Author James Tynion IV has made a best-selling and Eisner-winning career writing comics that combine real world fears and settings with dark monstrosities. The Internet ran amok in his comic Worldtr33, toxic friendships became entangled in his Nice House On… books, the moneyed elite behaved badly in Exquisite Corpses.
Now Tynion has set his sights on white supremacy.
The writer, perhaps best known for his best-selling Something is Killing the Children, is teaming up with Marguerite Bennett for Odin, a new original horror comic book series that sees neo-Nazi punks face ancient Norse beings.
Letizia Cadonici, who has been drawing Tynion’s House of Slaughter title, is handling the art for Odin, which will be a nine-issue limited series that debuts in May from Image Comics. The news was announced Thursday at ComicPro, the annual meeting of comic book industry retailers, publishers, and distributors held in Glendale, California.
Colorist Jordie Bellaire, lettered Tom Napolitano, designer Dylan Todd, and editor Steve Foxe make up the rest of the creative team.
Odin follows Adela, a thrill-seeking journalist who goes undercover to report on a band of neo-Nazis. She will do anything for the perfect story, including heading into the frozen forests of Norway with Neo Nazi punks who seek Odin to achieve their promised white supremacist destiny. But what awaits them in the woods is far older and stranger than any of them can comprehend, and no gods are coming to answer their prayers.
“Marguerite and I have been talking about this story for years,” said Tynion in a statement. “It all started as a text conversation about a group of white supremacists we’d seen a story about online, talking about their faith in Odin, and then we started talking about what the real Norse Odin would do with these idiots if he had the chance. It felt pretty immediately clear that there was a mean and brutal horror story in it and we wanted to tell it together.”
Odin is the latest title to come out of Tiny Onion, Tynion’s publishing and multimedia production house he launched in 2024 with the backing of Lyrical Media. Also announced at ComicsPro was include the expansion of Exquisite Corpses, a horror comic that began just as limited series, into a veritable franchise.
Tynion has been moving prolifically not just on the publishing side but screen side as well. Blumhouse Productions has also optioned Something is Killing the Children to adapt both for film and for an animated television series. Also on the development slate is an adaptation of Tynion’s Image Comics series W0rldtr33 set up at Netflix; an adaptation of his Boom! Studios series The Woods; and Tipsy Dragon, an original adult animated comedy series developed with production company Irony Point, among others.
The first issue of Odin will feature variant covers by comic and album artist Alex Eckman-Lawn (Swan Songs), who is illustrating the main Cover A for the full series. Additional variant artists include Cadonici, Christian Ward (Spectregraph), Martin Simmonds (The Department of Truth), and Jae Lee (Exquisite Corpses).
As for the other scribe behind the book, Bennett is penning the new Witchblade reboot and wrote the terrifying graphic novel Mommy Blog, released last year.
Odin no. 1 is due to hit at stores on May 6. Check out the covers below.
Don’t send your kids to camp: Something Is Killing the Children, Boom’s long-running horror comic from James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera, is getting two adaptations.
You may recall Netflix was going to adapt the comic, but now Blumhouse is in charge, and it’s taking a two-prongred approach with a live-action feature film and an adult animated TV series. Tynion and Dell’Edera will both executive produce the show, while Tynion will EP on the film alongside Boom’s president of development, Stephen Christy. Dell’Edera will also co-produce the film, as will Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum.
“Finding a partner who understood the potential of Erica Slaughter and the world Werther Dell’Edera and I have built was crucial, and we have found that partner in Jason Blum,” said Tynion. “Nobody understands horror better than Blumhouse, and I can’t wait for the world to see what we all have planned together.”
“It’s easy to see why audiences and critics alike have praised Something Is Killing the Children,” added Blum. “James and Werther’s comic book series taps into our most primal fears, luring us into a fascinating world and introducing Erica Slaughter, the ass-kicking hero we all wish we had to fight the monsters that lurk in the dark.”
First released in 2019, the comic centers on Erica Slaughter, who travels the country slaying killing monsters that kidnap and kill kids, and has the ability to see the monsters well after she’s grown up. The series has been a hit since its initial release and won several comics awards over the years for Tynion’s writing. Its final issue was released this past February, but there’s several spinoff books, including Fall of the House of Slaughterand the crossover miniseries Swamp Thing Is Killing the Children, which are both releasing in 2026.
