Can anyone recommend me some great horror comics?

[SmallBlueThing]

Walking Dead, obviously. The best, most consistent comic ever produced- horror or no. I've recently finished volume 10 of the trades, and once again it affected me in the same way that all the best horror fiction does. It resonates, repeats on you, coming unbidden to mind in the middle of food shopping causing involuntary shivers, makes you genuinely concerned about the characters, and ultimately giving you a zombie-like hunger for the next one.

It's beyond and above criticism- the best written, best drawn comic I have ever read, never puts a foot wrong and always succeeds in scaring the absolute hell out of me, while at the same time making me consider the wider picture. There's always at least one "moment" in each trade that genuinely drops my jaw and sends my heart to the pit of my stomach. The gap between trades is almost unbearable.

Moore's Swamp Thing issues are okay- I personally don't feel time has been kind- a reread recently had me laughing at Moore's purple prose and some of the techniques he used, which were "new" back then, now jump out at you as being overused and "cheesy". Even The Curse suffers from being so right-on as to be unreadable and the plot-centric knife display, blades-out in the most hideous impaled-kids accident waiting to happen stylee, is completely Little Britain stupid, and massively wrong in tone. I think the best age to enjoy Swampy was when I was 13, to be honest.

In truth I've almost always been dissappointed by horror comics. Walking Dead aside, I can't think of many that have succeeded in actually scaring me or doing anything beyond what EC were doing in the fifties: yuck yuck gags and puns.

It depends what you want from your horror, I guess.

But yes, Something Wicked was great!

Steev

[judda fett]

Deadworld- especially the original run from the late 80's- early 90's. All the best survival elements as seen in 'The Walking Dead' and an occult back story. King Zombie, Necrophilia, demons, some great standalone stories and artwork by Vince Locke amongst others. The daddy of all zombie epics, often had a regular cover or a 'Not For Pussys' version. Suffered publishing/distribution problems and went through a couple of reboots, most recently one from about 2007-ish.

[mygrimmbrother]

Read and enjoyed Angel Fire, thought it was a neat little story and it was good to see Parkhouse's art again. Have to say I'm a fan of his and also love Blythe's colours - both on Dredd and here (especially those turbulent Scottish skies, amazing). BUT I don't think they compliment each other particularly well. Blythe colouring Colin MacNeil or someone like that = no problems, but on this I thought they fought against each other slightly.

Still, a good solid horror yarn, and thanks for the recommendation Johnnystress. I really wanna check out The Walking Dead, but am a bit intimidated by the sheer number of volumes - that's a hell of a commitment (there's a credit crunch on, and all that).

Fort - Prophet of the Unexplained was ok - well, 9/10 for Frazer's artwork, but the script was pretty insipid after reading Necronauts. Still, glad I picked it up (and at a bargain price too!)

Managed to snag #1 of Gutsville too - now this was absolutely awe iinspiring. I'm sure it's been dissected aplenty on these boards, but as a late-comer again, I just want to add my voice to those who must have heaped a shitload of praise on it. What a killer concept!

Anyway, I'm now cobbling together an attempt at a horror script which I hope to submit to 'Something Wicked' when it's done. Sally forth!

[Emperor]

Fort - Prophet of the Unexplained was ok - well, 9/10 for Frazer's artwork, but the script was pretty insipid after reading Necronauts. Still, glad I picked it up (and at a bargain price too!)

Yes that was my general impression - if you liked Necronauts (and esepcially if you like Frazer Irving's art) then it is worth giving a spin. I thought it was the monster that let it down and a better choice of baddie would have done wonders. I did feel a bit like he was setting it up for more series and I would have been interested to check them out if they'd arisen,  but they didn't and I don't loose sleep over that either.

[JOE SOAP]

I'm still fond of what could have been the horror version of 2000AD, if only it could have been filled with stories such as Fiends of the Eastern Front. Highlights are the Thirteenth Floor and some of the other shorter tales, with some great art from the Twoth stable.

[ozebane]

'Clive Barker's Tapping the vein' is a great graphic novel; a collection of adaptations of Clive Barker's best short stories.

Genuinely disturbing artwork coupled with visceral and thought provoking horror. Really good stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clive-Barkers-Tapping-Vein-Barker/dp/0971024936/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252174535&sr=8-2

[johnnystress]

A Scream bumper edition like the forthcoming Misty and Battle collections would be a very nice thing indeed

I've been getting the DC House of Mystery and House of Secret collections- some great stuff in there- some not so great too though

Also there are collected reprints of Warren comics Eerie and Creepy that are worth a look

[zombemybabynow]

the last series of swamp thing tpb called love in vain is pretty cool

[Zarjazzer]

Have you seen Dirk Mannings Cthuhlu inspired web comic  "Nightmare World" at Image Shadowline? It's also being collected into a TPB as well.

[zombemybabynow]

Neil gaiman's sandman arc called a game of you is pretty unsettling, yet engrossing

[brendan1]

Sandman by Gaiman

Not horror zackly, although that lad with teeth for eyes does a variety of horrible things to lots of people.

Finished Vol 1 of The Walking Dead. Liked that, too.

Coming up to the run of Necronauts on my 200AD catch-ups; really looking forward to that.

[Mattofthespurs]

The Walking Dead, as previously suggested, and of course the granddaddies of them all, the EC horror line. "Tales From The Crypt", "Vault Of Horror", and "The Haunt Of Fear".
I return to them almost daily.

[Emperor]

I just finished XXXombies - it was as if they'd tried to devise something that would be able to offend everyone but managed to get enough humour and over-the-top violence in to make it palatable. As it is set in a zombie outbreak on a Hollywood porn set (run by Chinese porn supremo Wong Hung Lau*) I was concerned it could have been depressing like Zombie Strippers (I have not felt genuinely depressed after watching a film until I saw this. That said I haven't watched Porn of the Dead and I fear I'd have the same reaction, although I did speak to writer/director Rob Rotten and he seemed like a nice guy) but I really enjoyed it

*yes really

[James]

I second the Clive Barker shout.

I have a run of twenty Hellraiser comics and a few trades with some of his short stories from the Books of Blood. Some of them are very gruesome and a bit scary.

[Mattofthespurs]

I'll add "Fly In My Eye" and the "Taboo" series from the 90's to this list.
Some weird and creepy stuff.