It’s a great time to be a fan of horror comics. The mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC are dipping their toes into creepy tales and there are a ton of diverse and great creator owned horror titles from publishers like Image Comics. In my previous articles I’ve told you about some of those books and how to get caught up on them. Today we’re going to talk about two brand new and very cool sounding horror titles that you can get in on the ground floor of: Man-Eaters by writer Chelsea Cain and artist Kate Niemczyk, and Die by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans.
The elevator pitch for Man-Eaters is essentially “Cat-People meets the Handmaid’s Tale.”
It’s set in a world where a mutation in Toxoplasmosis causes menstruating women to transform into ferocious killer wildcats. The Reader’s entry point into this world is a 12-year-old girl who the fate of the world just might rest on. So Man-Eaters is a horror story, but it’s also a social satire from a feminist perspective about a girl who thinks she might be a monster. In interviews about the series, Cain has hinted that it’s also about cats, serial killers, middle school, daughters, dads, divorce and transformation.
That’s a potent and packed combination, but I’m confident a creative team like Cain and Niemczyk can deliver. I first became a fan of the duo because of their work on the sadly short-lived Marvel Comics series Mockingbird. On that book, they gave readers a variety of beautifully drawn, thought-provoking, immersive, and often very funny stories. So Cain is an expert when it comes to social satire, and anyone who’s read her prose work knows she has fantastic horror chops as well. She’s the author of a series of six prose novels featuring a prolific and cunning serial killer named Gretchen Lowell. I’ve read two of them so far and both were excellent blends of crime fiction and truly chilling psychological horror.
The first issue of Man-Eaters is available now at your local comic book store and digitally via services like Comixology.com. If you like what you read, let your comic store know you’d like them to pre-order future issues of the series for you.
Horror fans are a diverse lot, but they often share common interests in things like tabletop roleplaying games and heavy metal music. I’m into all of those things. So I was super excited to learn about Die a series that features a character who’s into Metal and is about something mysterious and horrific that happened to him and his friends while they were playing a tabletop RPG. Gillen has described the series as a horror version of Jumanji.
The premise of Die is that in 1991 six teenagers sat down to play a roleplaying game and vanished.
They were found two years later in a forest 50 miles away and were unable to talk about what happened to them. The series follows those kids, now adults, in the year 2018 as they discover whatever happened to them is far from finished.
So, Die is a series that promises horror, mystery, fantasy, and the illustrations suggest a great sense of creeping dread. Those drawings are by Hans who’s collaborated with Gillen on a number of fantasy-oriented projects for Marvel Comics, but this is their first ongoing series together. Their work has always been fun and atmospheric and the teaser for Die suggests a carefully crafted and wonderfully creepy mood and tone.
Gillen has demonstrated a knack for writing a variety of genres, especially horror. I encourage curious horror fans unfamiliar with his work to check out his and artist Jamie McKelvie’s creator-owned series The Wicked & Divine from Image comics which follows the fantastic and often horrific exploits of people who have been transformed into both pop icons and literal gods, but are fated to die two years after their transformation. Also of interest might be Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel where Gillen, his co-writer Jason Aaron, and their collaborators told a classic Hammer Horror style tale with characters from the original Star Wars trilogy.
The first issue of Die is available in December. If you’re interested in a physical copy please let your local comic book store know that you’d like them to pre-order Die #1 for you.
