9 Spooky Graphic Novels That Are Perfect for Halloween

After a tragedy hits the Rook family, they move to the small New Hampshire town of Litchfield to get a fresh start. But Sailor, the young daughter of the Rooks, soon finds that her past is not so easily avoided. Likewise, her father Charlie begins to notice that something about Litchfield simply isn’t right. There’s a strange presence in the woods, something that seems to peer down from the trees into the home.

Father and daughter have never gotten along well before, but now they need to rely on each other to fight against the common enemy. Whatever is out there in the woods, it’s dangerous — and it seems to be after Sailor.

Every parent has a morning routine to help get them and their children out the door every morning, and the parents of Scarenthood are no different. Coffee? Check. Packed lunch box? Check. Ghost hunting supplies? Also check.

The local parents are already pros at multitasking, but their schedule is about to become a lot harder to balance. A decades-old mystery is brought into a new light when the townspeople accidentally awaken an entity beneath the old Church Hall. That spirit isn’t happy to have been disturbed, however, and the consequences are looking dire. Now the parents must balance the struggles of childcare with learning to defeat the darkness crawling out of the earth — a darkness that puts their children in mortal danger.

In this dark comedy from Image Comics, farmer Jedidiah Jenkins brings a new meaning to “organ harvesting.” The Jenkins Family Farm is known as the premier place to get replacement parts of the human variety — anything from a spare hand to a new liver, Jedidiah’s got it. It’s a lot grislier than harvesting wheat or corn, but Jedidiah’s proud of his work and how it helps people.

But when a strange blight begins to spread over the farm, it soon becomes clear that a lot more than the Jenkins’ livelihood is at stake. Because whatever is poisoning the body parts on the farm, it’s clear that it can spread to human bodies only too easily.

Emmy had always known that her hometown had a complicated history. Tales of ghosts, ghouls and monsters filled her childhood — the most infamous story being of Hester, the local witch. While on the gallows, Hester swore that she’d return to the town one day. But that was just an old legend … right?

Now Emmy is about to turn eighteen, and she’s looking forward to what the coming year has to offer. That is, until she heals a calf that surely should have died — the same kind of healing that got Hester arrested all those years ago. With its eerie images and hair-raising scares, Harrow County captures the evocative atmosphere of an old Southern Gothic ghost story.

The outlaw Roy Mason had been shot, but he wasn’t finished with life just yet. Brought back from the dead, he’s now chained to the gravestone that once marked his burial place. Roy Mason is determined to use his second chance at life to find a long-buried treasure, in the hopes of providing for the wife and children he left behind. But in the lands of the Wild West, danger lurks around every corner. And in a landscape that’s been twisted with supernatural forces, the dangers are far stranger — and far more ghastly — than anything Roy Mason might expect. This chilling tale of an outlaw’s revenge is sure to leave you feeling haunted.

Children are going missing in the town of Archer’s Peak. Most of them never make it back home, but those who do tell horrible stories of the creatures who kidnapped them. Desperate to save their children, the town calls on their only hope; a monster hunter named Erica Slaughter. Erica has no great love for killing — it’s a sacrifice she makes to protect the innocent people she defends. Like it or not, though, there’s no question that Erica is good at what she does. But with the danger that lurks in the forests of Archer’s Peak, is Erica’s experience enough to keep her safe? Or will she be the one getting slaughtered this time?

In the wake of the Great War, salvage crews have set upon the seabeds of the North Atlantic in search of downed treasures. A formal officer organizes a team on the SS Vagabond and steers the ship to a sunken U-boat still full of priceless gold and artifacts. But as the crew gets closer to unearthing the fortune, tensions begin to rise and loyalties are questioned. What the crew fails to realize is that with every moment they argue, they’re wasting time that could be spent escaping. There’s something lurking on the ocean floor, and woe to any sailor who finds himself in its domain. This chilling story will have you avoiding the ocean for fear of what lurks in the deep waters below.

Horror comes alive in Junji Ito’s legendary tale Uzumaki. The town of Kurouzu-cho is haunted, but not by a ghost or cryptid. Instead, it is a shape that lurks in the shadows of Kurouzu-cho — namely, a spiral called Uzumaki. The pattern can be found in the most unexpected of places, from on the leaves of the local plants to whirlwinds in the weather, and even the town’s topography. But while at first the spirals may seem small and inconsequential, eventually they expand into every aspect of life, driving citizens mad with either fascination or horror. Uzumaki tells a gruesome tale of terror that will leave you shaken long after you’ve turned the last page.

When the zombie apocalypse strikes America, every corner of the country is hit hard. In the Pacific Northwest, Seattle has already fallen, most of the citizens either succumbing to the disease or becoming food for the monsters. One survivor is Sam Coleman, a man who’s only made it this far thanks to his Simon & Wessel pistol and sheer luck. But even now that the city streets have gone quiet, Sam can’t bring himself to run. He left his daughter behind in the first rush of the outbreak and is now desperate to get back to her. Sam is determined to find her alive — but he’ll have to make it back through the city in one piece first.

Check out this listicle to see what other books we recommend for surviving the apocalypse.