Elisa Shoenberger has been building a library since she was 13. She loves writing about all aspects of books from author interviews, antiquarian books, archives, and everything in between. She also writes regularly for Murder & Mayhem and Library Journal. She's also written articles for Huffington Post, Boston Globe, WIRED, Slate, and many other publications. When she's not writing about reading, she's reading and adventuring to find cool new art. She also plays alto saxophone and occasionally stiltwalks. Find out more on her website or follow her on Twitter @vogontroubadour.
23rd St. Books: Graphic Novels for Adults
Mercy Gray Harding's troubles all started in the swampland on the outskirts of town, where a mist wolf murdered her father. She enlists a monster hunter named Jonah to put the creature down, but the plan quickly falls apart. When the incorporeal beast tries to attack Mercy, it instead possesses her. Now Mercy’s human and wolfish sides grapple for control, and she is haunted by the memories of both. Jonah promises to free her from the monster, and the two set off for a cure. But the open road is full of untold danger. And is it Mercy or the wolf who is flirting with the handsome Jonah?
October is just around the corner, and that means it’s almost Monster Month. Radio stations will soon be awash with the “Monster Mash” while horror movies and television shows abound on our screens at home, and giant skeletons and flying witches will decorate our lawns. It’s a perfect time to celebrate all things monsters. That includes the wonderful world of comics, where comic artists can bring creatures of the dark to life.
In the spirit of the season, here’s a list of seven immersive comics about monsters that have been recently published. We’re focusing on fantastical monsters, like vampires and zombies, instead of people who are monstrous, like serial killers or war criminals. Read on to learn more about an award-winning comic that explores the brutality of war, a story combining the mundane world and the world of the fae, the tale of a small town plagued by a strange memory illness, and more.
Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu and illustrated by Sana Takeda
When thinking of immersive comics about monsters, Monstress comes up first and foremost. This award-winning and beautifully illustrated comic centers on 17-year-old Maika, who is searching for answers after the death of her mother and the discovery of a murderous monster living inside of her. After killing a room filled with child enslavers, she ends up escaping with a fox girl named Kippa and a strange cat named Ren Momorian. It’s a dark story as Maika struggles to keep control of the literal monster inside of her while also navigating a world full of child slavery and the brutality of war. The series is still going with volume 10 publishing in December 2025. And if you want more work by Liu and Takeda, check out their newer series, The Night Eaters.
Godzilla Library Collection, Vol 1 by James Stokoe, John Layman, Chris Mowry, illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli and Dean Haspiel
If we’re going to talk about monsters, we have to include some kaiju. And what better example than Godzilla? While there are several recent one-shots and full collections featuring Godzilla, this book contains all the comics released by IDW. There’s Godzilla and organized crime; Godzilla and all of his foes and friends; and a story that follows one man’s life after his encounter with Godzilla. There are four books in the series published so far with book 5 expected out in November 2025. And if you can’t get enough of Godzilla, check out Godzilla’s 70th Anniversary Edition that came out last year.
The Autumn Kingdom by Cullen Bunn and artist Christopher Mitten
I’m a huge fan of Cullen Bunn, thanks to his incredible Harrow County series illustrated by Tyler Cook. So I was excited to see this new title that brings together the mundane world and the world of the fae. Sisters Sommer and Winter have just moved to a remote cabin in Sweden with their parents. Their dad, Andrew Kier, is a famous fantasy writer who is using the time to finish his latest books. While wandering through the woods, they stumble upon a series of statues of fantastical creatures, like goblins and dwarves. It’s cool at first until they have to fight those monsters after someone, or something, kidnaps their parents. They find a blade from one of the statues that helps them kill the monsters. Now on the run, the sisters have to find their parents in the fae world and protect them from the Autumn King before it’s too late. It’s neat how the narrative weaves between the father’s book and the girls’ journey to save their parents.
The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado and Dani
El and Vee are two queer teenagers living in Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, a former mining town that is now plagued by an underground fire and terrible skinless monsters that roam the forest. There’s something very wrong with people of Shudder-to-Think, too: they find themselves in strange places with no memory of the past few hours. El and Vee are trying to live normal teenage lives with schoolwork and crushes. But when they wake up one day at a movie theatre with no memory of the prior hours, El realizes they too have been impacted by the strange memory illness. They end up looking into the past to find out what is behind the memory sickness and the other terrible things in their town.
Carmilla: the First Vampire by Amy Chu, illustrated by Soo Lee, lettered by Sal Cipriano
While we all associate the start of vampire stories with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Sheridan Le Fanu’s sapphic vampire tale Carmilla predates it by 25 years. Here, Chu and Soo update the story to New York City during the Lunar New Year in 1996. Athena Lo, a social worker, realizes that a series of murders targeting LGBTQ+ folks may be connected, but no one cares. She decides to investigate and finds a connection to a queer nightclub named Carmilla’s in Chinatown. But can she find the person behind the crimes without falling victim herself?
The Last Halloween by Abby Howard
Ten-year-old Mona thinks that spending Halloween at home by herself is the worst. But she ends up running for her life when a giant monster comes to her house to kill her. Ending up in a cemetery, she makes some unlikely friends: a vampire, a living doll, and a ghoul. She learns that every person has a monster who follows them in the shadows. But something has gone terribly wrong on this Halloween night, and now everyone’s monsters are trying to eat them. Mona and her band of unlikely friends have to keep ahead of the monsters and try to save the world at the same time. The comic has been described as a mashup of Tim Burton and the mini-series Over the Garden Wall.
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
So this one is a little different from the others, but it’s a love letter to the B-movies and horror comics of the mid-20th century. Volume 1 won three Eisners among other awards, and the long-awaited Volume 2 came out last year. Karen Reyes is a 10-year-old girl who doesn’t quite fit in and envisions herself as a monster detective. So when her upstairs neighbor Anka Silverberg is found shot to death, Karen decides to investigate. It’s a story of stories as Karen learns about Anka’s troubled life as well as the lives of the people around her, including her brother and the other people in her community. It’s one of the most astonishingly beautiful comic books I’ve ever read with Ferris’ unique cross-hatching technique.
That’s seven fantastical comics about monsters to get you into the Halloween spirit. If you want more monster books, here’s a list of 100 monster books for your reading delight and horror. Or if you want some more child-friendly monster books, check out these monster books for kids.
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