Horror comics seem to be under appreciated in general.
There ones people love like The Walking Dead but the majority seem unnoticed.
I know the genre is not everybody's cup of tea but I wonder what people felt about horror comics in genral and what are ones people enjoy and ones they hate, on the web or in print. What makes a great horror comic? Share examples if possible.

Oo, I like this discussion!

Okay I'm gonna start with things I like. Believe it or not, I much prefer the classic stuff, like those that ran in EC's "New Trend" line, Tales From The Crypt and a myriad of titles. I really haven't found a modern horror title I can get behind, though.

I like my horror stories to have clear visuals, so they actually have impact when something happens. I'm not saying I want to see a monster revealed right away and have him completely visible at all times, I'm just saying when the monster shows up I want to feel afraid of it! It doesn't always have to be a monster though. IF something's happening and they aren't cutting away for discretion or something, then I want it to be well depicted!

I like when a horror comic keeps its pace without breaking the mood every turn. I appreciate a little dark humor too.


It depends also what sort of horror comics we're talking about too! I really like comics with interesting monster designs. I looooooove monsters! I can read a psychological horror too, but sometimes those are hard to get into because the things some people find creepy, I don't find as creepy at all.


I'd say a thing that I hate about horror comics is the recent trend of scratchy, muddy art where you can't see what's happening. I know they're trying to go for the whole "unseen horror" thing but I can't stand it. It's supposed to be horror, not horrible! The only really good horror comics I've read in recent times were webcomics in fact. I thought Manifestations was a beautifully done horror comic. It was nice to look at, I could tell what was going on, there was enough suspense and mystery to keep me reading the entire thing in one day!

Also, I really hate when the artist decides it's going to be hardcore porn for about five pages, because when it gets back to the story I've already lost interest. I don't care if there's a little nudity in the context of the story, it just insults me when the comic is trying to cover weak writing by appealing to the baser nature. It's an annoying and necessary distraction, especially for an asexual. Things like that don't add to the horror and are just filler, in my opinion. This doesn't mean I want things to be dragged down by plot either, it's just that they gotta settle on a mood and continue to cultivate it. I hate when they are constantly snapping out of the mood. That's fine if it's not gonna be straight-up horror, but there's nothing worse than building up so much suspense in the first half of the story and then completely losing it on the second!

I also don't care for a million-mile-an-hour plot. A good horror story should know when to reveal things, when to conceal them, just over all how to pace and let a story unfold. This is why I favor the miniseries of Stephen King's "the Shining" over the Jack Nicholson movie. Kubrick's movie wasn't horrible, it just didn't compare and the "scary!" iconic images just reek of horror-funhouse camp.
"ooo, the girls in the hall are so scaaarry!" Gimmee a break, the rotting zombie in the tub was a hell of a lot scarier in the miniseries! So yeah, I like it when things are built up rather than shoved in my face like "This is scary! Be scared!"

Mainly the overused cliches, it's like they embrace the fact that this shit has been done a million times and try to play it off as 'irony' when really it just cheapens the comic.

Also the thing that's causing the horror better be original/actually scary, one time i was reading a rather good comic off zuda (after waiting 45 minutes for the crud to load) with a suspenseful theme of the girl diving into the water....she pulled back in shock as a bloated dead body floated past....and then....and then....saw a lame as hell, boy with fruity butterfly wings underwater.
I closed the comic right then didn't even care how it ended.

If i had to pick some stuff:
-No 'ironic' crap
-Original 'monster' or better, serial killer theme.
-Twiiiiists! Oh no my friends otherwise friendly/funny bf was leading us to the evil cult all along! My sister was dating the infamous ice-box killer right under my nose! Oh no!
-No long boring 'set-up' of them talking and talking, i know this is to 'build character' but mostly these people have one dimensional personalities and zero growth before 3/4 of them die, what's the point.

Edit: also lol my whole reading of Amelius' post and there was only one godawful webcomic i could think of, that may or may not ryhme with woo bwud. ;)

I make horror comics...sort of.

Well I guess the most popular horror webcomics blend in with some other (more popular?) genre such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

There are plenty of vampire, werewolf and zombie webcomics let me tell you.

Now comics that are horror for horror sakes that might be harder to find.

Check out this community for more horror comics. http://www.bynightcomics.com/index/

Skullbie
Also the thing that's causing the horror better be original/actually scary, one time i was reading a rather good comic off zuda (after waiting 45 minutes for the crud to load) with a suspenseful theme of the girl diving into the water....she pulled back in shock as a bloated dead body floated past....and then....and then....saw a lame as hell, boy with fruity butterfly wings underwater.
I closed the comic right then didn't even care how it ended.

I read that one!! I can't remember for the life of me what it was...looking..

http://www.zudacomics.com/node/112 It was called Bayou!

What are you talking about Skullbie!? That comic was awesome and original! The butterfly kid was the girl's friend that got killed. You think if anything can be really scary, living in a racist country would be.

