Obviously, the title is clickbait, but I promise you’ll like at least one of these. Halloween is on the horizon and for some reason, Disney released a Haunted Mansion movie in the middle of summer, so what better time to talk about spooky abodes and the horrors that dwell within them?
1. Locke & Key
If you only watched the Netflix series, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not reading this incredible work of horror from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Seriously, the Locke & Key Netflix adaptation is only beaten by Dragonball Evolution in the “how did they mess up that bad?” category.
Following the brutal murder of their father, the young Locke children move to their ancestral home in New England. The house holds countless dark secrets and even more magical keys! What could easily turn into a “key of the week” scenario is swiftly transformed into a dark game of cat and mouse as the siblings fight an unknown horror linked to their father’s past. The series goes for six volumes, telling one complete story of the family battling the shadows, but once you get hooked, there are multiple other books set in the world following the Locke clan throughout the years.
2. BTTM FDRS
People often tell me “Winston, y’know comic books aren’t high art,” and I reply, “Who are you? Please put on some pants, get out of my house and read the works of Ezra Claytan Daniels."
BTTM FDRS features a young fashion designer moving into a recently gentrified apartment building. Unbenown to her, her image-obsessed friend, and the pilgrim-based rapper next door, something sinister lurks within the walls around them, and has gory plans for them. Much like Parasite, the book asks the question, "Who is the real bottom feeder?"
Ben Passmore provides beautiful and unique art for this one-of-a kind story. The best horror reflects the fears of the time, and BTTM FDRS with its “gentrification-horror” is a master-class in putting a mirror to the world around us.
3. House of Penance
Remember that underwhelming movie about the Winchester Mansion from a couple years back? What if I told you there was a comic with a similar setting, but it was much better?
Based on the true story of the pre-mentioned manor, House of Penance follows Sarah Winchester, the widow of William (he made a lot of guns, no relation to the Supernatural hunks). Racked with guilt over her deceased husband’s mass production of weapons, she uses her vast fortune to continually build on her mansion, hoping that the constant shifting of the house will keep her safe from her family’s sins.
House of Penance by Peter Tomasi and Ian Bertram is a showcase of the comic book medium and how to tell a story of madness. Each page is a gory piece of the inevitably destructive puzzle.
4. I Hate This Place (AKA Fuck This Place)
In this house, we stan Kyle Starks (kids, am I using that term right?). Kyle Starks puts out nothing but bangers and I Hate This Place continues his track record of lung-splitting laughter, balls-to-the-wall action, and brain-exploding quality.
Trudy and Gabby move to a recently inherited farmhouse, but like the residences in the rest of this listicle, things are never as simple as they seem. The house and surrounding property are haunted nightly by ghosts, zombies, UFOs, giant spiders, a horned-monster-man, and a murderer!
The 10-issue series, drawn by the incomparable Artyom Topilin, follows the girls as they learn to live on the farm while being haunted by the monsters around them and monsters from their past. Like the best Starks books, this features a lot of heart mixed with a lot of bad-ass one-liners.
5. The Man Who Came Down
the Attic Stairs
On the surface, Celine Loup’s, The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs (or TMWCDTAS as us Attic-headz like to call it) seems to be a supernatural story. But much like BTTM FDRS, Loup was inspired by the all-too-real world around her.
Emma is a new mother and her baby’s constant wailing starts to pull on her senses. She begins to see things that couldn’t be, and even worse, after a mysterious sound in the attic, her husband is no longer the man she knew.
A beautiful and terrifying story, encasing the feeling of postpartum depression and being abandoned by your sanity and loved ones.
Honorable Mention: The Nice House on the Lake
I think every comic listicle writer on the planet is contractually obligated to include Tynion somewhere. The only reason this didn’t make the numbered list is because the titular house isn’t haunted! It’s the only place that’s not haunted!
Illustrated by the masterful Alvaro Martinez Bueno, The Nice House on the Lake features a group of friends meeting for a vacation at a lake house on the insistence of their mutual friend, Walter. Upon arriving, the group relaxes, eats, and parties until someone checks Twitter (classic bad move). The world outside the house has ended in a horrifying blaze of suffering.
The group quickly realizes that Walter knows more than he lets on, and they must learn to survive in this new world trapped inside the nice house on the lake.
And if this got you in the mood for a spooky comic featuring a Haunted House, I conveniently have a new book on the shelves called HAUNTED HOUSE: A LOVE STORY.
A sentient house falls in love with its sole resident. However, this joy is short-lived when the house is forced into a forbidden love triangle and seeks vengeance.
You can order your copy from Blood Moon Comics today from your local comics shop and it will arrive on shelves November 1st!
About Winston Gambro:
Winston is a comic creator and designer currently working for Oni Comics. He’s created the cyberpunk mystery, Overflow, the all-ages action comic Rex Radley: Boy Adventurer, the horror-romance, Haunted House: A Love Story and is currently drawing Lights in the Sky.
He currently lives with his cat, Hazel.
He can be found on Twitter or Instagram @winstongambro.