Personal Pull List

The Damned& The Chrome

Your shelf and your wishlist in one place: creator-driven dark genre fiction, weird westerns, philosophical cyberpunk, and singular-vision superheroes. The collection you own sits up top; below it, recommendations ranked by how tightly each fits.

Your taste, in one breath Dark, creator-owned genre comics — weird westerns, philosophical cyberpunk, damned or morally-grey protagonists, and art with real mood and visible direction over clean house style. Painterly most of all, though black-and-white and hard-edged linework land too when the look is a choice. At a shop, drop the names Rick Remender and Jeff Lemire, and ask for painterly/atmospheric books.

weird western digital consciousness cursed antiheroes cyberpunk noir dark fantasy bargains auteur superheroes painted art

Singular-vision hero Bridges themes Pull monthly Complete Ongoing Buy first

★ Your Collection — On The Shelf Books you already own. Tick them off as you read.

★

Madi: Once Upon a Time in the Future — Jones / de Campi et al. ✎ 1

Near-future cyberpunk espionage

Grounded near-future thriller — the espionage-flavored counterpoint to Tokyo Ghost's gonzo far-future.

Reader's noteJust alright IMO. Art was cool with the different artists and some full art spreading across both pages was beautiful. The story is where I mark it down a bit. The augmentation/remote control was an interesting idea. And the corporate overlords and fighting between them was cool. It felt that when it got to the second half of the book it kind of sped run to the end, with alot of it feeling generic action story. If it could have been a bit longer I feel like it would have been a lot better.

★

Tokyo Ghost — Remender / Murphy

Cyberpunk dystopia / neo-samurai

Tech-addiction satire wrapped around a love story, 2089 Los Angeles vs. tech-free Tokyo. Akira-meets-Blade-Runner art.

★

Seven to Eternity — Remender / Opeña

Dark fantasy / soul-vs-family bargain

A man choosing between his soul and his family under a manipulative god-tyrant. Dense Opeña linework, Hollingsworth color.

★

East of West — Hickman / Dragotta

Apocalyptic sci-fi western

Apocalypse-as-Western with cinematic widescreen art. The anchor of your weird-western taste — and Hickman, whose X-Men work you're now chasing.

★

Absolute Wonder Woman — Thompson / Sampere

Dark mythic superhero reinvention

Ground-up reimagining with a dark-fantasy spin — the book that put the whole Absolute line on your radar.

★

Immortal Hulk — Ewing / Bennett

Body-horror superhero

A horror auteur book in a Marvel costume — a man who can't die and the evil underneath him. Grotesque Bennett art.

★

The Deadly Tales of Gunslinger Spawn, Vol. 1 — Todd McFarlane et al.

Supernatural western / damned antihero

The prequel series. Weird-western horror with a damned gunslinger — the pick that confirmed supernatural-western as a real vein for you.

★

Gunslinger Spawn, Vols. 1–5 — Todd McFarlane et al.

Supernatural western / damned antihero

The main ongoing series (Deadly Tales is its prequel). Damned gunslinger loose in the Spawn universe — dark, pulpy, high-concept.

Ongoing series

★

Transformers, Vols. 1–5 — Daniel Warren Johnson / Robert Kirkman

Energon Universe / kinetic sci-fi action

DWJ's much-loved reinvention — raw, emotional, propulsive action with heart. His expressive, kinetic art is dead in your wheelhouse.

Ongoing series

Connects to DWJ's Do a Powerbomb, Murder Falcon, Beta Ray Bill

★

Low — Remender / Tocchini

Emotional sci-fi / dying-world tragedy

Just picked up. Painterly defiant-hope story in a dying world — Tocchini's lush art plus Remender's most emotional register. Was the #1 recommendation on this list.

Complete

★

House of X / Powers of X — Hickman / Larraz / Silva

Ambitious hero reinvention / political worldbuilding

Just picked up. Hickman's mutant sovereign-nation epic — read the 12 issues interwoven exactly as the volume prints them. Next stop: Inferno (wishlist #8) is his payoff; skip the scattered Krakoa middle.

Self-contained

★

Ronin — Frank Miller / Lynn Varley ✎ 1

Neo-samurai cyberpunk / cursed reincarnation

Just read. Frank Miller's early auteur statement: a masterless samurai, bound to destroy the demon Agat, is reborn into a decaying biotech-corporate near-future New York. Lynn Varley's painted color and Mœbius/manga-influenced layouts make it a bullseye on the art axis — the lineage behind The Incal — and a neo-samurai cousin to Tokyo Ghost.

Complete · 6 issues

Edition: One volume, 6 issues. A deluxe/oversized printing is worth it — the painted Varley color is the point.

Caveat: 1983–84, so the storytelling is dense and stylized in an '80s register (like the Claremont-era caveat). No B&W/comedy/polemic deductions, though — a clean fit on art and theme.

Connects to Tokyo Ghost, The Incal, Ghost in the Shell, East of West

Reader's noteLoved it. Art was super cool and the story was great. Nice mix of 'old world' and new cyberpunk-esque. Slightly ambiguous ending was great leaving you thinking about the whole story itself.

