Some are hideously mangled, as if in rage—some have been dissected in a curious and cold-blooded manner. One man is missing. But a still more horrific sight is the star-shaped mound of snow nearby… for under its five points is another mass grave, and what lies there is not remotely human!
6. The Shadow Over Innsmouth by Gou Tanabe
In the winter of 1927-28, the isolated coastal settlement of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, was assaulted by U.S. government agents–its waterfront burned and dynamited, its people taken away to internment camps. Yet that was neither the beginning nor the end of the horror uncovered by a young antiquarian who traveled to Innsmouth in search of rumors from the town’s dead past, only to find them still very much alive … and find truths lying under water deeper and colder than any earthly grave!
7. The Colour Out of Space by Gou Tanabe
In 1882, a visitor fell out of a clear blue sky, trailing smoke like a dragon. Soon, scientists from Miskatonic University arrived at Nahum Gardner’s farm, where the meteorite landed. What had been a mystery gradually becomes a horror for the Gardner family as first, bizarre lightning disintegrates what remains of the cosmic visitor, and then their crops begin to come in strangely—fruits big and bountiful, but bitter and repugnant to eat. Then the unnatural blight spreads to the animals…and finally, to the minds and bodies of the Gardners…twisted by the colour out of space.
8. The Hound and Other Stories by Gou Tanabe
A pair of decadent young men pursue the abhorrent thrill of grave robbing . . . A German submarine crew is driven mad by the call of an underwater temple . . . An explorer in the Arabian Desert discovers a hideous city older than mankind. Adaptation of the three following stories: “The Temple,” “The Hound,” and “The Nameless City.”
9. The Call of Cthulhu and Dagon: A Graphic Novel (Graphic Classics) by Dave Shephard
Adaptations of two tales from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos by Dave Shephard. “The Call of Cthulhu” and “Dagon” introduce the Great Old Ones, powerful deities who reside outside the normal dimensions of space-time, with physical forms that are impossible for the human mind to fathom.
10. “Cool Air” by Bernie Wrightson
Originally published in Eerie #62 (January 1975, Warren), the 7-page comic book classic adaptation of “Cool Air” by Bernie Wrightson has been republished numerous times. It’s the story of a young writer who suffered from a heart attack and was saved by his peculiar upstairs neighbor, Dr. Munoz, a man would could only live in the cold.
11. “Baby…It’s Cold Inside!” & “Fitting Punishment” by Graham Ingels and Al Feldstein
Originally published in 1950-51 in the pages of The Vault of Horror #16 & #17, “Fitting Punishment” and “Baby…It’s Cold Inside!” are respectively comic adaptations of “In the Vault” and “Cool Air” by legendary EC Comics writer Graham Ingels and cartoonist Al Feldstein.
12. H.P. Lovecraft’s Worlds – Volume One & Volume Two by Steven Philip Jones and various artists
Writer Steven Philip Jones wrote 9 comic books based on Lovecraft’s short stories. They were published by Caliber in 1993. “The Lurking Fear,” “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” “The Tomb,” “The Alchemist,” and “Dagon” were illustrated by Sergio Cariello, while “Arthur Jermyn,” “Picture in the House,” “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and “Music of Erich Zann” were drawn by Wayne Reid, Rob Davis, Christopher Jones, and Aldin Baroza.
13. The Mountains of Madness by Adam Fyda
In 1932, two years after the initial Antarctic expedition, another expedition set off to try and discover exactly what happened on that fateful trip. Before it leaves, a stranger gives a notebook to the expedition director, Howard Pym, and implores him to read it before they reach their destination. Preoccupied with the voyage ahead, Howard forgets about it and naively sails into the dangerous waters ahead.
14. The Shadow Over Innsmouth by Simon Birks and Rhstewart
In 1932, Robert Ormstead is on his way from Newburyport to Arkham, the cheapest way possible. Unfortunately, for him, this means taking the bus through shadowed Innsmouth. Armed with his notebook, he intends to make a day of it studying the local architecture and getting to know more about this mysterious place that neighbouring towns shun. Why are the inhabitants so unwilling to speak to him, and what curse afflicts them that causes their faces to change and their eyes to stare, unblinking?
15. H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror by Joe R. Lansdale and Peter Bergting
Published by IDW, H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror is a 4-issue miniseries from 2011 coming from 30 Days of Night creator Joe R. Lansdale and Baltimore artist Peter Bergting. The main story is a modern adaptation of “The Dunwich Horror,” which starts when four young friends attempt to harness the fabled Necronomicon’s power to stop the cosmic horror they have unleashed upon an unsuspecting world, but each issues came with a short backstory, an adaptation of “The Hound” by Robert Weinberg and Menton3.
16. Lovecraft – Unknown Kadath by Florentino Flórez, Jacques Salomon, and Guillermo Sanna
Randolph Carter, a traveler to dreamland, tries not to wake up before reaching his goal, the elusive Kadath: the home of the gods, a place of fantasy and overflowing imagination. Carter walks through a world full of threats and abominable monsters, but also of palaces, exuberant cities, and geographies that remind man of his insignificant role on the gigantic cosmic chessboard.
