31 Days of Horror-- Day 29: Horror Graphic Novels

We currently have three horror related displays going at the BPL due to demand.

1. Our general horror display
2. A dystopian fiction display for the "not quite horror" bunch
3. And this small quick display on horror graphic novels that John  threw together on Monday.

It got me thinking about how much I love horror graphic novels.  In fact, I love them so much that I somehow have used 2 different tags to catalog the posts here on the blog: graphic novel and graphic novels.

So today, I want to talk about horror graphic novels.  The history of horror comics is a tumultuous one.  In fact, back in 2011, I wrote review of an excellent book on that history, The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read! 

But now, the modern horror comic has rebounded. I have argued in public that some of the best graphic novels today period, regardless of their genre classification, are horror comics [Locke and Key]

From an RA standpoint, however, you cannot simply give every horror reader a graphic novel. They have to be okay with "seeing" the horror in a visual format.  Also, while the story line itself may seem like a perfect fit to a specific reader, if they do not like the artist's style or how the story is laid out on the page, they will not be satisfied.

So, do not just book talk graphic novel options to potential readers, you also need to show them a a few pages too.

Besides the links provided above, here are a few more opinions for the best in horror comics:

• 13 Terrifying Modern Comics [from Paste Magazine]
• Here is an entire site for Horror Comic Books-- ComicMonster.com
• Here is the link to everything Horror on Panels [A Book Riot site about comics]
• The most popular horror graphic novels on Goodreads
• Here is a list from a year ago, " Halloween Horror: 13 Frightfully Good Comics for Holiday Scares" but what I like about it best is that it hits on options for all ages [from Hero Complex]

In my book I also have a list of 10 Graphic Novels for Horror Readers (pg 133).

Don't forget to sign up for my horror webinar tomorrow.  It's free.