★

Punk Rock Jesus — Sean Gordon Murphy ✎ 1

Media dystopia / corporate satire

Murphy's first solo writer/artist book. A network clones Jesus from the Shroud of Turin and broadcasts his life as reality TV. Anti-corporate, media-saturated near-future — Transmetropolitan's register, and the clearest statement of the tech-and-control thesis he's carrying into The Last Driver. Heart of the book is an ex-IRA bodyguard.

Complete · one volume

Two caveats: it's black & white — no colorist, a real departure given how much you value Hollingsworth's work — and it's openly polemical (anti-religion, anti-corporate), which some find heavy-handed. Best use: read it before The Last Driver drops to understand Murphy as an author.

Connects to Tokyo Ghost, The Last Driver (pull list), Transmetropolitan, Pulp

Reader's noteReally enjoyed it. The black and white didn’t impact my appreciation of the art. I liked the art and art style. And there is a full page near the very end that I loved the overt symbolism.

From a story perspective I also enjoyed it. While I agree with the other reviewers out there that there was some beat you with the club dialog and monologues about religion but I didn’t find that directly preachy overall. I liked the mechanism of using the news show to advance the time. And I thought it did a good job at highlighting it’s not just religion that can be dogmatic.

★

Watchmen — Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons & John Higgins ✎ 1

Deconstructed superhero · Cold War apocalypse

The singular-vision book. Costumed vigilantes in a 1985 sliding toward nuclear midnight. No clean hero in the cast — Rorschach, the Comedian and Ozymandias between them cover the whole moral-grey axis. Formally the opposite of the painterly art the craft axis is built on: rigid nine-panel grid, clear line, flat colour — and it landed anyway.

Singular-vision hero Complete

Edition: Complete · 12 issues

Connects to Ronin (auteur statement, same era); Immortal Hulk (genre in a horror register)

Reader's noteLoved it. Loved the story, ending, art and all of it.

★

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns — Frank Miller, Lynn Varley ✎ 1

Scanned in a shop. This is the 10th Anniversary Edition trade paperback published by DC Comics in 1996.

Reader's noteSame as the Killing Joke: Really enjoyed it. I liked the art and the dark story.

★

Batman: The Killing Joke — Alan Moore, Brian Bolland ✎ 1

Scanned in a shop. Deluxe Edition, published 2008 with new coloring by Brian Bolland

Reader's noteReally enjoyed it. I liked the art and the dark story.

★

Ain't No Grave — Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, colors by Jean-François Beaulieu ✎ 1

Weird western, supernatural damnation

A macabre supernatural western: a vengeful, rage-hardened antihero escapes death to carve a haunted path through a cursed frontier. Unforgiven meets Guillermo del Toro, from the Middlewest team.

Reader's noteReally enjoyed this book. The art was gorgeous in both the drawing and colour. I liked the story, you could say a bit “classic” (won’t use cliche). But what matters more is how it was told, and I enjoyed the storytelling. The second to last chapter especially was creative, bringing you along with essentially no dialogue.

★

Corpse Knight — Chaves / Roberts ✎ 7

Gothic horror / undead bargain

France, 1429, mid-Hundred Years' War. A girl loses her father and is granted a miracle — he returns from the dead as the corpse knight. Art by Matthew Roberts, your Manifest Destiny artist.

Running · limited series, mid-run

Connects to Manifest Destiny, Seven to Eternity, Hellboy

#1 · 2026-08-30Nice change in genre on what I’ve been reading (sci-fi and cyberpunk).

Gets right into it in the first few pages, fast into the story. Could have maybe used a touch more backstory build up but it’s not holding things back. Racing right into it didn’t leave me confused or anything.

Like the religious tie in (sucker for the religion/occult crossovers) and the art is really good.

#2 · 2026-09-05Art continues to be great. Story was ok, not as strong as the first issue.

#3 · 2026-09-05Story picks back up, a touch more of backstory with the nuns.

The overall relationship between Foy and her father and each here trying to save each other was the best part of this book

#4 · 2026-09-05Heartbreaking. Never meet your heroes it seems.

Favourite art of the series so far

#5 · 2026-09-05Best part of the story so far. From learning about Foy and her parents background to learning about who has been taking the children, it advanced the story nicely.

Art still on point

#6 · 2026-09-23Satisfying ending to the series. Seeing things get resolved through acceptance (and a little bit of revenge)

Reader's noteOverall, I enjoyed this series. Felt maybe a little rushed and a bit short, but it also felt that way because the characters were good and you wanted to learn more on their stories.
Art was great, and the ending did wrap things up nicely and was satisfying.

◎ Pull List — Monthly Floppies Single issues to reserve at the shop. Ask them to hold these.

Out this weekThe Last Driver #3 ·in 6 days

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Hammerfist — Remender / Epting / Hollingsworth ✎ 2

Splatter-horror crime / damned father

The single best fit on this page. Mike Denton — a dirtbag hitman, junkie, and absentee father — must awaken a supernatural weapon powered by love to save his daughter as Black Noon rises, an ancient darkness that erases all light. Remender pitches it as Reservoir Dogs colliding with Evil Dead: a filthy crime story that mutates into VHS-era splatter horror. An unredeemable killer forced to stand for something other than himself.