17. Lovecraft: The Myth of Cthulhu by Esteban Maroto
The adaptation of three of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous stories involving the Cthulhu Mythos. “The Nameless City” details the discovery of an ancient city in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula built by an unnamed race of beings of reptilian appearance. “The Festival” starts when a man arrives at the sea town of Kingsport, Massachusetts, during Christmas, but finds a place eerily empty and centuries out of date. And “The Call of Cthulhu” describes a man who, after finding the notes of his grand-uncle, is led on a journey around the world in search of this mysterious and disturbing phenomenon.
Original Comics Inspired by Lovecraftian Themes
H. P. Lovecraft himself granted other writers of his time permission to set their stories in his horror universe. Since then, many more have followed suit, helping the cosmic horror genre to flourish beyond Lovecraft’s oeuvre. Many cartoonists have continued to create their own Lovecraftian comics, expanding the mythos and exploring how its existential dread can be reimagined in contemporary settings, genres, and styles.
18. Fall of Cthulhu by Michael Nelson
When Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos himself, devises his most destructive plan yet, a disparate group of humans find themselves brought together as the unavoidable apocalypse draws near. A true expansion of the Cthulhu mythos.
19. Locke & Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodríguez
Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s dark fantasy comic masterpiece doesn’t hide one of its main influences, as the story is set in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, where the Locke children return to their dead father’s childhood home of Keyhouse. Their mother, Nina, is too trapped in her grief–and a wine bottle–to notice that all in Keyhouse is not what it seems: too many locked doors, too many unanswered questions. Older kids Tyler and Kinsey aren’t much better. But not youngest son Bode, who quickly finds a new friend living in an empty well and a new toy, a key, that offers hours of spirited entertainment. But again, all at Keyhouse is not what it seems, and not all doors are meant to be opened. Soon, horrors old and new, real and imagined, will come ravening after the Lockes and the secrets their family holds.
20. Hellboy & B.P.R.D. by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and more
While a good portion of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series is an exploration of folklore, the mythos is set in Lovecraftian lore, something that becomes prevalent in the B.P.R.D. series, an epic end-of-the-world story full of mythology of gods, monsters, secret cults, and apocalyptic prophecies connected to ancient cosmic entities, buried knowledge, humanity’s helplessness against vast forces, and the slow, inevitable unraveling of reality. What began as a supernatural investigation escalates into a global crisis driven by ancient, unknowable beings returning to reclaim the world.
A long admirer of Lovecraft, Alan Moore has explored in his own style the Mythos. Rather than adapting Lovecraft’s stories directly, Moore explores madness, language, sexuality, and the limits of human perception through deeply researched and often disturbing tales that only he can create.
21. Yuggoth Cultures by Alan Moore, Antony Johnston, Bryan Talbot, Mike Wolfer, and more
Before he went on to create his famous Lovecraftian trilogy, Alan Moore had already written multiple Lovecraftian stories, including his aborted novel Yuggoth Cultures. They were adapted into a now hard-to-find 3-issue comic book miniseries.
22. The Courtyard by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows
FBI man Aldo Sax has an amazing service record with the FBI. His legendary skills at piecing together the most baffling of cases have gotten him assigned to what may be his most confusing case yet. Several murders–more like lethal dismemberments–from the most unlikely of suspects just don’t add up. And what few leads there are, all point to The Courtyard.
23. Neonomicon by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows
FBI agents Brears and Lamper investigate a fresh series of ritual murders somehow tied to the final undercover assignment of Aldo Sax –the once golden boy of the Bureau, now a convicted killer and inmate of a maximum security prison. From their interrogation of Sax to a related drug raid on a seedy rock club rife with arcane symbols and otherworldly lyrics, they suspect that they are on the trail of something awful… but nothing can prepare them for the creeping insanity and unspeakable terrors they will face in the small harbor town of Innsmouth.
24. Providence by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows
In 1919, Robert Black, a homosexual Jewish writer, is a reporter for the New York Herald but also wants to be a novelist. His editor sends him to find a story about a book called “Sous Le Monde.” People say that this book makes its readers go crazy. Inspired by what he finds to write his novel, Robert goes on sabbatical from the Herald and heads to Flatbush, where he follows an increasingly disturbing series of events which eventually lead him to meet a writer of weird fiction he particularly admires named H. P. Lovecraft, and the truth behind his creations.
25. Nameless by Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham
Comic book legend Grant Morrison tells the utterly complex story of a down-at-heel occult hustler known only as “Nameless” who is recruited by a consortium of billionaire futurists as part of a desperate mission to save the world. A massive asteroid named Xibalba — the “Place of Fear” in Mayan mythology — is on a collision course with the planet Earth.
26. Fatale by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Brubaker and Phillips delivered another noir-inspired masterpiece, but this one mixes a crime story with dark magic from Lovecraft. We follow the cursed Josephine from San Francisco in the 1950s, where dishonest police officers hide bigger secrets, to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, where tired actors and people who used to be in cults are caught up in a plot about a satanic snuff film.
