The 10 Scariest Horror Comics Of All Time, According To Ranker
Like horror films, horror comics have a rabid fan base that jumps on any opportunity to have their socks scared off by a great comic book. The medium of comics allows artists and writers to craft unique stories that can only be told in their medium, and they rise above the constraints of film and TV.
Whether its superhero horrors like Swamp Thing or classic chillers like From Hell, there is a wealth of terrifying comics to spook unsuspecting readers. Despite the popularity of the genre as a whole, users on Ranker took to the site to upvote the ones that scared them the most.
10 From Hell (1989-1996)
From Hell spawned from the clever mind of comic writer Alan Moore and is generally considered one of his essential works. The story is a fictionalized speculation about the circumstances surrounding the infamous "Jack the Ripper" murders of the 1880s.
Obviously, the serial murders are a frightening element of the story, but what keeps most readers up at night is the grimy world that is constructed through the writing and artwork. Not only is the conspiracy scary, but so too is the rich imagery evoked in the busy frames. Interestingly, the comic is in black and white, which is somehow scarier.
9 The Walking Dead (2003-2019)
The Walking Dead is arguably the biggest horror comic hit of all time, and it is still one of the best books to come from Image comics. The book follows a police officer named Rick Grimes who wakes up from a coma to find himself in the zombie apocalypse.
Though zombies are a horror cliche at this point, The Walking Dead manages to use them as a clever device in the story. What makes the book interesting and frightening isn't so much the zombies, as it is the slow degradation of humanity as the apocalypse wears on. Though the earth is covered in flesh-eating monsters, the most dangerous threat is still other people.
8 Crossed (2008-2010)
The comic book medium is often the place where a creator's most clever ideas play out, and Crossed was a unique twist on an old concept. The premise surrounds a plague that causes people, when infected, to act out their most violent and dangerous desires.
The virus is very much like a zombie apocalypse except the sufferer still maintains their human intelligence, which makes them infinitely more dangerous. The strength of the comic is its versatility and inspiration as a story. Though the initial run was relatively short, Crossed has been revived multiple times in new and horrifying interpretations of the world.
7 B.P.R.D. (2002-2019)
Acting as a spinoff to the wildly popular Hellboy series, B.P.R.D. explored one of the most interesting elements of the aforementioned franchise. The book focuses on the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, an agency that is tasked with investigating occult and paranormal events.
The series doesn't focus on specific characters and instead focuses on the agency as a whole instead. Each storyline offers a plethora of new opportunities and the book isn't limited with its potential scope. Though some stories span over several issues, the one-off stories are often the scariest and feature monsters both familiar and unfamiliar.
6 Wytches (2014-2015)
The miniseries format of comics allows creators to tell a gripping and terrifying story without the pressure to expand it into an ongoing series. Wytches is the tale of a regular family who moves to a small town in New Hampshire. Soon their troubled young daughter, Sailor, becomes a target for a coven of witches and the family must do anything they can to stop them from taking her.
With an unusually simple premise for a comic book series, the book really shines through its well-written characters and its artwork. The writing manages to be both fresh and seems like an homage to the terrifying horror films of the 1970s. As for the art, the harsh use of black and startling use of color keeps the reader's eye scanning the page for more horrific details in each frame.
5 Locke & Key (2008-2013)
Blending elements of traditional comic book stories and horror together, Locke & Key proved to be a truly unique addition to the genre. The plot centers around a series of portals that are sealed with keys that are forged from demons.
As strange as the plot sounds, the beauty of the comic is the complicated relationship between human characters and the scope of the story. Spanning over decades, the series explores its concepts to their fullest. By treating their demons like a force of nature, the book cleverly establishes the rules of its universe and is therefore able to utilize them well in the story.
4 Harrow County (2015-2018)
Ghost stories are nothing new to horror, but the comic Harrow County found a new way to use them with an eye towards history. The book follows Emmy Crawford, a girl on the eve of her 18th birthday who discovers the presence of the supernatural and must find a way to reconcile it with her past.
The book brings in elements of Southern Gothic style and isn't afraid to push its story in strange directions. The artwork ranges from vivid detail to unusual vagueness which combines to offer as many chills as possible. The strength of the series is its ability to tell isolated stories within the world that serve to flesh out what the reader already knows.
3 Gideon Falls (2018-2020)
When it comes to horror, location is often an important element to ramp up the terror, and Gideon Falls proved that theory. The story centers around a reclusive conspiracy theorist who teams up with a Catholic priest to investigate the mysterious Black Barn that seems to be the crux of their town's strange past.
Similar to Twin Peaks' Black Lodge, the Black Barn is an unusual place that brings chaos and death with it throughout history. Relying more on clever writing than gore or monsters, Gideon Falls offers readers a mystery story that is shot through with enough foreboding to keep readers turning the pages.
2 Uzumaki (1998-1999)
Horror comics are not an exclusively American phenomenon, and Uzumaki proved to be one of the scariest manga series of all time. The story follows a teenage girl and her boyfriend who see their town become oddly obsessed with a curse that revolves around spiral patterns.
In typical horror fashion, the main characters watch as the world around them becomes out of sync and they are the only ones who can keep things straight. Youth is difficult enough as it is, but the addition of a life and death scenario where adults act irrationally is doubly terrifying. The black-and-white artwork adds to the terror by presenting genuinely horrific imagery that features a spiral motif.
1 Saga Of The Swamp Thing (1984-1987)
Though Swamp Thing existed long before Alan Moore's historic run as head writer for the series, it was the Saga of the Swamp Thing era that shined the brightest. The book follows the adventures of Swamp Thing, a creature that contains the last shred of the humanity of a man once named Alec Holland.
Moore's run on the series transformed Swamp Thing from a silly bog monster into an existential powerhouse, and he is responsible for some of the Swamp Thing's best quotes. The horror of the series is implied, as readers comprehend the soul-shattering life that Alec Holland must endure as the not-quite-human Swamp Thing. On top of that, there is enough traditional comic book action to keep readers interested as well.