#1 on Aug 26 2026 · get in at the start

Next #3 — Nov 4 2026 · in 3 weeks

Note: Colors by Matt Hollingsworth — same colorist as Seven to Eternity and Tokyo Ghost on your shelf. Variant covers by Jerome Opeña, Nic Klein, Daniel Acuña & more.

Connects to Tokyo Ghost, Seven to Eternity, Deadly Class, Gunslinger Spawn

#1 · 2026-08-29Great first book that has me hooked. Definition of a morally gray protagonist, down and dirty low brow hitman doing work to just buy drugs.

The turn at the middle/end towards the horror/supernatural part was great.

Art is super nice and the way the inner monologue is written and presented is something I dig

#2 · 2026-10-03Writing continues to be stellar, with the inner monologue making me feel I’m right in Mike’s head. Art still rules and the story moves on nicely

◎

The Last Driver — Sean Gordon Murphy (writer/artist) ✎ 2

Tech-dystopia / freedom & control

Murphy's first Image series since Tokyo Ghost. Driving is illegal after a robotic transit system called the GRID takes over. Clutch, a Native American outlaw, sparks an uprising when he takes the wheel to save his granddaughter. Murphy's metaphor is explicit: the death of car culture as people ceding control to the state.

#1 on Aug 19 2026 · get in at the start

Next #3 — Oct 21 2026 · in 6 days

Note: Drawn entirely in landscape format — Murphy says the horizontal frame suits cars and action better. Variant covers include Matteo Scalera (your Black Science artist).

Connects to Tokyo Ghost, Transmetropolitan, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Science

#1 · 2026-08-20Love the art style, I find it gorgeous and the landscape layout is awesome. Story wise, it’s starting off as the cyberpunk/dystopian world. The banning of people driving their own cars as a way to control the population is an interesting take (and the whole premise of the series I know lol).

#2 · 2026-09-23Awesome. Art still on point and love the car drawings. Story is ramping nicely with good back story, tragedy, and forward momentum.

◎

Mad Science Division — Watters / Level / Loughridge

Body-horror sci-fi / corporate satire

A nepo-hire executive is sent to slash a genetic-engineering & bioweapons company's budget by 30% for a promotion — knowing nothing about the dangerous experiments behind the lab doors. He dismantles the safeguards; the horrors escape containment. Creators call it strange, gross, funny, and unnerving — Immortal Hulk's body-horror crossed with the anti-corporate bite of Transmetropolitan / Lazarus. More darkly comedic than most of your list.

#1 on Nov 4 2026 · preorder by Sept 28

Next #1 — Nov 4 2026 · in 3 weeks

Note: Creator-owned from Ignition Press. Covers by Brian Level, Riley Rossmo, Raúl Allén.

Connects to Immortal Hulk, The Department of Truth, Transmetropolitan, Lazarus

◎

Midnight X-Men — Hickman / Della Fonte

Horror superhero / dark reinvention

Hickman's third book in your orbit. Your East of West + HoX/PoX writer returns to the X-Men in a horror register: vampires vs. mutant empyres in a New York on the edge of war. Flagship of Marvel's creator-driven "Midnight" line — Vertigo-style horror meets Absolute-style reinvention. Sits at the crossroads of three things you love: Hickman as auteur, dark line-wide reinventions, and superhero-horror.

#1 on Oct 7 2026 · get in at the start Singular-vision hero

Note: Date moved from the original Aug 5 slot. Launches alongside Midnight Fantastic Four & Midnight Spider-Man — the only Marvel books out that day. Planned at 12+ issues.

Connects to House of X / Powers of X, East of West, Immortal Hulk, Absolute Wonder Woman

◎

Crowbound — Jeff Lemire / Dustin Nguyen ✎ 1

Dystopian dark fantasy / a mother's bargain

Lemire and Nguyen's darkest book together. In a totalitarian world where every child is conscripted into The Factory at thirteen, a noncompliant mother named Rose strikes a bargain with the ancient, violent Scarecrow Queen to stop the state from taking her daughter Ava — then sets out on a nightmarish journey across the lowlands. Image pitches it as The Handmaid's Tale meets The Road, with echoes of Kill Bill and Pan's Labyrinth. Nguyen paints it in his own watercolor, the same look as Descender and Ascender.

#1 on Sept 2 2026 · get in at the start Ongoing · ending unwritten

Next #3 — Nov 11 2026 · in 4 weeks

Note: Nguyen paints and colors his own pages — the watercolor look from Descender/Ascender, and the main reason this ranks so high. Variant covers by Jeffrey Alan Love, Martin Simmonds, and Peach Momoko. Announced at NYCC 2025 for March 2026; the date moved to Sept 2 2026.

Connects to Seven to Eternity, Descender/Ascender, Hammerfist, Do a Powerbomb

#1 · 2026-09-05Great first issue. Love the art and the writing. Good job setting the vibe of the world and what’s to come.

◎

Chainkata — Daniel Warren Johnson

Brutal sci-fi, kinetic action

Sci-fi action series set in a brutal future, with martial-arts themes and high-stakes combat, written and illustrated by Daniel Warren Johnson for Image Comics. Visually explosive and emotionally charged.