Skullbie
Mainly the overused cliches, it's like they embrace the fact that this shit has been done a million times and try to play it off as 'irony' when really it just cheapens the comic.

I actually really like horror comic but I know what ya mean. I mean irony is OK every once in a while, even if it's the primary focus of the comic but it can definitely get really tiring. My favorite horror comics mostly took a pschological angle. They tended relied more on pacing and bringing up disturbing ideas. The best examples I can think of as horror in comics actually weren't "horror comics" per se, The 24-hour Diner story in Sandman and Rorshach's pschological evaluation in Watchmen were genuinely creepy. Black Hole, Nightmares and Fairytales and the Blair Witch Chronicals (no, really!) I thought were really good horror comics too.
As horror webcomics go I liked Manifestations, Missing Days of Febuary was really freaky for me too. I mean MDoF has people going around losing their memories and a doctor that's grafting parts of reanimated corpses onto people, I think that's scary!

Hmm, it's really difficult to make a really scary comic. It's fairly easy in movies. Some camera tricks, creepy music and loud bangs whenever something happens that make you jump. There you go, all done.

But I think horror comics aren't doing so bad these days. Even if the horror is used here as... how to put it... as a setting rather than to create mood?

I mean, Steve Niles writes good horror comics yet none of them are actually scary (at least not to me). They're simply entertaining "pulp horrors" I guess.

What did get me scared a bit (or rather kept me feeling uneasy and creeped out) were Uzumaki and Dragon Head.

What scares me are themes that involve demons or aliens.

The movies about boogie men or psychos or monsters like vampires and werewolves and zombies do not scare me one bit.

I gota little scared watching movies like Exorcist and War of the Worlds... and reading Filipino horror comics --these are usually short one issue stories. Up to now it still sticks to my head the image of demons roasting humans over the fire as if we're roasted pigs. So graphically illustrated in an old comic I picked up when I was 8 years old.

But even more scary is the Reptilians. I literally couldn't sleep for 3 days after listening to the interviews of Alex Collier, Credo Mutwa, and Peggy Kane. While I cannot 100% prove the existence of the Reptilians as I haven't seen one yet, I still couldn't deny the deep internal FEAR that I felt.

I'm not gonna include my comic as being a horror comic. Even though it has horror comic themes I just don't think it's scary enough.

I think a good horror comic is one that focuses not only the threat, but how the characters in the story are dealing with the threat. That is why The Walking Dead is so good IMO. Because it's not just a zombie story, it's a story about the human condition. And what happens to it when it's put in extreme abnormal circumstances.

I'll be blunt. I don't like horror. Horror stories. Horror movies. Horror books. Put the word on there and chances are I'm not even going to give it a glance.

However, this topic has made me step back and ponder why... The truth is, I like ghost stories. I like suspense. I like twists and strange psychology, even being scared. I like the "Twilight Zone," and I like Hitchcock. But I will never read a horror comic or watch a modern horror movie.

And here's the reason... Gore. I'm not into gore. It's a turn-off. I don't enjoy it, and not because it adds anyting scary or realistic. In fact, to me, it takes away the suspense and creepyness. Someone vanishing mysteriously is far more creepy to me than someone being disembowled. A blood-curtling scream is more chilling than a decapitated head rolling on the floor. Plus, I just don't like graphic gorey violence. It's not even specific to that genre (I will stop reading an action, adventure, or whatever if it overdoes the gore), but it's almost a guarantee that horror comics (or modern horror movies) will contain excessive gore.

usedbooks
I'll be blunt. I don't like horror. Horror stories. Horror movies. Horror books. Put the word on there and chances are I'm not even going to give it a glance.

However, this topic has made me step back and ponder why... The truth is, I like ghost stories. I like suspense. I like twists and strange psychology, even being scared. I like the "Twilight Zone," and I like Hitchcock. But I will never read a horror comic or watch a modern horror movie.

And here's the reason... Gore. I'm not into gore. It's a turn-off. I don't enjoy it, and not because it adds anyting scary or realistic. In fact, to me, it takes away the suspense and creepyness. Someone vanishing mysteriously is far more creepy to me than someone being disembowled. A blood-curtling scream is more chilling than a decapitated head rolling on the floor. Plus, I just don't like graphic gorey violence. It's not even specific to that genre (I will stop reading an action, adventure, or whatever if it overdoes the gore), but it's almost a guarantee that horror comics (or modern horror movies) will contain excessive gore.

To be fair I would say that the vast majority of horror in generalis badly written. I'll concur that gore isn't scary, it's mostly just gross. The really good horror comics that I've read don't have much in the way of gore at all. The operative word here is the good ones. Like what a few people have mentioned horror isn't a genre that translates well to comics and I think has to rely on pacing a bit more heavily than say, a movie. This is why I really love horror comics when they're done well. Nightmare World was great when it was around, (you used to be able to read them online,) because they had some interesting deconstructions of fictional archetypes and had otherwise innocent people resorting to doing horrible things to each other. I guess the point I'm stumbling around is that horror as a genre can range from being cheap gore splat-fests to intelligent, well-paced literature.

hm... I'm not a big horror fan. I prefer character-driven stories to plot-driven ones, and although of course it's possible to have a char. driven horror story, sadly it doesn't happen much. When something is classified as "horror" it means that that's the prevalent thing in the comic; I would prefer something that has a creepy mood, but is more about some sort of relationship or goal, rather than 'o noes theres a killer on the loose!'
(although zombie movies are the exception because a. they're scary and b. they're more about people hiding and getting cabin fever... which gives more room for characters to grow.)

