It's October, so time for some good Halloween and Horror recommendations.
Scary Godmother by Jill Thompson - This series started out as more of kids picture books and became a comic later, but it's still in the comic community and printed by a comic company. The books have been reprinted a few times, but recently were collected in one large collection with the comics in another collection. The basic story is about Hannah Marie, a young girl who is frightened by her cousin and his friends on Halloween. This leads Hannah to meeting her Scary Godmother, a Halloween version of a fairy godmother (and we find out later Scary was trained as a fairy godmother and witch). Scary helps Hannah frighten her cousin and his friends and then Hannah begins adventures in a world of Halloween with monsters and ghouls as her best friends.
Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Owen Gieni - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark take a rag tag band of soldiers and criminals to scout out the land recently purchased by the US from France in the Louisiana Purchase. They are quickly joined by Sacagawea and her husband, Toussiant Charbonneau and set off to explore the vast wilderness. However, there is a secret aspect to their mission and they discover the world past the Mississippi River is vastly more dangerous than anyone ever thought possible. This is just an amazing survival horror series. First of all, as part of this genre, expect the typical horror survival tropes including rape, random violence, and some backstabbing. Over all though, it avoids a lot of this by staying almost entirely in Lewis's perspective through notebooks. It also avoids the typical build a character up, make you like them, then brutally kill them trend of say The Walking Dead. The cast, while not extremely diverse since it's mostly white men, does have some strong and competent female and POC characters as well as a few notable gay and bi male characters.
American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque - A fresh new take on vampire mythology that is actually fresh and new. The story follows a new breed of vampire, that of the American Vampire, that is very different from their progenitors and their war with the old vampires of Europe. While Pearl Buck, a 1920's actress, and Skinner Sweet, a crazed outlaw, and their relationship is the focus of many of the stories, it also branches out to new characters and time periods to fully explore the new American Vampire. There is a main series, a series of minis, and an anthology title. Stephen King also penned some stories in the first arc (which is reprinted in the first trade).
Mystery Society by Steve Niles and Fiona Staples - Steve Niles is a prolific horror writer with numerous well known horror stories under his belt including 30 Days of Nights. This series is something a little different. Rich and sexy couple, Nick Hammond and Anastasia Collins, work as a Gomez and Morticia Addams of a new kooky family that they build themselves. Nick and Anastasia bring together a family of twin girls saved from Area 51, a ghoul named Secret Skull, and Jules Vernes' brain in a robot body all in time to stop Nick from being framed and put in jail and to solve a mystery revolving around Edgar Allen Poe. This is really a fun title with horror elements. A definitive edition, which includes the special released a few years after the original series, was just released this month.
Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore - What if all the heroes in a city go mad and start killing all it's citizens? That's the basic premise of Leaving Megalopolis. The story revolves around average people trying to escape before they're all killed by a powerful group of superheroes that are basically unstoppable. It's a chilling look on heroes gone mad. there is also a sequel series called Surviving Megalopolis.
If you like any of these, almost all of these creators have other books. Jill Thompson was co-creator of Beasts of Burden, a great horror comic about animals in a neighborhood protecting it from the dark and scary things out there.
Scott Snyder has numerous horror books including Wytches, a frightening take on an evil living outside the woods of a family's home, as well as Severed, about a kid who runs away from home to meet a cannibalistic salesman.
Steve Niles has a series of 30 Days of Nights comics of course, but also a newer October Faction a story of a family of monster hunters.
Gail Simone has Clean Room, an on-going series about a woman whose husband dies because of a cult, so she begins to investigate it and discovers that maybe the dangerous head of the cult is right and there are dark forces out to destroy them all.. or everyone is just crazy.
Scary Godmother by Jill Thompson - This series started out as more of kids picture books and became a comic later, but it's still in the comic community and printed by a comic company. The books have been reprinted a few times, but recently were collected in one large collection with the comics in another collection. The basic story is about Hannah Marie, a young girl who is frightened by her cousin and his friends on Halloween. This leads Hannah to meeting her Scary Godmother, a Halloween version of a fairy godmother (and we find out later Scary was trained as a fairy godmother and witch). Scary helps Hannah frighten her cousin and his friends and then Hannah begins adventures in a world of Halloween with monsters and ghouls as her best friends.
Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Owen Gieni - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark take a rag tag band of soldiers and criminals to scout out the land recently purchased by the US from France in the Louisiana Purchase. They are quickly joined by Sacagawea and her husband, Toussiant Charbonneau and set off to explore the vast wilderness. However, there is a secret aspect to their mission and they discover the world past the Mississippi River is vastly more dangerous than anyone ever thought possible. This is just an amazing survival horror series. First of all, as part of this genre, expect the typical horror survival tropes including rape, random violence, and some backstabbing. Over all though, it avoids a lot of this by staying almost entirely in Lewis's perspective through notebooks. It also avoids the typical build a character up, make you like them, then brutally kill them trend of say The Walking Dead. The cast, while not extremely diverse since it's mostly white men, does have some strong and competent female and POC characters as well as a few notable gay and bi male characters.
American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque - A fresh new take on vampire mythology that is actually fresh and new. The story follows a new breed of vampire, that of the American Vampire, that is very different from their progenitors and their war with the old vampires of Europe. While Pearl Buck, a 1920's actress, and Skinner Sweet, a crazed outlaw, and their relationship is the focus of many of the stories, it also branches out to new characters and time periods to fully explore the new American Vampire. There is a main series, a series of minis, and an anthology title. Stephen King also penned some stories in the first arc (which is reprinted in the first trade).
Mystery Society by Steve Niles and Fiona Staples - Steve Niles is a prolific horror writer with numerous well known horror stories under his belt including 30 Days of Nights. This series is something a little different. Rich and sexy couple, Nick Hammond and Anastasia Collins, work as a Gomez and Morticia Addams of a new kooky family that they build themselves. Nick and Anastasia bring together a family of twin girls saved from Area 51, a ghoul named Secret Skull, and Jules Vernes' brain in a robot body all in time to stop Nick from being framed and put in jail and to solve a mystery revolving around Edgar Allen Poe. This is really a fun title with horror elements. A definitive edition, which includes the special released a few years after the original series, was just released this month.Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore - What if all the heroes in a city go mad and start killing all it's citizens? That's the basic premise of Leaving Megalopolis. The story revolves around average people trying to escape before they're all killed by a powerful group of superheroes that are basically unstoppable. It's a chilling look on heroes gone mad. there is also a sequel series called Surviving Megalopolis.
If you like any of these, almost all of these creators have other books. Jill Thompson was co-creator of Beasts of Burden, a great horror comic about animals in a neighborhood protecting it from the dark and scary things out there.
Scott Snyder has numerous horror books including Wytches, a frightening take on an evil living outside the woods of a family's home, as well as Severed, about a kid who runs away from home to meet a cannibalistic salesman.
Steve Niles has a series of 30 Days of Nights comics of course, but also a newer October Faction a story of a family of monster hunters.
Gail Simone has Clean Room, an on-going series about a woman whose husband dies because of a cult, so she begins to investigate it and discovers that maybe the dangerous head of the cult is right and there are dark forces out to destroy them all.. or everyone is just crazy.
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