Next #1 — Nov 18 2026 · in 5 weeks

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That Texas Blood: Hell Comes to Allison Ranch — Chris Condon (wr.), **Jacob Phillips** (art and colours) — Image ✎ 1

Neo-noir western / a range war

The only pull row with a known endpoint. Sheriff Joe Bob Coates and Deputy Wilson Hart drive out to Allison Ranch, the biggest spread in the country, where a family's grievances have turned into open war. Condon and Phillips return to their modern-day Texas after 20 issues — solicited as #21, then renumbered as a fresh six-issue run and written as a jumping-on point. Jacob Phillips draws and colors it himself.

#1 on Sept 23 2026 · get in at the start Limited · 6 issues

Next #2 — Oct 28 2026 · in 13 days

Note: six issues, so it ends — the only pull title that does. Bonus material in #1: interviews, essays, process pieces. #1 out Sept 23 2026.

Connects to Pulp, Lazarus, Deadly Class, Houses of the Unholy, Deadwood

#1 · 2026-09-23My first introduction to this universe. It does a good job of setting up the characters so you don't feel like you missed anything by not reading the first 20 of That Texas Blood.
Art is nice and the story is setting up well.

01 Tier One — Buy These First Tightest fits across every theme. Near-guaranteed hits.

Descender / Ascender — Lemire / Nguyen

Digital consciousness / AI personhood

Best crossover pick. Watercolor sci-fi on the exact digital-mind theme you love in Pantheon & Ken Liu.

Bridges themes Complete

Edition: Descender = 2 Deluxe HCs (#1–16, #17–32). Ascender = 2 more. Or 6 standard trades.

Connects to Pantheon, The Hidden Girl, Gideon Falls

Absolute Martian Manhunter — Camp / Rodríguez

Alien consciousness / experimental sci-fi

Most cerebral book in the Absolute line. Psychedelic Rodríguez art; hits your personhood thread hard.

Singular-vision hero Completes 2026

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: 12-issue maxi in 2 vols — Vol.1 "Martian Vision" out now, Vol.2 "The Agency" 2026. PB = value.

Connects to Absolute Wonder Woman, Pantheon, Ghost in the Shell

Absolute Batman — Snyder / Dragotta

Dark superhero reinvention

Near-lock on art alone. Drawn by Nick Dragotta — your East of West artist — on a no-wealth Bruce Wayne.

Singular-vision hero Ongoing

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Start with Vol.1 "The Zoo" TP (#1–6). Vol.2 "Abomination" out; Vol.3 in 2026.

Connects to East of West, Absolute Wonder Woman

The Sixth Gun — Bunn / Hurtt

Weird western / cursed objects

The obvious next stop after Gunslinger Spawn. Supernatural western, cursed weapons, complete run.

Complete

Edition: Deluxe HCs (each = 2 standard vols) are the sweet spot. Or 9 TPBs. Test with Vol.1 TP.

Connects to Gunslinger Spawn, East of West

The Ghost in the Shell — Shirow Masamune

Transhumanism / cybernized consciousness

Denser than the films you love. Direct hit on identity-and-the-body.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Deluxe Complete Box Set (vols 1, 1.5, 2) = value. Legacy Edition = uncensored/definitive. Note: FX-translation quirk. Box may phase out for an omnibus.

Connects to Cyberpunk 2077, Neuromancer, Pantheon

Hellboy / B.P.R.D. — Mignola

Occult pulp / cursed antihero

Best heavy-shadow art in comics. Cursed protagonist, occult pulp — ties Gunslinger Spawn, Seven to Eternity & Immortal Hulk together.

Core saga complete

Edition: Hellboy Omnibus — 4 vols collect the whole core saga in reading order. Start Vol.1 "Seed of Destruction."

Connects to Gunslinger Spawn, Seven to Eternity, Immortal Hulk

Battle Angel Alita — Yukito Kishiro

Cyborg identity / body-swapping

Selfhood across rebuilt bodies. Scrapyard dystopia, gorgeous action. Pairs with Ghost in the Shell.

Original complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: 5 Deluxe HC omnibuses (each = 2 original vols). Covers original series; Last Order & Mars Chronicle are separate.

Connects to Ghost in the Shell, Cyberpunk 2077

Extremity — Daniel Warren Johnson / Mike Spicer

Post-apocalyptic revenge fantasy

In a world shattered by war and clan vengeance, a young artist and her fractured family journey through violence and loss, wrestling with the spiral of revenge. High-stakes action and haunting family drama are delivered through sweeping, painterly visuals.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Outcast — Kirkman / Azaceta / Breitweiser

Supernatural horror / demonic possession

A tormented man in a Southern town confronts demonic possession, psychological trauma, and religious dread as he seeks the truth behind a plague of evil engulfing his world. A completed 48-issue run known for painterly shadowed art, oppressive atmosphere, and a focus on damnation and structural payoff.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Harrow County — Cullen Bunn (w), Tyler Crook (a/c) — Dark Horse

Southern folk horror; a girl who discovers she is the thing the town burned

On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Emmy learns that the witch her neighbours burned and buried a generation ago was reborn as her. Rural Southern folk horror worked as a question about inheritance: whether she becomes what they killed, or something else. Complete at 32 issues (2015–2018), collected in eight volumes or four Library Edition hardcovers, with a deliberate, well-regarded ending. A sequel series, Tales from Harrow County, follows.