Coming on top of a multi-company bidding war, Blumhouse, the prolific horror-centric banner behind Black Phone 2 and the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, has snagged the rights to Something Is Killing the Children, the popular Boom! Studios comic by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera.
The title has enjoyed Hollywood’s attention since it debuted in 2019 and has previously been in development as a live-action series. Blumhouse plans on actually doing both big-screen and small-screen takes.It will develop the franchise simultaneously as a live-action feature film and as an adult animated television series, with the TV adaptation to be shepherded by Tynion.
For this pickup, Lionsgate circled the rights while Netflix also chased. The latter’s involvement was somewhat ironic, as SIKTC was previously set up at the streamer as a series. Netflix passed on it at the end of 2024 after opting not to move forward following extensive development with both Mike Flanagan, as well as Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the showrunners behind thriller series Dark. This time, Netflix’s movie group wanted to take charge, but Blumhouse was more aggressive, loving the idea of a world where children can see monsters, but adults cannot. Part of what spurred intense interest, according to sources, was the success of Weapons, Zach Cregger’s summer horror hit.
Blum will produce the live-action feature for Blumhouse with the company’s Shaun Sutton and Ryan Turek serving as executive producers. Stephen Christy and Tynion will produce the film for Boom! Studios/Penguin Random House.
Adam Yoelin and Mette Norkjaer will also executive produce. Series co-creator Dell’Edera will act as co-producer.
Children’s first story arc told of a town plagued by monsters that feast on children, with one teen survivor telling tales that no adult believes. Enter: a mysterious young woman named Erica Slaughter. The woman, who occasionally converses with her stuffed animal, isn’t there to mince words, but rather to mince monsters. The stories since have opened up a world that includes a monster-killing cabal and its sinister politics.
“It’s easy to see why audiences and critics alike have praised Something is Killing the Children,” said Blum in a statement. “James and Werther’s comic book series taps into our most primal fears, luring us into a fascinating world and introducing Erica Slaughter, the ass-kicking hero we all wish we had to fight the monsters that lurk in the dark.”
After bowing in September 2019, Children hacked its way to becoming the biggest horror comic since The Walking Dead and the biggest indie since Saga. The first issue has sold over 175,000 copies over the course of multiple printings while the comic has sold over 5 million since launch, a rare feat in modern publishing — not just in the indie comics world but even for Marvel and DC books. A spinoff, House of Slaughter, also written by Tynion, is also a top seller. Following BOOM! Studios’ acquisition by Penguin Random House in 2024, the publisher committed to a 100-issue run, ensuring the series’ presence on shelves for the next decade.
The comic is also a critical hit, earning an Eisner nomination for best new series in 2020 with a win for best series in 2022. Tynion won three consecutive Eisners for writing the series, a feat only matched by Alan Moore. SIKTC also won a Harvey Award for book of the year and a Ringo Award for best series. Tynion has since put out several other hit horror comics and launched his own media banner, Tiny Onion.
“Something is Killing the Children is the comic book that changed my life and career forever,” stated Tynion. “Finding a partner who understood the potential of Erica Slaughter and the world Werther Dell’Edera and I have built was crucial, and we have found that partner in Jason Blum. Nobody understands horror better than Blumhouse, and I can’t wait for the world to see what we all have planned together.”
The adult animated series will see Tynion executive producing with Dell’Edera co-executive producing. Christy will executive produce the series for BOOM! with Adam Yoelin and Mette Norkjaer co-executive producing.
Tynion is repped by UTA Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and TroyGould. Boom! is repped by UTA.
Noble warriors? Just rulers? Good triumphing over evil? Hah! Whether I’m cracking open a graphic novel or pondering eldritch truth held within my wizarding orb, my rule is the same: I’ll believe it when I see it. In a dark fantasy, there are no heroes. When it comes to the adventuring game, people are only in it for one thing: themselves. It’s a dragon eat dragon world out there, one where the rules are decided by whoever is holding the sword. If your idea of a good time is a graphic novel that feels more “Red Wedding” than “Bilbo’s 111th Birthday,” boy do I have a list for you. Here are the 10 best dark fantasy graphic novels around.