I'm not easily scared. It takes a lot of ambient noise and unexpected ghosts to scare me.

I just prefer real-life things. even fantasy isn't doing it for me lately. But it could be because a lot of webcomics just aren't good, no matter the genre, and a lot of dorks (said lovingly) just gravitate towards fantasy.

I don't tend to read many horror comics, just the work of Junji Ito, the master of horror manga.
Anything with body horror tends to draw me in.

Horror comics sound cool.
Yet, I only read one, and that's the Walking Dead.

Can anybody name some other good ones?

I pretty much only read The Walking Dead, because its less like horror and more like...well, Lost.

The reason I don't read horror comics is that in comics it is a LOT harder to create the suspense and tense moments that make horror movies scary. Especially in webcomic form. I mean, think of it. One day you may post a page that has a character walking around a deserted hallway unsure what they will find. They may hear a noise, turn the corner, and...

Well, I have to wait til the next update to find out what happens. And by that time, all the suspense has lost its value (unless of course you post both pages up at once, but then when I look at your comic, it will take me to the most recent page most likely, revealing the surprise event before I get to even experience the suspense).

Now, I'm not saying it is impossible to do horror, it's just incredibly difficult and most comics I've seen can't pull it off. So I've kinda given up on the genre in a comic setting. Save The Walking Dead. But there is a little part of me that keeps hope alive that I'll find a good one.

I love horror, but as a lot of people have stated I tend to be more interested in the psychological and twisted then gory, just like my taste in films and books.

Over the years I've found many horror comics, some good and some bad. I started out reading things like Tale of The Crypt and such but can't remember more of the stuff before I moved to manga. It is funny because I started out drawing a demented psychological thriller manga and after 5 years of work I only managed to complete 3 volumes and as many of you have said I found that novels worked better for comics really did not get into the character's head as much as I would liked so I turned it into a novel series and it is even more messed up then before, but people seem to still like it, no matter how twisted I make it.

Currently I'm addicted to Higurashi no naku koko ni. The anime originally drew me in, but the manga has some equally disturbing moments. I just love how it is all played out leaving you with a pile of questions that are not answered until the next story arc and as I read it I keep wondering if this is the final arc or not, if you've read or seen this series you'll understand what I mean.

Mirai nikki is also another interesting one that really got the heart and mind racing in the beginning... sadly it is starting to be derailed and not going by the original rules of the plot. While the idea has been done before, someone having a dairy or something that tells the future. The idea that there are many people with these dairies and they are all out to kill each other is the interesting part. More so is the lead female in the story who I wish they would go into more detail about...

Another that comes to mind at the moment I'm not really sure if it is considered a comic or not, but there is a comic for it out there. I just downloaded this Dead Space series of episodes that are done in a series of slid show stills of art with voice overs instead of text. It is a lot better then the game I found and I'm not searching for this comic I've heard of, but know little about.

I know I've read many more, but my memories blur due to too many horror novels, movies and anime. Still it is my second fav subject to study and read.

Kat

I think horror comics are a lot like horror movies. There are a handful of great ones and a festering mountain of garbage.

Horror comics, I think, are among the best drawn ever. The EC guys are deservingly lauded for their artistic prowess, and the Creepy/Eerie contributors are also high ranking in my book. Richard Corben, Mike Ploog, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Davis, and a large amount of other prominent horror artists are in my list of all-time faves.

I also like some of the DC and Marvel horror books of the 70's. I really dig Tomb of Dracula, but that's mostly because Gene Colon was phenominal on that title. (Remember my comment about how horror comics are usually well drawn?) I also enjoyed the anthology books like House of Mystery and House of Secrets. They're pretty much diet-EC, but the stories worked more often than not and they had artists like Sergio Aragones, Alex Toth, and Jack Kirby.

The modern stuff, on the other hand, I can usually take or leave. The new Tales From The Crypt book doesn't really do anything for me, and I can't stand how wafer-thin the plots to 30 Days of Night are. (Although I think Ben Templesmith is a very creative artist. Read Fell if you haven't yet) I read The Walking Dead pretty religiously though, and I'm enjoying Vertigo's latest resurrection of House of Mystery.

Most of the modern horror comics I like contain only elements of horror. Hellboy and The Goon are must-reads for me. I'm also enjoying The Astounding Wolf-Man despite the fact that it's pretty inconsistent compared to Invincible and Walking Dead.

And yeah, that's pretty much my take on horror comics.