PIHM Listicle: Favourite Horror Graphic Novels
As an autistic person with many sensory sensitivities, I startle easily. I do not enjoy being afraid and I absolutely detest jump scares. I also don’t handle gore or excessive violence very well. Why am I compiling a list of my favourite horror then? Because while I refuse to watch horror movies or play games scarier than Hollow Knight or Code Vein, I adore dark, creepy, bloody, spine-tingling, hair-raising, macabre stories when unfurling across the pages. I have always been drawn to dark and horrific art as well, finding works by the likes of Hieronymus Bosch absolutely fascinating, which is why I find myself gravitating toward horror in graphic novel format. Here are a few of my favourite queer horror and horror-adjacent graphic novels and all the reasons I love them.
1. Die by Kieron Gillen
This graphic novel series made me nostalgic for one of my favourite childhood films, Jumanji. In fact, the author himself describes the series as ‘Goth Jumanji’, about a group of 40-somethings returning to a teenage role-playing game. Although I’ve never been into role-playing beyond brief university dabblings in Vampire: The Masquerade and my obsession with Witcher 3, Die grabbed my brain and sucked me into its vibrant, vivid pages of pitch-black adventure with deadly consequences. I found the trans character particularly relatable and enjoyed the horror elements all the more because they were so well balanced with tongue-in-cheek humour that often made reference to SF/F pop culture.
2. Wicked & Divine by Kieron Gillen
This series, also by Gillen, tickled my brain in all the right ways. It’s about gods who incarnate as humans for a two life-span in a Faustian deal, during which they wreak all kinds of havoc. The story features an array of diverse characters, including darker deities like Lucifer, the Morrigan, and the Baphomet. While this might be more dark fantasy than horror, the story certainly treads bleak water, serving up a liberal dose of death and violence in bright and immersive panels that are pure eye candy. Also, that twist at the end of book 1 will have you grabbing for the next instalment.
3. Monstress by Marjorie Lui
Similar to Wicked&Divine, Monstress is more dark fantasy than strictly horror, however the concept alone (a girl possessed by an ancient entity) is so horrific I couldn’t not include this absolutely exquisite series in this list. The art is, in fact, so gorgeous that it at times distracts from the story. I was often so mesmerized by the panels I forgot to read the text. The story features a host of queer characters and blends convoluted political intrigue with a poignant story examining identity and what it means to be family at the heart of it. There is plenty of gore, torture, and body horror – especially in later instalments – to satisfy those who enjoy that type of horror.
4. The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV
This is one of the most disturbing series I’ve ever read, about a gay government agent who gets tangled up in a truly terrifying conspiracy involving rival agencies, each trying to control and manipulate world politics through the manifestation and application of conspiracy theories – think Satanic panic, bigfoot, chupacabras, and worse, all made real to scare the masses into submission. This series really makes you start to question reality through art that is as grotesque and disturbing as the story idea, making use of a mostly black and red palette with highly effective pixelation and distortion. This series dishes up gore and psychological terror in equal measure.
5. Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV
I think I could probably list all of Tynion’s work here considering everything he creates is dark and chilling, but Something is Killing the Children is especially horrific since, as the name implies, it involves kids being eaten by monsters, and the art spares no details when it comes to the gory nature of the attacks. This series definitely won’t be for everyone given its subject matter, but it certainly kept me riveted to the page, routing for our anti-hero Erica Slaughter as she kicked monster butt (to be fair, it involved more decapitation and evisceration). The spin-off series, House of Slaughter, is excellent as well and even more gory.
And there you have it, five of my favourite queer horror graphic novels. As dark and frightening and disturbing as some of these stories are, I find horror easier to stomach (and actually enjoy) when it’s splashed across panels and pages. There is a particular kind of beauty to behold in brushstrokes of blood or the iridescent sheen of spilled viscera, and a peculiar kind of thrill in ogling entire panels rendered black except for the burning eyes of demons staring back at you from that papery abyss.
Climber, tattoo collector, and peanut-butter connoisseur, Xan van Rooyen is an autistic, non-binary storyteller from South Africa, currently living in Finland. Xan has a Master’s degree in music, and–when not teaching–enjoys conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. You can find Xan’s stories in the likes of Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy’s Edge among others. Their latest releases include adult aetherpunk novel Silver Helix (Android Press) and adult aetherpunk novella Waypoint Seven (Mirari Press). Xan is also part of the Sauútiverse, an African writer’s collective with their first anthology Mothersound out now from Android Press. Feel free to say hi on socials @xan_writer.