Locke and Key

Written by Joe Hill

Illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez

Who better to write horror than the son of the King of Horror? Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King, has established his voice in the world of fiction, having published a number of fantastic horror novels. But he is also the award-winning writer of Locke and Key, a frightening Lovecraftian horror fairytale.

Locke and Key follows a family that movies into the Key House in Lovecraft, Massachusetts after the brutal murder of the father. This is no ordinary house. There are doors within it that lead to other planes of existence. They have the power to transform those who walk into it, but once any of the residents turn 18, they forget about the magic. While still recovering from the loss of their father, the youngest boy, Bode, discovers the first door, which transforms you into a ghost. While spying on his family, Bode befriends a mysterious and evil entity at the bottom of a well that manipulates him into becoming her friend. Naturally, this entity wants only to open the one horrifying door that that should always stay locked.

If you love Joe Hill’s novels and/or you love his father’s unmatched horror world building, you will not be disappointed by Locke and Key. Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez spend just as much, if not more time, character building as they do trying to scare you. The result is nothing short of mesmerizing – an enthralling jaunt into a creepy world that feels all too real and yet completely fantastical at the same time. It is heartbreaking horror, and something that you will definitely want to dive into head first…with the light on.

Severed

Written by Scott Snyder

Illustrated by Attila Futaki

When it comes to horror, there is nothing as tried and true as a good boogeyman story. Severed is one such story. Collected in one volume, this riveting horror story is an easy one to pick up and read cover to cover on any cold and creepy October night.

Nightmares, cannibalism, and the dark days before modern technology make Severed a haunting tale that feels like it escaped from a past age. Set in 1916, the story follows the young Jack Garron as he runs away from home in search of his biological father, a traveling musician, with hopes that they can make music together. However, Jack’s fiddle playing catches the attention of a walking nightmare: the appropriately named Mr. Nightmare.

I have read Severed several times, and yet as I sat down to write this and talk about how gruesome and grotesque it was, I had to go back and flip through it because I couldn’t actually recall if some of the terrible things I was picturing were actually visually present on the page or if I created them in my mind. Although Severed is a little more graphic than the classic Hitchcock and gothic horror stories to which it owes a debt, it still leaves enough up to the imagination that you have the opportunity to build the horror in your head. This is a story that begs to be adapted, but for the time being I suggest giving this short but terrifying comic a try.

Harrow County

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Tyler Crook

Harrow County is a story conjured up using some southern gothic charm and mysticism. It often feels like it comes from the same realm as The Witch. Harrow County follows a young girl named Emmy who has grown up surrounded by mysterious woods containing all sorts of supernatural things. Unbeknownst to Emmy, she has a deeper connection to these woods than plain geography – a connection that has the whole town wanting to kill her on her eighteenth birthday.

One of the things that I truly love about Harrow County, and that really sets it apart from a lot of the doom and gloom genre tales, is that it is as much fantasy as it horror. In the pages of volume one, Emmy runs into the woods and meets strange beings and obstacles along the way, much like you would expect from an enchanting childhood classic like Labyrinth. The fairytale element makes the story feel charming, which takes a lot of finesse when one of those strange beings is literally the skin of a boy. No, really. Just the disembodied skin of a boy.

For all of its bewitching attributes, it is still a horror story. The horror is as much internal as external, and as you close the book on volume one, you find yourself in the same position as the protagonist. You can’t quite decide what scares you more: is it the monsters and ghouls in the woods, is it the townsfolk that come together as a lynch mob, or is it Emmy herself, and who/what she might really be?