The Sacrificers — Remender

Dark fantasy, generational bargains & decay

A dystopian fantasy where paradise is maintained by the ritual sacrifice of young lives, exploring generational bargains and the cost of obedience under absolute rulers. Art by Max Fiumara, colored by Dave Stewart.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

From Hell — Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell

Historical horror, conspiracy, moral dread

Jack the Ripper retold as a dense, psychological and social autopsy of Victorian London; deep research, massive scope, and an atmosphere of relentless dread, driven by Campbell's stark, expressive black and white art.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

02 Tier Two — Strong Second Wave Grab once tier one confirms the lanes you love most.

Batman: Year One — Frank Miller

Noir superhero origin, corrupt city

Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon navigate their first year in Gotham—one as a nascent vigilante, the other as a decent cop facing corruption—set against the city’s violent criminal underworld. Expressive, moody art and tight structure make it a definitive origin story.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death — Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Tony Dezuniga (artist)

Supernatural horror western, damned antihero

Jonah Hex faces ghosts, curses, and his own past sins in a moody, supernatural version of the Western frontier. Standalone out-of-continuity graphic novel (2012), written by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Tony Dezuniga.

Inferno — Hickman

Superhero conspiracy payoff

The bookend to HoX/PoX. Resolves the Moira / Mystique / Destiny threads. Read right after HoX/PoX (now on your shelf) — skip the sprawling middle.

Singular-vision hero Self-contained

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Single volume, 4 issues. HC or PB. Your whole essential Hickman X-Men = just this + HoX/PoX.

Connects to House of X / Powers of X, East of West

The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr — Ram V, Filipe Andrade, Inês Amaro, and Deron Bennett

Metaphysical dark fantasy / god-problem

Death, fired from her post, descends to Earth in human form and weaves through the life of the mortal destined to end death itself—confronting the meaning of mortality and divinity in five surreal, painterly chapters set in India.

Shiver — Junji Ito

Curated supernatural horror shorts

A single-volume selection of Junji Ito's short horror — curses that run on their own logic, bodies and towns deforming by rule. Each story is self-contained; the book is the unit, not an arc. Ito draws and letters it himself, black and white.

Note: manga, filed as books by the proposal and corrected on reconcile. VIZ, single volume.

Fatale — Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips & Elizabeth Breitweiser

Crime noir · cosmic horror · cursed protagonist

Josephine cannot age and cannot be refused by men, because something older than her made it so — and the cult that wants her back has been hunting her since the 1930s. Noir across five decades, complete in five volumes.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Absolute Flash — Lemire / Robles

Stripped-down superhero

Lemire again — mentor-less, Speed-Force-less reinvention. Natural if his sensibility clicks.

Singular-vision hero Ongoing

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Absolute Wonder Woman, Descender

Black Science — Remender / Scalera

Dimension-hopping sci-fi / consequences

Remender, kinetic Scalera art, consequences piling up on a flawed lead.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to East of West, Tokyo Ghost

New X-Men — Grant Morrison

Auteur superhero / weird darker satire

The singular-vision classic X-Men run — stripped-down, idea-dense, darker edge.

Singular-vision hero Complete

Edition: Test with "E is for Extinction" (standalone trade or Modern Era Epic Collection printing = best value).

Connects to House of X / Powers of X, X-Men '97

Do a Powerbomb — Daniel Warren Johnson

Grief bargain / kinetic supernatural action

Same DWJ you already own on Transformers. A grieving wrestler enters a necromancer's interdimensional tournament to win his dead mother back — the deal-with-a-dark-power spine of Seven to Eternity and Die, drawn in DWJ's loose, violent, kinetic style. Tone caveat: it's warm and sincere, the sunniest thing on this list.

Complete · one volume

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Single volume, one-sitting read, cheap. Low-risk way to test DWJ's catalog. If it clicks → Murder Falcon (same grief + monsters formula), Beta Ray Bill.

Connects to Transformers, Seven to Eternity, Die

Die — Gillen / Hans

Dark fantasy / deadly bargains

Fully-painted, morally-compromised RPG-trap story. Gorgeous and grim.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Seven to Eternity, Absolute Wonder Woman

Transmetropolitan — Ellis / Robertson

Cyberpunk dystopia / gonzo satire

Dense future-city worldbuilding and street-level chrome.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Neuromancer, Cyberpunk 2077

Lazarus — Rucka / Lark / Arcas

Neo-feudal sci-fi / weaponized protagonist

The nation-state has collapsed; sixteen mafia-like Families own everything, each guarded by a genetically-engineered super-soldier — a "Lazarus." Forever Carlyle is a coldhearted killer with hidden depth, caught in betrayal and shifting alliances. Brooding noir art, one of the most carefully built worlds in comics. Grounded/cerebral, not mystical — the East of West collapse crossed with Seven to Eternity's servitude tension.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Early run = standard trades; later shifts to the oversized quarterly "Lazarus: Risen" format, final arc "Fallen" (2025). Ask for collected editions in order.

Connects to East of West, Seven to Eternity, Trees, Neuromancer

The Nice House on the Lake — James Tynion IV / Álvaro Martínez Bueno / Jordie Bellaire

Apocalyptic horror; complicity and survivor's guilt

Ten friends are invited to a lake house by a mutual friend none of them quite remember meeting. The world ends outside while they are inside. 12 issues, complete (followed by a separate sequel series, The Nice House by the Sea).