27. Cthulhu Tales Omnibus: Delirium & Madness
An anthology of Cthulhu Mythos stories going from dark to funny, exploring different themes in different styles, coming from a long list of comic book talents that include Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, Steve Niles, William Messner-Loebs, and Michael Alan Nelson, with art by Chee, Ben Roman, Shane Oakley, Andrew Ritchie, Andy Kuhn, Lee Carter, Filip Sablik, Chris Lie, Joe Abraham, and more.
28. The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles by Michael Alan Nelson and Christopher Possenti
A cruise ship comes to port—hundreds aboard are dead, but why? Clayton Diggs is a pharmaceutical salesman who discovers his sister has committed herself to an insane asylum. She’s checked herself in, fearing she’ll hurt herself or someone else. And she’s afraid of something else out there… All across the world, hands are being dealt, and momentum is shifting, while ordinary people in an ordinary world find themselves drawn by fate to see darkness and despair unlike anything they could ever imagine. Meanwhile, a cult makes its move, believing that there is a great one sleeping that will hear THE CALLING…
29. Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham by Mike Mignola, Richard Pace, and Troy Nixey
Mike Mignola’s third Batman story is a Lovecraft-inspired tale set in the 1920s. It follows an alternate version of Batman as he fights against mystical and supernatural forces taking Gotham by storm after he accidentally reawakens a being known as the Lurker on the Threshold.
30. Weird Detective: The Stars Are Wrong by Fred Van Lente and Guiu Vilanova
The streets of New York have been plagued by a pattern of crimes too weird and bizarre for the average detective. Lurking in the evidence are shadows of loathsome horrors from beyond space and time, seeking to usher in the unimaginable evil of the Old Ones. And the only man capable of fighting against the unspeakable terrors isn’t a man at all. Detective Sebastian Green is one of them–it takes a monster to catch a monster.
31. Plunge by Joe Hill and Stuart Immonen
1980s horror meets Lovecraftian in another Joe Hill series. In 1983, a state-of-the-art drilling ship, the Derleth, vanished near the Arctic Circle. Decades later, it has begun sending a distress call… Tracing the signal to a remote atoll in the Bering Strait, the Rococo oil company hires the Carpenter brothers and their salvage crew to investigate the ghost ship. Joined by a marine biologist and an oil executive, the brothers set out on a grim mission to learn what caused the disappearance and recover the bodies of the crew…only to find that Derleth’s men aren’t dead! Even if they’re also not quite…alive…anymore.
32. Beyond Lovecraft by Jasper Bark and Rob Moran
An anthology featuring three tales of cosmic horror that explore the secret history of the Cthulhu mythos and the terrible truths to be found when we stray outside the bounds of everyday reality. The Elder Gods have risen and reclaimed the Earth. In the apocalypse that follows, a tiny band of human survivors find a way to access the fabled library of the Yith, an alien archive containing the history of the entire universe. As they search for a way to vanquish their conquerors, they uncover untold tales and make a revelation so disturbing it challenges their whole existence.
33. The Chronicles of Dr. Herbert West by Joe Brusha, Jason Craig, and Axel Medellin Machain
While the Re-Animator comics published by Dynamite Entertainment are more inspired by the Stuart Gordon cult classic movie than the original Lovecraft novella “Herbert West–Reanimator,” the 3-issue miniseries published by Zenescope presents itself as a modern update. Doctor Herbert West is an undisputed brilliant medical student, but his experiments with a serum created to reanimate the dead are frowned upon at the New England university he attends. West is soon forced to continue his grotesque experiments in secret, with varying degrees of success. But the closer he gets to perfecting his serum, the more obsessed he becomes with reversing death. And when he makes his greatest breakthrough, the young genius learns that some things were never meant to return from the grave!
34. Rise of Cthulhu by various
In 2023, Zenescope put the Cthulhu Mythos at the heart of its Grimm Universe, starting with Dagon in a short story published in the Grimm Fairy Tales Swimsuit Special before a proper introduction in Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly: Rise of Cthulhu. After that, a lot of issues expanded the horror with key elements taken from Lovecraft’s work, and ultimately, with the introduction of the character named Henry Lovecraft, Lovecraft’s grandson.
35. Lovecraft by Hans Rodionoff, Keith Griffen, and Enrique Breccia
Presented as a biography that examines the bizarre life of author and recluse Howard Phillips Lovecraft, this graphic novel mixes biographical detail with Lovecraft’s frightening fictional concept, going from his early childhood in the late 1800s when he was haunted by dark visions of demons and death to his discovery of the Necronomicon.
36. The Nightmare Factory by various artists
Adaptations of Lovecraftian tales from horror master Thomas Ligotti. A universe where clowns take part in a sinister winter festival, a scheming girlfriend makes reality itself come unraveled, a crumbling asylum’s destruction unleashes a greater horror, and a mysterious Teatro comes and goes, leaving only shattered dreams in its wake. The Nightmare Factory adapts eight of Ligotti’s most chilling tales into fine graphic literature by writers and artists Stuart Moore, Joe Harris, Colleen Doran, Ben Templesmith, Ted McKeever, Michael Gaydos, Vasilis Lolos, Bill Sienkiewicz, Toby Cypress, and Nick Stakal.