Monstress
(Image Comics)
Monstress by Marjorie Liu will have you Mon-stressed out. Inspired by East Asia’s bloody 20th century, this graphic novel is set in a grimdark world at war. This realm is being torn apart by a never-ending struggle for power between matriarchal sorcerers that rule the human world, and the eldritch Arcanics that can pass for people. Maika Halfwolf is an Arcanic – hunted for her magical abilities like the rest of her kind. Not content to serve as a magical battery for the ruling class, she strikes out alone on a quest to avenge her mother. Well, not entirely alone. She’s got a frenemy of sorts, a demon that lives in the stump where her left arm used to be. In order kill the monsters the did her family wrong, Maika will need to learn to embrace the beast within – before it can consume her from the inside. Don’t let the glittering art deco style fool you, this epic fantasy is as dark as they come.
Kill Six Billion Demons
(Image Comics)
Kill Six Billion Demons by Tom Parkinson Morgan is a martial arts manual, a spiritual treatise, and a sapphic romance all rolled into one. Before she was kidnapped by a runaway god, Allison Ruth was a barista whose biggest concern was loosing her virginity to her boyfriend. After being spirited away to a city at the center of the multiverse, she now has bigger fish to fry. Those fish are The Demiurges, seven tyrannical divinities that each rule 111,111 of the 777,777 universes that make up all of existence. With the help of an angelic martial arts teacher and a demonic sapphic lover, Allison will learn to embrace her budding divine power to and break the cosmic cycle of violence and suffering. If all goes well, she might even inherit the throne of God themself. Brutal, beautiful and gloriously queer, this dark fantasy is one of a kind.
Something Is Killing The Children
(BOOM! Studios)
In case the title didn’t clue you in, James Tynion IV’s Something Is Killing The Children is set in a world where not even the most innocent of us are safe. Kids in Archer’s Peak fare about as well as children in a Stephen King novel – they tend to go missing and turn up dead. Frantic for answers, the townspeople lay the blame on a chainsaw wielding new arrival – a young woman who claims to be able to see monsters that they can’t. Erica Slaughter is an agent of the Order of Saint George, an ancient organization dedicated to eradicating monsters that are spawned from the darkest human fears. Sadly, they’re also dedicated to eradicating any humans that find out about their clandestine organization – a policy point that creates some tension between the merciful Erica and her ruthless handlers. Grim, gory, and grotesque, this novel is perfect for anyone who could stomach It.
Berserk
(Dark Horse Manga)
The poster child of dark fantasy, Kentaro Miura’s Berserk is one of the genre’s most seminal works – inspiring grimdark games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring. The story follows Guts, a linebacker sized mercenary with the sword the length of a four door sedan. Guts wanders a demon haunted world searching for a former comrade, the man who betrayed him and sacrificed his friends to demons. Armed with a dragon slayer of a blade and a repeating crossbow, Guts is 300lbs of pure, grass fed hate. He walks the dark path of vengeance, and he’ll pulverize any demon standing in the road. While the author tragically passed away before the story could be finished, his assistants have taken up the narrative torch and are seeing it through to the bitter end. Guts would be proud.
The Wicked and The Divine
(Image Comics)
The Wicked and The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie is Almost Famous mixed with ancient myth. Every ninety years, a pantheon of twelve gods is reincarnated into human form. Upon awakening, the young gods have two years to walk among mortals before dying and beginning the cycle again. Through supernatural powers, supernatural talent, and supernatural good looks, these divinities make very good use of their time. They become movers and shakers, pop stars, celebrities, idols, burning hot and bright before finally sputtering out. Like any self-respecting divine pantheon, this gaggle of gods comes with some serious family drama. When multiple lifetimes of emotional baggage combine with the pressures of fame, the results are messy, violent, and explosive.
The Last God
(DC Comics)
At the beginning of The Last God, by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, the big bad has already been defeated – the heroes won. Thirty years ago, a group of warriors claimed to have felled The God of the Void and his undead army after journeying to an alternate dimension. Problem solved! Except for the fact that the undying legions have reappeared to renew their assault on the world of Cain Anuun – sounds like we haven’t heard the last of The Last God after all. Now a new group of heroes must traverse dimensions in order to slay the dark divinity once and for all – a perfectly sensible plan. What doesn’t make sense is why the old group of heroes claimed to have killed The God of the Void when they very obviously didn’t. Somebody is playing a trick, and The Last God is having the last laugh.