Gideon Falls — Lemire / Sorrentino

Horror / dread atmosphere

Sorrentino's experimental layouts, dread-soaked. If Immortal Hulk's horror craft worked, this lands.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Immortal Hulk

w0rldtr33 — Tynion IV / Blanco / Bellaire

Tech-horror / digital dread

Teenage programmers find a supernatural layer beneath the internet — the Undernet — chart it, lose control, think they sealed it away; decades later it resurfaces and drives people to mass violence. Pitch-black horror for the digital age. Sits where your two threads cross: atmospheric horror (Immortal Hulk / Dept. of Truth) and cerebral network dystopia (Neuromancer / Ghost in the Shell). Same writer as Department of Truth (#28).

Ongoing

Caveat: leans gross-out/shock over slow dread, and echoes Tynion's own Nice House on the Lake (group + buried past). Edition: 3 trades out (#1–5, #6–11, Vol.3); an oversized Vol.1 collection is dated Sept 2026. Catch up on trades, then pull monthly like Die.

Connects to The Department of Truth, Immortal Hulk, Neuromancer, Ghost in the Shell

The Incal — Jodorowsky / Mœbius

Sci-fi noir / psychedelic

Mœbius's genre-defining art; baroque-future detective frame. An influence on Ronin's look.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Neuromancer

Pretty Deadly — DeConnick / Ríos

Mythic death-western

Strange and beautiful, death-haunted. Rhymes with East of West and the darker Wonder Woman register.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to East of West, Gunslinger Spawn, Absolute Wonder Woman

Pulp — Brubaker / Phillips

Grounded neo-western / crime noir

Aging outlaw reckoning with a life of violence. An Old West gunslinger turned pulp writer in 1939 NYC, pulled into one last job. Bullseye on the damned-protagonist thread; grounded (no supernatural) — sits nearest Deadly Class.

Complete · one-shot

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Edition: Single ~70pg OGN, one hour, low commitment. If it clicks → Kill or Be Killed, Criminal, The Fade Out, Reckless (same team, longer, same dark moral edge).

Connects to Deadly Class, Gunslinger Spawn, Seven to Eternity, Immortal Hulk

Houses of the Unholy — Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, colors by Jacob Phillips

Noir crime / cults / satanic panic

A standalone graphic novel by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, colored by Jacob Phillips. Involves serial killers, cults, and the shadow of the Satanic Panic; this is the team's signature noir style blended with darker thriller elements. Complete in one volume.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Wytches — Scott Snyder & Jock

Family-damnation folk horror

A traumatized family relocates to a rural town, only to face ancient supernatural evil lurking in the woods—a horror comic about secret bargains, guilt, and monstrous transformations.

Killadelphia — Rodney Barnes (w), Jason Shawn Alexander (a), Luis NCT (c) — Image

Urban vampire horror; a decaying Philadelphia, founding-father vampires, inherited paternal debt

A small-town beat cop returns home to bury his murdered detective father and finds Philadelphia — corrupt, impoverished, brutal — has been a vampire city all along. Ongoing since 2019, 35+ issues, six volumes plus deluxe hardcovers and a spinoff (Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog).

Absolute Superman — Aaron / Sandoval

Darker superhero reinvention

Grittier, solitary Superman vs. a corporate power. Optimism pulls slightly against your damned-protagonist lean.

Singular-vision hero Ongoing

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Absolute Wonder Woman

Invincible — Kirkman / Walker / Ottley

Deconstructed superhero / inherited violence

A teenage superhero inherits powers from an alien father whose race came to conquer rather than protect, and spends 144 issues paying for that inheritance. Complete, with a deliberate ending.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow — Tom King / Bilquis Evely / Mat Lopes

Space western; grief, vengeance, and what the chase costs the person doing the chasing

Complete 8-issue limited series (DC, 2021-22), collected in one volume. Kara Zor-El, drinking on a backwater world on her twenty-first birthday, is recruited by Ruthye Marye Knoll \u2014 a farm girl whose father was murdered \u2014 to chase the killer Krem of the Yellow Hills across the frontier of space. Narrated retrospectively by Ruthye. Structurally True Grit; Bilquis Evely and Mat Lopes make it look like nothing else on the shelf.

Kingdom Come — Mark Waid / Alex Ross

Superhero apocalypse; abdication, authoritarian return, and judgment

Complete 4-issue prestige limited series (DC, 1996), fully painted in gouache by Alex Ross. Superman has withdrawn from the world for a decade after being displaced by a generation of amoral metahumans; he returns to impose order, builds a prison camp for those who won't submit, and the escalation runs to a nuclear strike over Kansas. Narrated by an aging pastor, Norman McCay, walked through it by the Spectre as a witness at a judgment. Best read in the oversized/Absolute Kingdom Come edition — this is painted art and the format is the point.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

1629: or the Terrifying Story of the Shipwreck of the Jakarta — Xavier Dorison and Thimothée Montaigne

Historical survival horror, doomed microcosm

A fictionalized, two-volume comic account of the infamous 1629 Batavia shipwreck, following survivors as mutiny, violence, and moral collapse overtake a stranded group in the East Indies. Dorison adapts the facts with a focus on psychological tension, power struggles, and the inner lives of villain and victim, painted in evocative, dramatic detail by Montaigne.

