Horror Comics That’ll Give You the Chills

Tynion is one of my favorite writers in the world of horror comics, and this won’t be the only time he appears on this list. This particular comic is very wee (it’s a three-issue miniseries), but it really packs a wallop. In the first issue, we’re introduced to a young boy who’s afraid of the monster in his closet and the father who dismisses his fears. His father insists that whether the monster is real doesn’t actually matter, as they’ll soon be moving across the country. But problems such as these are not so easily outrun, and the eventual reveal of the monster — and what it truly is — is like a punch to the heart.

I’ve written about this one before. This comic made my skin crawl, and, well, the story has stayed with me. Machado is exceptionally good at dark and upsetting, and whether she’s writing fiction or nonfiction, her explorations of desire and sexual violence are powerful. At the beginning of The Low, Low Woods, we’re introduced to two friends and their hometown of Shudder-To-Think, Pennsylvania, a former mining town where strange and unexplainable occurrences go unexplored. But when El and Octavia wake up in the movie theater with no memory of the past two hours, things come to a head. El wants to know more. Octavia wants to forget it ever happened. This push and pull is at the heart of what’s wrong in their small Pennsylvania town. (Content warnings for sexual assault and gaslighting.)

The first book in Liu and Takeda’s Night Eaters trilogy came out in 2022, and I really enjoyed the story of a pair of Chinese American twins who come to learn of an unbelievable family legacy (spoiler alert: they discover they’re demons). Book 2 came out late last year, upping the stakes dramatically for Ipo and Keon, who may just have to harness their brand-new powers to save the world. Beyond the story itself, I really enjoy the lush artwork in this series.

In this stunningly drawn graphic novel, Abby marries a man who was recently widowed and struggles to adjust to a new life with him and his young daughter. But the memory of his husband’s first wife soon seems to grow and expand, taking up even more space in Abby’s life. As Abby begins to have visions of her predecessor, she begins to question everything. Is she losing her grip on reality? Or, could it be possible that things are not what they seem?

Ellis is a comic artist and illustrator whose work I follow on Instagram and who used to be a staff cartoonist at BuzzFeed. So, I’m used to seeing his work in the context of just a small handful of panels. When I saw he had a book coming out — and that it was horror — I was pumped. In this graphic horror collection, described as a graphic version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Ellis presents a number of standalone supernatural tales, eerie and perplexing and, in some cases, leading me to legit shout out, “Ew!” Each of these tales is accompanied by a short description of what inspired the comic. A quick but satisfying (and unsettling) read.

I’m not really one for vampire tales (well, not usually), but when I saw that the team behind Killadelphia had an offshoot series that trafficked in demon possession, I was in. I mean, just look at that cover art. In this first volume, paranormal investigator Nita Hawes — battling demons of her own — must test her mettle against a demon who’s inhabited the comatose body of a man who hungers for revenge. What makes the outcome particularly tricky is the fact that, just maybe, vengeance is warranted?

I told you we hadn’t seen the last of Tynion on this list. In this case, though, he’s working with a different creative team. Volume 1 of this creepy series doesn’t come out until October, but you can already read issues 1-5 individually. In this tale, a man dressed as Santa Claus commits a series of gruesome murders. Fifty years later, a young writer compelled by his own complicated emotions interviews the man who ended up behind bars for the crime — though he’s always maintained his innocence. Come for the disturbing crime; stay for the explorations of deviance and queer identity.

Finally, this book is the first in the Bone Orchard Mythos, an ongoing, shared horror universe featuring a mix of limited series and standalone graphic novels. I really dig everything this creative team does together, so I’ve been truly enjoying everything that’s come out so far as part of this project. But, for me, the very first book is still the most unsettling. It’s about a geologist sent to a remote lighthouse to check out an odd phenomenon: a deep pit that’s appeared out of nowhere. Where does it come from, and does the lighthouse keeper know more than she’s revealing? The creep factor here is high, and once you read it, you won’t be able to resist the rest of the books in the Bone Orchard universe.