Redlands
(Image Comics)
Redlands by Jordie Bellaire takes place in the darkest of dark fantasy worlds: small town Florida. The town of Redlands is ruled by a matriarchal coven of witches, who have asserted their dominion through decades of demonic sacrifice. Serving as the local law enforcement, the terrible trio maintains an uneasy peace with the average citizens. When young woman start turning up dead, the peace dies with it. A serial killer is stalking the streets of Redlands, and the vengeful spirit of one of the murdered can’t rest until her killer is found. It’s a swampy, Southern Gothic detective story steeped in feminist revenge. Like a witch’s victim, you’ll be charmed.
Through The Woods
(Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Through The Woods by Emily Carroll is a collection of dark fantasy fairy tales that would make the Brothers Grimm proud. Five separate stories are rendered in a muted color scheme of ghastly black, grim grey, and bloody crimson – including Carroll’s viral webcomic sensation His Face All Red. These bleak fables don’t end well, just ask the main character of the novel’s most famous story. Granted, he killed his own brother, so he kind of had it coming. What he probably didn’t expect was how it came, at the hands of the sibling he thought he murdered, returned from the dead. Unless it was some kind of magical doppelgänger? In this macabre world, it’s highly plausible.
Black Magick
(Image Comics)
Black Magick by Nicola Scott is a hard boiled dark fantasy noir. The plot revolves around Rowan Black, a loose cannon detective who doesn’t play by the rules, which in this case are the laws of physics. She’s a witch, and uses her magical abilities in order to help crack cases while working her police detective day job. While she’s managed to keep this secret under wraps, someone is now targeting her – threatening to expose a fact of her existence that would have gotten her burned at the stake a few hundred years before. This tense police procedural blends magic and mundane to create a tight drama drawn in shades of morally grey.
Pretty Deadly
(Image Comics)
Pretty Deadly is a hallucinatory murder ballad – something that late career Johnny Cash would sing about while tripping balls off of discount acid. It’s the story of Deathface Ginny, the gunslinging daughter of the grim reaper himself. She can be summoned via song, and her vengeful spirit will aid anyone who has been wronged by a man. At least, that’s what the legends say. Sissy isn’t sure, she’s been traveling across the wasteland with an old man named Fox for quite some time now; she and her guardian have been trading bits of Ginny lore back and forth, but the stories seem to conflict. Little does little Sissy know, her to the legendary gunslinger might go deeper than she ever imagined – perhaps they even share a common ancestor. Who’s to say death’s daughter is an only child?
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.
What’s the problem with great graphic novels? They come to an end. While all good things must, some do so sooner than others. Imagine the disappointment when the graphic novel you expected to last through the rains of April only holds out for a few afternoons. You had an entire month of coziness planned! But those dreams were dashed by an author who selfishly decided to make their graphic novel a standalone. Oh the frustration! The disappointment! The sheer tragedy of it all!. When the single issues let you down, these titles will provide a long-running shoulder to cry on. Here are 10 of the best graphic novel series, to last you through this April and the next.
Saga
(Image Comics)
Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga is the ultimate soft sci-fi, a space opera of truly epic proportions. The series centers around two star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of an interplanetary war, who put their allegiances aside to escape with their new baby in tow. Refugees in a hostile and alien universe, Alana and Marko have few friends and an ever growing list of enemies. It turns out that carrying a literal poster-child for peaceful coexistence doesn’t bode well for war propaganda, and the lovers’ former governments have ordered them to be eliminated to bolster moral. As this nuclear family vaults across the stars, they discover an extended found family in the alien worlds between. Romance novel writing cyclopses, ghost nannies, adorable seal-men with an arsenal of high powered weapons – each of these extraterrestrial oddballsaid Alana and Marko on their quest to find peace and quiet, and do so with overwhelming violence. To ensure a pristine future, sometimes you gotta get your flippers dirty in the present.
Fables
(Vertigo)
Fables by Bill Willingham was recently made all the more famous by Telltale Games’ detective series The Wolf AmongUs, centered around Bigby Wolf – a morally reformed Big Bad Wolf turned sheriff. After he and the rest of his fairytale ilk were exiled from their fantastical homelands by a being known as The Adversary, fable-kind had to learn to walk among humans. Disguised as “mundys” these mythical beings blend in with mundane people in order to get by. But when one of these folklore characters ends up getting murdered in cold blood, it’s up to Bigby to sniff out the killer. Snow White’s sister is dead. Was it the ex-fiance? The current boyfriend? Or does this conspiracy go deeper down the rabbit hole than it appears? RIP Brothers’ Grimm, you two would have loved this series.