Drome — Jesse Lonergan

Mythic sci-fi creation myth

A nearly wordless, 300+ page graphic novel imagining the birth of a new world, where creator deities confront violence, love, and loss as their own invention spirals into corruption. Noted for boundary-breaking page design and expressive, grid-based visuals.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters — Emil Ferris

Gothic diary horror, urban decay, queer coming-of-age

1960s Chicago as seen through the monster-obsessed, diary-style journal of a queer, working-class girl investigating her neighbor’s suspicious death; merges horror fantasy, traumatic history, and outsider experience with expressive, mood-saturated art.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Give Me Liberty — Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons

Bleak near-future dystopia / political apocalypse

Martha Washington, born into poverty in a crumbling America, rises to resistance fighter in a violent, authoritarian future—navigating impossible choices as she confronts the brutal collapse of the United States.

Revival — Tim Seeley & Mike Norton

Rural noir / small-town zombie apocalypse

The dead return in rural Wisconsin, triggering a supernatural murder mystery as a sheriff’s deputy unravels personal and communal secrets in a quarantined, haunted town.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Batman: White Knight — Sean Gordon Murphy & Matt Hollingsworth

Superhero noir, moral ambiguity

In an alternate Gotham, the cured Joker (Jack Napier) becomes a public hero while Batman is cast as the city's threat. Moody, atmospheric art by Sean Murphy with Matt Hollingsworth's colors. An exploration of good, evil, and the corruption of power.

The Trap — Lance Briggs, Kyle Higgins

Cyberpunk-adjacent sci-fi desperation

A young underdog in a corrupt far-future world risks everything in a violent athletic contest for the hope of a better life, only to discover the real cost of escape is a stark moral bargain.

Punisher: MAX — Garth Ennis (writer), Lewis LaRosa, Leandro Fernandez, Goran Parlov et al. (artists)

Noir antihero in decaying urban hell

Frank Castle's one-man crusade against crime, stripped of heroism and set in a wholly corrupt, collapsing city. A decades-long meditation on violence, morality, and damnation: bleak, uncompromising, and self-contained.

The Filth — Grant Morrison & Chris Weston (with Matt Hollingsworth coloring)

Paranoid sci-fi, fractured identity

A 13-issue limited series exploring the thin boundary between order and filth, following a lonely everyman dragged into a secret organization policing reality’s hidden messes—surreal horror, unraveling identity, and conspiracy at cosmic scale.

Head Lopper — Andrew MacLean & Mike Spicer

Sword & sorcery dark fantasy

Norgal, the stoic 'Head Lopper,' quests across a monster-infested, decaying world, battling creatures and curses with the sarcastic witch Agatha's head in tow. Each arc is a self-contained epic, but the larger story is ongoing.

03 Tier Three — Deep Cuts & Nostalgia For when you know which vein pulls hardest.

Bitter Root — David F. Walker & Chuck Brown (w), Sanford Greene (a), Rico Renzi & Sofie Dodgson (c) — Image

Harlem Renaissance monster-hunting; hatred as literal transformation, family obligation, curing instead of killing

1924 Harlem. The Sangeryes, a family of monster hunters nearly wiped out before the story opens, hunt the jinoo — people whose racial hatred has physically transformed them — and try to cure rather than kill them. Complete at 15 issues (2018–2021), three volumes, Eisner winner. A 1964-set sequel series, Bitter Root: The Next Movement, ran in 2025 (collected as Vol. 4).

Candles — Lyndon White

Dark fantasy curse, self-sacrifice

A young girl steals magic from a feared witch to save her cursed village, braving monsters and the corrosive lure of power. Standalone graphic novel with richly painted, atmospheric art.

Big-Ass Sword — Andreas Butzbach

Post-apocalyptic techno-fantasy quest

A lone heroine with a gigantic sword traverses a desolate, futuristic wasteland in search of redemption and survival. Writer-artist Andreas Butzbach's debut English-language graphic novel, this OGN delivers mood-forward art and a self-contained story of violence and myth in a ruined world.

Uncanny X-Men — Chris Claremont

Foundational superhero drama

The roots of the cartoons. Dark Phoenix Saga & Days of Future Past. Older prose-heavy style.

Cherry-pick arcs

Edition: Skip reading it all — grab the standalone "Dark Phoenix Saga" & "Days of Future Past" trades. Epic Collections to go deeper.

Connects to X-Men '97, House of X / Powers of X

Something is Killing the Children — James Tynion IV / Werther Dell'Edera / Miquel Muerto

Monster-hunter horror; a bound protagonist who cannot stop being what she was made into

Erica Slaughter, an operative of the House of Slaughter, hunts the monsters only children can see. Boom! Studios; long-running ongoing, collected in omnibuses.

Trees — Ellis / Howard

Cerebral slow-burn sci-fi

Ideas-first; humanity under indifferent alien structures. Closest to your Captive's War / literary-SF side.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to The Captive's War, The Hidden Girl

Manifest Destiny — Dingess / Roberts

Weird western / cosmic horror

Lewis-and-Clark-meets-monsters. Pulpy, high-concept, your comfort zone.

