Vampires Will Never Hurt you is a wonderful, chilling, short comic by Jude Vigants based on the My Chemical Romance song by the same name. It tells the story of Jamie, a non-binary teenager, and their best friend Vicky, who are being tormented by Travis, a sadistic bully who has been upping his threats as Halloween draws nearer. Vicky confesses that they don’t feel safe going out, but Jamie argues that they won’t let Travis ruin their Halloween fun, no matter what horror he threatens them with. It’s a sad reminder that for some people, the scariest thing about Halloween is the people who don’t have to wear masks. Vicky drops the costume they were planning on wearing to the ground, and says definitively that they aren’t going out.
Jamie decides to go anyway, it’s Halloween, damn it. So they are pleasantly surprised when they meet up with Vicky as they begin to trick or treat, or at least, someone wearing the same mask that Vicky had. It must be Vicky, right? Who else could it be?
Jude Vigants’s pacing and bold inks set a creepy, dark mood in this short story that is impressive in it’s depth. The artwork has bold spot blacks that are reminiscent of The Long Halloween and Guy Davis’s work on B.P.R.D., but the story is more in line with the themes and stakes of more recent and socially conscious horror of films like Green Room and Get Out. For $2.99 this book provides a perfect Halloween scare full of gore and chills, as well as a frank reflection of our current social climate, from the perspective of the people who fight to survive the horror that lives everyday, not just Halloween. But maybe, it contains the hope that something out there in the dark would help us fight against it.
It’s All Hallow’s Eve and Grant Morrison and his scary cohorts at Heavy Metal have curated the FEAR issue to keep you company on the long, cold, dark, and terrifying nights ahead.
Admit it, you still have no idea what you’re wearing to that Halloween party next weekend. Here are five comics to inspire some easy, last-minute costumes!
Death’s daughter rides the wind on a horse made of smoke and her face bears the skull marks of her father. Her origin story is a tale of retribution as beautifully lush as it is unflinchingly savage.
Got a pair of black pants and a white button down? Add some skull face paint and a cowboy hat, and you’re Deathface Ginny from Pretty Deadly!
Riverdale High provides a quality education and quality hot lunches, but when one of those is tampered with, Jughead Jones swears vengeance! Well, I mean, he doesn’t “swear.” This is still Archie Comics after all.
Did you know that Jughead’s hat is called a whoopee cap? Now you know what to search for on Amazon Prime! Don your whoopee cap, grab a hamburger, and you can turn any t-shirt and jeans into a Jughead costume!
SHOWTIME, SYNERGY! Meet JERRICA BENTON–a girl with a secret. She and her sister KIMBER team with two friends to become… JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS! But what does it mean to be JEM today? Fashion, art, action, and style collide in this outrageous comic!
Grab some colorful hair chalk and dig up your brightest outfit, finally use that neon eye shadow you’ve got lying around and don’t skimp on the jewelry for an outrageous JEM-inspired costume!
When the ghosts that haunt the occult detective start being murdered, it becomes clear the rules have changed. Far worse than ordinary death, this second death means oblivion—no afterlife, no way back. To stop it, Constantine must explore the barriers between the mundane and the extraordinary: the thin places.
Loosen your tie, run your fingers through your hair, throw on a trench coat, and you’re John Constantine. Ghosts optional.
The Walking Dead has been redefining the survival horror genre with its unique and vivid account of life after the end of the world. Although the cast is diverse and often changing (including, of course, a great number of zombies), at the heart of every tale is Rick Grimes: former police officer, husband, father, and de facto leader of a ragtag band of survivors looking to make a future for themselves in a world that no longer has one.
If you need a group costume, look no further than your laundry basket. Some rumpled clothes, creatively adorned with a little dirt and fake gore, along with an improvised prop weapon or two, and you’re a band of survivors from The Walking Dead (or step up the gore to be zombies instead!).
Sometimes you want to get into the Halloween spirit without having to sleep with the lights on until Thanksgiving. Check out these recommendations for just the right amount of scary:
An all-new adventure revisiting Edward Scissorhands two decades after the end of the fan-favorite movie! In castle just outside a sleepy suburban town, a brilliant inventor created Edward Scissorhands…but left him tragically unfinished. Two generations of exile have left Edward digging through abandoned experiments, but once he wakes up a creature left buried, he discovers he isn’t the only one missing a vital piece. As Edward tries to fix a grave mistake, he comes face to face with a teenage girl who was sure he was only myth… despite the stories her grandmother told her, about the man she could never touch.
Witness the awesomeness that is Hellboy! The characters that sprung from Mike Mignola’s imagination, with an AW YEAH Art Baltazar and Franco twist! This book has ALL the FUN, adventure, and AW YEAHNESS in one itty bitty package! Stories include:
A ghost named Rasputin has been spotted! And Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are going to find out what he’s up to.
Lobster Johnson is on the trail of a Squatch! His search has led him to the deep woods, and Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are going to help him the best way they know how! That’s right-it’s a camping trip! One thing is for sure: when Liz is around you never need a flashlight, but you might need to bring your own marshmallows!
It had to happen! Because you demanded it! Hellboy and the gang go to the fiery pits of HELL! How did they get there anyway? ALSO, our B.P.R.D. heroes’ search for Sasquatch continues! But what does Rasputin have to do with all this? OOOOH! Is he just trying to scare us?
Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion — enter if you dare! You might think no one lives in this elegant house on the hill — but then where’s that creepy organ music coming from? Are its iron gates meant to keep people out — or keep something in? Get ready to meet the 999 ghosts of the Haunted Mansion. But be warned, they’re looking for the thousandth! Legendary ghouls like Madame Leota, the Hatbox Ghost, Constance the Bride and the Hitchhiking Ghosts lie in wait and could appear at any moment. But poor Danny is trapped inside and just wants to escape the foreboding abode. Is there anyone he can trust to help him? Marvel brings the chilling fan-favorite Haunted Mansion attraction to (after)life in the latest spine-tingling Disney Kingdoms adventure!
There will be a few more horror sales in the next few weeks, but we’re always happy to give recommendations! Here’s some horror comics recs brought to you by Lou (from the podcast crew):
Emmy always knew that the woods surrounding her home crawled with ghosts and monsters. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is connected to these creatures–and to the land itself–in a way she never imagined.
Lou says: Harrow County manages to be creepy and beautiful all at once.
You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer– the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper– seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, “Jeff” was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche– a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget.
Lou says: My Friend Dahmer isn’t exactly a horror comic, but we all know how it ends and that makes every moment all the more chilling. (This is being adapted into a film, due to release in 2017!)
At the dusk of a century, a pair of vengeful Victorian vixens discover a horrifying power that transforms them into rich and strange new creatures. Armed with their dark, evolving forms, they descend into a world of the cultured and occult, with new senses and new sensuality, to forge a life for themselves and the child of their love.
Lou says: You never knew body horror could be so sexy until you read Insexts.
OH MY GOD ITS HALLOWEEN EVE AND I HAVENT TALKED ABOUT RACHEL RISING!?!?
Rachel wakes up at sunrise on a shallow grave in the woods and discovers the freshly murdered body in the dirt is her own. With events of the previous night a blur, Rachel seeks out her boyfriend Phillip. But Phillip has a new girl now and Rachel is beginning to suspect she rose from the grave for a reason– revenge!
