Cover art for 'Akira' Vol. 5 by Katsuhiro Otomo
(Kodansha Comics)

13 horror graphic novels to haunt your dreams

It’s time to get freaky. Not whatever depraved things you do on a Saturday night type of freaky, no. I’m talking freaky in a literary way. I’m not talking about books, either. I mean that marriage of painting and prose—the graphic novel.

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Here are some of the best horror graphic novels to haunt your dreams.

1. Akira

Cover art for "Akira"
(Kodansha Comics)

“But it’s a sci-fi novel!” some will say. “No, it’s a work of dystopian fiction!” others will cry. Yes, Akira is both of those things. But at its core, it is the greatest cosmic horror graphic novel ever made. One of a handful of successful visual representations of the genre, Akira tells the story of a lawless teen biker gang who come into contact with an escaped government experiment of the psychic persuasion. The being’s abilities soon begin to psychologically infect one of the youths, who begins a horrifying descent (or ascent) into planes of reality far beyond our own.

2. Poe: Stories and Poems

Cover art for "Poe: stories and poems" featuring Edgar Allen Poe
(Candlewick)

Poe: Stories and Poems is a graphic novel about the—you guessed it—stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe. I probably don’t need to remind anyone that ol’ Edgar was one of the greatest horror writers of all time, and singlehandedly created the detective fiction genre, but in case I do, he was and did. Now his writing comes to life with beautiful and chilling illustrations!

3. Trick ‘r Treat

Cover art for "Trick 'r Treat" featuring a kid in a halloween costume
(Legendary Comics)

Trick ‘r Treat is a freaky read that takes place on the most haunted night of the year: Halloween. Four separate stories converge on that spooky night, leading to a menagerie of horrors that you’ll probably wish you were never acquainted with in the first place. Doomed lovers, Western pioneers, and a group of snot-nosed Halloween prankster kids who get their comeuppance. This one’s got it all.

4. Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: The Seed of Destruction

Cover art for "Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1- The Seed of Destruction"
(Dark Horse)

The demon with the heart of gold comes to life in his very first infernal adventure! Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: The Seed of Destruction tells the tale of the titular devil detective, a spawn of Satan hell-bent on fighting the forces of darkness from whence he came. Before there was the GOATed Ron Pearlman onscreen adaption, there was this beautiful little number. A seed of destruction that grows into a lovely, sulfur-smelling flower.

5. From Hell: Master Edition

Cover art for "From Hell- Master Edition"
(Top Shelf Productions)

From Hell: Master Edition is the story of the most infamous serial killer ever to stalk London’s gaslit streets. I’m talking of course about Jack the Ripper, an English murderer whose brutal slaying of sex workers went unpunished. He was never caught, and this story will show you how he did it, and all of the people who tried, and failed, to stop him.

6. Something is Killing the Children

Cover art for "Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1"
(BOOM! Studios)

With a title like Something is Killing the Children, you know you’ve got graphic horror greatness in your trembling, sweaty hands. The children of Archer’s Peak—a little town in America’s heartland—have gone missing. Most are never heard from again. The ones that do come back tell tales of horrifying monsters that lurk in the dark. Thankfully, there’s a new arrival in town: Erica Slaughter, monster killer. The hunters have become the hunted.

7. A Guest in the House

Cover art for "A Guest in the House"
(First Second)

A Guest in the House is the tale of a newlywed couple, happily married … for a time. The lonesome Abby is overjoyed to tie the knot with a widower dentist and be a new mother to the man’s young daughter, but something is off. She feels like she’s living in the shadow of her husband’s old wife—literally. It feels like the lady is still around somehow, haunting her, telling her that the man she loves isn’t what he pretends to be.

8. Through the Woods

Cover art for "Through the Woods"
(Margaret K. McElderry Books)

The Eisner Award-winning Through the Woods is a collection of five fairy tales gone horribly, horribly wrong. While each of this graphic novel’s stories are terrifying—featuring haunted houses and ghosts galore—the book is famous for His Face All Red, a webcomic that made the rounds on the internet for being extra horrible. And horrible it is.

9. Maus

Cover art for "Maus"
(Pantheon)

Maus is a work of historical fiction about one of the greatest horrors that the human race has ever suffered: The Holocaust. This graphic novel reimagines European Jews as mice fleeing from an army of Nazi cats. Throughout the novel, the author unpacks his tortured relationship with his father while the pair attempt to find safety in a world that seeks to destroy them at every turn.

10. Berserk

Cover art for "Berserk"
(Dark Horse Manga)

Oof. What can I say about Berserk? It’s a magnum opus from the mind of Kentaro Miura, one of the most celebrated mangakas of all time. The world of Berserk is downright nasty. A medieval hellscape darker than the darkest years of the Dark Ages, where the armies of endlessly warring nations chew through men, women, and children alike. A young swordsman named Guts joins up with a mercenary company led by the charismatic Griffith in order to find glory—and then the demons show up.

11. The Black Monday Murders

Cover art for "The Black Monday Murders"
(Image Comics)

The Black Monday Murders is styled as a “crypto-noir” story about the horrors of power. Specifically, the powers that crush the human race under their heels in their never-ending chase for more and more money. Evil popes, Russian oligarchs, government creeps, all of them are in cahoots to keep the world of The Black Monday Murders under their thumb. It’s a bleak and brutal story of elites and those who would stand against them.

12. Wytches

Cover art for "Wytches"
(Image Comics)

Many horror novels raise the heart rate, but few can make a reader downright squirm. Wytches belongs in the latter category. The Rooks family decides to relocate to Litchfield, NH to escape their checkered past, but they run into fresh horrors instead. Something is lurking in the woods beyond the town. Something old. Something powerful. Something hungry.

13. Black Hole

Cover art for 'Black Hole"
(Pantheon)

Black Hole walked so It Follows could fly. A body horror landmark, Black Hole takes place in the suburbs of 1970’s Seattle, where a horrifying plague has begun to infect the area’s teenagers. The disease is sexually transmitted (they’re doomed) and its symptoms manifest in several ways, from subtle changes to horrifying mutations. It’s not a book about things getting better. It’s not a book about finding a treatment. It’s a book about the horrors of being a teenager, for which there is no cure.


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Jack Doyle
Jack Doyle (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.