Complete

Connects to Gunslinger Spawn, East of West

Deadly Class — Remender / Craig

Grounded crime / assassins

A school for assassins. Same moral murk, more grounded register.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Tokyo Ghost, Seven to Eternity

Prophet — Brandon Graham et al.

Far-future body-horror sci-fi

Dense, weird, cloned-consciousness worldbuilding. Rewards the attention The Hidden Girl does. Acquired taste.

Complete

Connects to The Hidden Girl

The Department of Truth — Tynion IV / Simmonds

Conspiracy horror

Painterly, collage-like, unsettling. The wildcard for the atmospheric-horror thread.

Ongoing

Connects to Immortal Hulk

Absolute Green Lantern — Ewing / Lindsay

Superhero reinvention

The most divisive book in the line — some found it thin. Lowest-confidence Absolute for you.

Singular-vision hero Ongoing

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to Absolute Wonder Woman

Ody-C — Fraction / Ward

Cosmic psychedelic epic

Gender-flipped Odyssey in space, maximalist visuals. Furthest out — pairs with The Incal.

Complete

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Connects to The Incal

Deicidium: Omens — Ram V (wr.), Evan Cagle (art), Anand Radhakrishnan (art) — Image / Morgen

Corporate theocracy / faith as currency

Volume one of nine. The structure is the deduction. Corporations and religious institutions have merged into the same power, belief is a traded commodity and faith is leverage. Ram V with Evan Cagle and Anand Radhakrishnan, all three co-creators, pitched as a deliberate blend of American comics, bande dessinée and manga. Cagle draws the first year in black and white.

Volume 1 of 9 · ending years away B&W year one

Edition: Volume 1 of 9

Note: volume one of a planned NINE, at roughly three a year — the full run is years out, which is the real structural deduction. Black and white for year one, so the craft case rests on line rather than colour. Out Oct 20 2026, Image in English territories and Morgen in France; a preview ran at Free Comic Book Day in May.

Connects to Outcast, Tokyo Ghost, Lazarus, 1629

The Seasons — Remender / Azaceta / Lopes

Dark family drama / supernatural mystery

Detective sisters named for each season confront supernatural mysteries and family secrets in a moody, modern setting. Ongoing creator-owned series by Rick Remender and Paul Azaceta.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Giant Generator, Image. Concludes with #13 in September 2026 — axis 6 becomes scoreable then.

Only the Savages Are Left — Zack Kaplan & Stefano Raffaele

Survival horror / dark apocalypse

A tightly bounded, four-issue post-apocalyptic survival story where civilization has collapsed and humans are forced into brutal, primal conflict to survive. The narrative explores what remains of humanity in the face of total social breakdown.

The Wicked + The Divine — Kieron Gillen / Jamie McKelvie / Matt Wilson

Modern myth, doomed pop gods

Every ninety years, twelve ancient gods reincarnate as pop stars, fated to die after two years of fame, power, and inevitable tragedy. A stylish, thematically rich contemporary fantasy about art, mortality, and belief.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Ultramega — James Harren & Dave Stewart

Cosmic kaiju apocalypse horror

World-rending cosmic plague transforms people into monstrous kaiju. Burdened warriors known as Ultramega are created to contain the devastation; brutal fight for survival and sanity amid apocalyptic horror. Harren's kinetic, moody art with Dave Stewart’s color elevates it.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Exquisite Corpses — James Tynion IV & Michael Walsh

Survival horror death-game

High-stakes survival horror comic; strangers are forced into a lethal game where trust and betrayal shape who survives. Driven by Tynion's sharp sense for dread and Walsh's atmospheric art.

Gigs — Mark Mosedale & Si Smith

Post-AI dystopia, digital displacement

Six interwoven stories explore the lives of people left behind in a world where AI has replaced nearly all human labor, blending near-future tech dystopia with small-scale human moments.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

If Destruction Be Our Lot — Matthew Rosenberg & Mark Elijah Rosenberg / Andy MacDonald & Francesco Segala

Post-human existential sci-fi

Robot Abraham Lincoln searches for meaning in a ruined, humanless Earth. Launching Image Comics series: Matthew Rosenberg & Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Andy MacDonald (art), Francesco Segala (color).

Lost Fantasy — Curt Pires & Luca Casalanguida

Mythic dark fantasy / RPG world

RPG-inspired fantasy quest in a world of crumbling magic, monsters, and moral ambiguity. Written by Curt Pires, art by Luca Casalanguida; ongoing from Image Comics.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

— Not Yet Tiered Ranked, but no fit verdict recorded yet. Assign a tier on the admin page.

Event Horizon — Christian Ward

Cosmic horror / doomed sci-fi salvage

A finite, atmospheric horror comic set in the Event Horizon film universe: doomed salvagers and damned scientists confront literal hell aboard a lost starship. Written and painted by Christian Ward, this trilogy (Dark Descent, Inferno, Pandemonium) completes its arc of damnation, body horror and corrupted technology.

Ottawa Library Graphic novel

Shelf 8 / 18

Pulls 0 / 7

Wishlist 0 / 70

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