There’s just something about the comic book medium that captures the tension and scares in the horror genre in such a uniquely effective way. From ghost stories to cosmic terror, here are the 13 best horror comics for modern audiences in 2024.
13 Best Horror Comics for 2024
13. Hack/Slash
The concept of a final girl, the female sole survivor of a given scary story, is a common element within the horror genre, especially in slasher movies. The long-running series Hack/Slash, created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Caselli, takes that core axiom and runs with it with protagonist Cassie Hack, the daughter of a notorious serial killer. After her mother’s monstrous revival, Cassie takes her down and vows to stop other serial slashers with her best friend Vlad in tow.
Hack/Slash embraces the slasher sub-genre in all its forms and Cassie and Vlad make for a memorable slasher-crushing pairing. Hack/Slash has gone on to crossover with properties like Re-Animator, Child’s Play, and Army of Darkness. A perennial fan-favorite in creator-owned horror comics, Hack/Slash embraces the fun factor in slasher stories with its own take on the genre.
12. Sweet Home
After their successful horror manhwa Bastard, the creative team of Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan reunited for the webtoon series Sweet Home. Running from 2017 to 2020, Sweet Home follows a group of apartment complex residents who try to survive in the face of a sudden monster apocalypse. Acclaimed by Korean and American audiences alike, Sweet Home received its own prequel series, Shotgun Boy, and was adapted into a live-action Netflix original series.
With its apartment complex setting Sweet Home dials up the claustrophobic intensity while providing a unique twist on the monster/zombie trope as people transform into creatures based on their innermost desires. And like many Korean and Japanese horror stories, Sweet Home is unafraid to go bleaker than many of its Western counterparts, particularly with its suicidal protagonist Cha Hyun-soo who rediscovers his will to live in the face of Armageddon. Both intimate in its storytelling and packed with thrills and chills, Sweet Home is one of the best horror manhwa to come out of South Korea. And yes, manhwa is different to manga.
11. Maniac of New York
Any number of iconic slasher movie killers are nigh-indestructible, constantly coming back from a seemingly permanent demise to launch a renewed rampage. This tried-and-true horror trope makes for the backbone of Maniac of New York by Elliot Kalan and Andrea Mutti, published by AfterShock Comics. When a masked killer known as Maniac Harry regularly appears throughout New York City, the authorities decide to simply ignore him, leaving the locals to adapt to a reality where death can strike at any time.
Maniac of New York takes the best elements of the slasher genre and stages them in a way that feels self-aware without coming off as pretentious or subversive. Kalan and Mutti have created the version of Jason Takes Manhattan that we always wanted to see, giving their unrelenting killer a full urban playground to carve a bloody path through. With plenty of escalating twists and turns, Maniac of New York uses its killer like a sentient force of nature across its perfectly paced story.
10. 30 Days of Night
Vampires had certainly existed in the comic book medium before 30 Days of Night, but Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s marked a turning point for horror in comics. Launched in 2002 through IDW Publishing, the series is set in a remote small town in Alaska that experiences nightfall for 30 days because of its proximity to the North Pole. A coven of vampires decides to take advantage of this, quickly wiping out most of the town as it plunges into darkness, leaving a handful of survivors to fight the ravenous undead.
Unlike most depictions of vampires, the bloodsuckers of 30 Days of Night are absolutely monstrous, tearing through throats with rows of jagged teeth rather than dual fangs. This, combined with Niles’ tight pacing and Templesmith’s striking artwork and paneling, made the story a huge success. While 30 Days of Night received a feature film adaptation, readers should stick with the comic book source material and its 2003 sequel, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.
9. From Hell
Legendary comic book creator Alan Moore is known for crafting entire and thoroughly detailed alternate histories in his groundbreaking work like Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Teaming with Eddie Campbell for their exploration of Jack the Ripper in From Hell, published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions, Moore combines real history with an elaborate conspiracy theory story. The book isn’t so much a murder mystery, like its inferior 2001 film adaptation, but a tale of why Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 19th century.
From Hell is one of the most ambitious projects in Moore’s celebrated career, which, given his other body of work, is a truly remarkable achievement in itself. Lurid and grimly staged, given its proto-slasher subject matter, From Hell is a metaphysically academic approach to the classic Jack the Ripper story, as only Moore and Campbell could tell it. From Hell feels like a Victorian procedural; it just happens to be a crime procedural told from the perspective of the killer and one that becomes more engrossing with every subsequent page.
8. Wytches
Ever since his start in the comic book industry, Scott Snyder has steadily built a name for himself as a leading name in horror comics, from American Vampire to Severed. Among Snyder’s best work in the genre is the Image Comics series Wytches, which he created with Jock in 2014. The tale follows a small town that pledges victims to monsters living in the woods in order to gain a boon from them, at a terrifying cost.
Snyder’s best stories all come from a searingly personal place and Wytches is no different, with the series anchored on a family caught in the sinister machinations around them. This concpet is elevated by Jock’s art, with the British artist bringing a visceral and raw sense of energy to the proceedings with his unique visuals that set the mood and menace of the story. An immediate success, Wytches is currently in development as an animated television series at Prime Video, with both Snyder and Jock heavily involved in the series production.
7. Killadelphia
If Niles and Templesmith kept their vampire story to a terrifyingly isolated level, the Image Comics series Killadelphia, by Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander, expands it to define an entire city. An unassuming cop returns to his Philadelphia hometown to discover his city is overrun by bloodthirsty vampires. Leading this undead coven is the vampiric second President of the United States, John Adams, who wants to use Philadelphia as the home for a new American Revolution.
