Actually, I think i will take the time to start a "real" thread, seeing as I just bought a bunch of comics for the first time in ages. Having recently discovered a new (to me) comic shop in the area, and with Halloween rapidly approaching, I raided their 3/$1.00 box for some obscure horror comics and came up with a few issues of Marvel's Sleepwalker (never read it before, ended up not caring for it), the last issue of DC's "Lords of the Ultrarealm" (not impressed), plus some oddities of the indie variety including "Power of the Golem" (kinda dumb), "Monster Fighters, Inc." (really dumb), the first issue of Now Comics' "The Twilight Zone" (dense, boring, and confusing, plus the 3D really hurt my eyes because I think I need reading glasses), and, finally, something called "This is Not an Exit" which started out strong but then just sort of fizzled out, like the creators just got bored with the whole idea of making a comic book but forced themselves to finish it.
So yeah, not a winning bunch. But I do love horror comics, both anthologies and the adventures of the big two's horror-themed characters like Werewolf By Night, the Phantom Stranger, and so forth. SO... what are your favorites in this genre? Is there anything recent (i.e. post 2000) you'd recommend?
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When I was a kid my older sister read a British girls’ comic called Tammy. The comic carried a mix of regular features and serials, invariably with teen or pre-teen heroines. The serials read episodically when collected, and the paper was lousy. But a surprising number of them had supernatural horror content, and I found a number of them compelling as a kid. The stronger ones in horror terms include “Thursday’s Child”, about a girl oppressed by the malignant influence of an old flag she found and used as a bedspread (in one instalment she turns on the taps and screams as blood seems to rush out), and “The Loneliest Girl in the World”, a paranoid story in which a girl discovers people in her village have been replaced by robots.
When they cancelled titles British publishers used to fold them into another, bringing some of the features across. Tammy became Tammy and Misty for a while. Misty was a girls’ horror comic. There’s a website dedicated to it here with a handful of online stories, I think used with permission. One of the Tammy and Misty serials was “Spider-Woman”, a sequel to a Misty serial called “The Black Widow”. These were about an evil woman who could control spiders. "Spider-Woman" opened with the discovery of what seems to be an abandoned yacht at sea. The discoverers board her, and discover everyone on board has been killed by spiders. One of the Misty instalments can be read here.
Tammy also ran an anthology series called “The Strange Story”, inherited from June. There's an example here ("Vassilya's Doll"), but it's hard to read. One that’s really stuck with me was about a girl whose friend is killed in a traffic accident. She might have lived except onlookers moved her before the ambulance arrived, exacerbating her injuries. The girl gradually learns that people killed in accidents become the traffic accident ghouls who excitedly run to scenes of accidents. She spots her dead friend, and running after her fails to see a car. Badly injured, she pleads with the onlookers not to move her, but they “helpfully” insist on doing so. In the last panel we see the ghouls running to the scene of another accident - with the heroine now among them.
First of all, welcome back, Mr. Satanism! It's been awhile!
Secondly, I have mentioned on here a few times recently that I have a growing appreciation and even love of horror comics, much in contrast to my loathing of horror movies. But luckily, this is a comics thread! Here are my current favorites:
Welcome back, Mr. Satanism!
I second Sensei's rec of Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. They're both terrific.
Another horror comic I'm enjoying is Semiautomagic by Alex DeCampi and Jerry Ordway, being serialized in recent issues Dark Horse Presents. Really nice stuff in the occult detective vein, with, of course, fantastic art by Ordway. He's best known for superheroes, but he can draw the hell out of a mouth fulla teeth! The first storyline ended a few months ago, and a new one picked up in the most recent issue.
DeCampi is also writing No Mercy with Carla Speed McNeil on art, but that's more suspense than horror. Still excellent, though.
But the first thing my mind fixed on is Black Hole, by Charles Burns, which began serialization in 1995, but wasn't collected until 2005. It's got a strange velvety texture to the art, and the story's about teens who mutate as an STD (if I remember correctly)... it's really unnerving stuff. (It made a cameo in the second of the new Planet of the Apes movies, as it's the book the teen character is reading that he gives to one of the chimps.)
I love me some horror movies but have trouble finding comics that scratch the same itch.
I do remember really enjoying the initial run of Crossed by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. I found it to be pretty disturbing. There are numerous Crossed books that have come out since then (including some by Alan Moore) but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet so I can't speak to their quality.
Hey, Brad... welcome back!
I recommend Haunted Horror, an anthology truly unusual tales from the '50s, '60s and even '70s, chosen and edited by Craig Yoe. (It's siter title, Weird Love, is pretty good, too.) Actually, any of the hardcover collections from Yoe Books are worth a look. Most of them focus on a particular artist.