THE BEST HORROR COMICS

With Halloween fast approaching it’s time to dig out the best scary stories we can find and what better way to do that than with a few horror comics.

Because there are far too many of these terrifying titles to choose from we’ve picked what we think are the top five worth checking out. Be warned though as these aren’t as easy on the eye as bingo memes and may leave you a little mentally scarred.

1: Uzumaki

First up is a taste of the orient with legendary Manga creator Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. Uzumaki is Japanese for Spiral. The plot centres on a small town and it’s obsession with spirals of various sizes and types.

It’s a rather abstract tale that leads to some quite grotesque and tragic scenes that are genuinely horrifying to behold. With an unforgettable ending and a cast of endearing characters, you won’t regret starting out with Uzumaki. There’s even been a film adaptation if you can’t get enough of the spooky spirals.

2: Neonomicon

Written by Alan Moore, the famous mind behind the likes of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Neonomicon is a stark contrast to Moore’s previous works. It centres around two FBI agents and their investigation into a cult and horrible events following their discovery.

This dark tale plays heavily on the Lovecraftian mythos and it’s filled with sex, violence, nightmare inducing monstrosities and a story that leaves you questioning your own sanity.

3:  Ferals

After the romanticising of werewolves by the Twilight movies it’s refreshing to see a series take the werewolf legend back to its horror tale roots. Written by David Lapham, Ferals is the tale of Officer Dale Chesnutt a backwater town Sherriff who investigates the murder of his best friend only to be attacked by a monstrous Werewolf.

With the town’s entire police force slaughtered and Dale barely surviving, he soon begins to go through a terrifying transformation that will turn him into the fearsome beast he’s trying to hunt down. It’s an absolutely captivating story that leaves you wanting more after each issue.

4: Crossed

A post-apocalyptic tale about zombies might seem a tad overdone what with the Walking Dead having such fame but Garth Ennis - the writer behind Preacher and Punisher - manages to re-capture the sheer horror of a zombie apocalypse with Crossed.

Set in a world gone to ruin with half the population has been turned into ravenous zombies that pillage and rape everything in sight. Crossed takes you on a rollercoaster ride that covers incest, rape and scenes or horrific violence.

Ennis takes his usual no-holds barred approach to storytelling with an extreme series that will leave you craving more ultra-violence.

5: Severed

Written by Scott Snyder, the twisted mind behind the hit series American Vampire, Severed is a gut-wrenching story about a young boy who train-hops across America as he tries to find his father who went missing. Unfortunately he ends up befriending a serial killer and from there it’s a head-first dive into a dark and draining tale that even Hitchcock would find to terrifying to try.

Loosely based on the story of real serial killer Albert Fish, Severed uses graphic and egregious violence to really hammer home the horrible plight that the young protagonist has gotten himself mixed up in.

This is just a small selection of some of the horror comics out there; worth a final mention is the Berserk series by acclaimed Japanese writer Kentaro Miura.

First premiering in 1988, the Berserk series is a fantasy tale mixed with violence, harrowing scenes of torture, grand battle segments and an overwhelming story of tragedy, loss and betrayal. It’s a series that has been going since the late 80’s and still has no end in sight.

It’s a must-read for any fan of fantasy based horror comics and will leave you craving more by the time you finish its current arc.

If your stomach has turned from too much horror then why not take a short break with a few games of bingo to calm your nerves before you dive back into the dark depths of these brilliant horror comics.