Even after factoring in its biting social commentary, Killadelphia is, first and foremost, just a really fun and scary horror comic, with Barnes and Alexander coming out the gate swinging. What starts out as a more intimate vampire story organically grows into an ambitious world and history of the undead forces behind Philadelphia and America at large. Clearly having fun with the narrative possibilities, the creative team even brings in guest characters like Spawn and Blacula, underscoring just how invitingly entertaining and rich in potential Killadelphia truly is.
6. I Hate This Place
Acclaimed comic book creator Kyle Starks has often delved into the action comedy genre for much of his work but, with co-creator Artyom Topilin, he veered into decidedly spookier territory for I Hate This Place. Published by Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics, this series sees a couple move into a remote farmhouse only to learn that it’s haunted by all manner of supernatural creatures. To survive, the couple must play by the house’s rules as they face everything from ghosts to aliens in their lethal new home.
Nominated for the comic industry’s top honors, the Eisner Awards, I Hate This Place takes all the familiar elements of the horror genre, right down to its isolated setting, and throws them together for a thoroughly fun blend. Starks has often imbued his work with a sense of self-awareness while crafting a love letter to the stories that have influenced his own creative output and he lets his love of horror shine brightly here. Confidently and cinematically told, I Hate This Place deconstructs and celebrates horror in a way that Starks and Topilin especially excel it, with each issue a progressively engrossing read.
5. Something Is Killing the Children
James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera teamed up for the BOOM! Studios horror series Something Is Killing the Children in 2019. Inspired by numerous classic horror stories, especially those by Stephen King, Something Is Killing the Children has sinister forces preying on children in a small Midwestern town. With no one believing the surviving children’s claims of monsters, it’s up to a young drifter named Erica Slaughter to hunt down the creatures before more victims are lost.
All good horror feels like it comes from an intensely personal place, and this is especially true of Tynion and Dell’Edera’s work here, which has an underlying intimacy to its scares. Something Is Killing the Children is imbued with adolescent melancholy and self-actualized empowerment in the face of overwhelming darkness. The series has received a number of spinoffs expanding the story’s world and its twisted take on the coming-of-age paradigm.
4. The Sandman
Neil Gaiman is a modern master of fantasy and that distinction really begins with The Sandman, the Vertigo Comics series he created with Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. The epic story follows Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams and one of the ephemeral demigods known as the Endless, who seeks to regain power after a lengthy imprisonment. As Morpheus rebuilds his empire, he faces betrayal from within the Endless while taking on fantastical villains across space and time.
The Sandman is one of those ground-breaking titles that really expanded what people expected from the comic book medium and led to major publishers exploring more mature, reader-oriented stories. Gaiman would be joined by a rotating set of artists across the series’ extensive run, blending the surreal nature of its premise with appropriately nightmarish adventures for Morpheus. Though The Sandman has progressed more into broader fantasy as the series continues, its roots are very established within the horror genre, exploring everything from monstrous nightmares brought to life to gatherings of serial killers opposing Morpheus.
3. Hellboy
Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola in 1993, is one of those rare success stories of an original comic book property surviving and thriving outside of DC and Marvel’s usual dominance over the industry. The eponymous hero is a demon positioned for the impending war between Heaven and Hell who instead decides to use his hellish abilities for good. Hellboy joins forces with the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defense (B.P.R.D.), battling all sorts of monsters and fiendish figures looking to unleash Hell on Earth.
Mignola’s signature art style, with its ominous shadows and angular character designs, really elevates Hellboy both in its visual distinction and spooky atmosphere. In publication through Dark Horse Comics for over 30 years, there really is no shortage of Hellboy stories that can be told, with Mignola and various collaborators finding new directions for the extensive world they’ve created and expanded upon. Adapted into films and video games (one of which we even did a three minute review on), Hellboy stays firmly rooted in the horror genre while never becoming overly graphic or unsavory in its scare.
2. Uzumaki
If there is a name that towers above all other manga authors’ names when it comes to horror manga, it’s legendary comic book creator Junji Ito. Often drawn in haunting black-and-white, Ito’s work has a capacity for unnerving its readers on a primal level, with unhinged imagery and psychologically traumatic themes. Among the greatest stories Ito has ever crafted is the 1998 series Uzumaki, which has subsequently been adapted into a feature film and anime television series.
Uzumaki follows a small Japanese town that suffers from a supernatural curse involving the appearance of spirals that affect those who witness them. Initially bound to individuals, the curse quickly escalates into a phenomenon that threatens to wipe out the entire town, leading two people to try to escape from the grim fate in store for their community. Fueled by a mounting sense of dread, Uzumaki and its unforgettable symbolism will leave readers turning the pages until its earth-shattering ending.
1. The Walking Dead
As ubiquitous as The Walking Dead has become over the past decade, including a seemingly never-ending line of television spinoffs from the enormously successful main series, the source material really is the gold standard in horror comics. Created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, the comic has Sheriff Rick Grimes wake up in a world that has been overwhelmed by zombies. Rick struggles to reunite with his family and build a community to survive. And in this hardened post-apocalyptic world, Rick quickly learns that sometimes even zombies aren’t the most dangerous things out there.
What really elevated The Walking Dead above countless other zombie stories as it completely reinvigorated the sub-genre is how Kirkman, with Moore and Charlie Adlard, really focused on the human drama of it all. Every death in The Walking Dead is so heartbreaking because we’ve come to know each of these characters, with their demise often cruelly abrupt as life in such a world would be. Running for nearly 200 issues, The Walking Dead changed horror comics forever and has had the biggest impact on zombie stories this side of Night of the Living Dead.