Something Is Killing The Children
(BOOM! Studios)
If James Tynion IV’s Something Is Killing The Children doesn’t have you hooked by the title alone, then allow me to reel you in further. It’s the story of an average American town come under the grips of extraordinary evil – something is carrying off the kids of Archer’s Peak, and they’re never seen again. When monsters have taken up residence in the wilderness nearby, there’s only one person you can call: Erica Slaughter, appropriately named for the job. Armed with a trusty chainsaw, Erica is prepped and ready to strike back against the creatures that lurk in the shadows – beings made of the sum of all human fears. But when the terrified townsfolk are looking for a culprit, they might just pin the blame on the lady with the bloody chainsaw, even if she is the only thing standing between their children and the hungry dark. Monster hunting is a thankless job.
Transmetropolitan
(Vertigo)
Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan is the story of Spider Jerusalem, a drug sniffin’, muck-slingin’, power-fightin’ journalist willing to stick it to the system. Fresh off his latest drug bender, Spider returns to his city to dig up the dirt on a sociopathic presidential candidate who craves power for power’s sake. Spider trades the usual crime-fighter’s arsenal for a more unique set of armaments: photo-taking sunglasses and a gun that forcibly loosens people’s bowels. A lover of mankind but a hater of the average man, Spider Jerusalem is the ultimate misanthrope – a man who endeavors to bring the truth to the populace no matter how many powerful people it ticks off. Smarmy, cynical, sublime, Transmetropolitan reads like a gossip rag preaching gospel truth.
(VIZ Media LLC)
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa proves that the crackpot thinkers of The Renaissance were right, you really CAN turn lead into gold! Provided you offer something of equivalent value in return. Edward and Alphonse Elric live in the kingdom of Amestris, an autocratic regime where government alchemists uphold law and order. After these two alchemical prodigies commit the ultimate taboo and try to resurrect their dead mother through magic, their unwittingly forfeit their body parts in order to balance the equation. Deprived of their essence , Ed and Al go on a quest to find what they lost by uncovering ancient alchemical truths – and a massive government conspiracy along the way. It turns out the brothers aren’t the only humans who have tried to transmute a human soul – a shadowy organization is coming close, and the nation itself may by the price. I’m not exaggerating when I say this series is one of the greatest works of fiction ever.
Lumberjanes
(BOOM! Box)
From Nimona author NK Stevenson comes Lumberjanes, a rustic series about a gaggle of woodsy women who solve supernatural mysteries. Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for outdoorsy types is more than meets the eye, the grounds are home to all sorts of magical beings – as this quintet of woodchoppers will soon find out for themselves. Three eyed foxes, malevolent yetis, perambulatory statues, all these ethereal oddities appear and more. If you’re a lover of spooky wilderness stories in the style of Gravity Falls, Lumberjanes will land right in your neck of the woods.
Monstress
(Image Comics)
Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu is an art deco-drenched reimagining of 20th century East Asia. The action follows Maika Halfwolf, a teenage girl attempting to keep her identity a secret from the powers that be. Maika is an Arcanic, beings that is harvested by human sorcerers for their magical abilities. Hiding right under the nose of the ruling class, Miaka’s cover is nearly blown by the demonic being that resides in the stump of her left arm. When you’re a young woman on a quest to avenge your mother, you need to learn to manage your inner monster before consumes you entirely. Great Gatsby glamour combines with divine imagery to serve up an epic of biblical proportions.
Kill Six Billion Demons
(Image Comics)
Tom Parkinson Morgan’s Kill Six Billion Demons is many things – a martial arts manual, a spiritual text, and the biography of a barista turned god-breaker. Allison Ruth was a simple business major before being spirited away to Throne – the divine city that lies at the center of all 777,777 universes. Blessed with newfound holy power by a runaway god, Allison is charged with defeating the Demiurges – seven tyrannical divinities who have each claimed 111,111 universes for themselves. With the help of an angelic martial arts teacher and a demonic sapphic lover, Allison might have what it takes to break the cyclical nature of universal suffering – inheriting the powers of God themself. Action packed, beautifully drawn, and gloriously queer, this ongoing series is one of the most underrated fantasy titles of all time.
Akira
(Kodansha Comics)
Often hailed as the greatest graphic novel series of all time, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira laid the groundwork for the cyberpunk genre, and is one of the most significant sci-fi titles to come out of Japan alongside Ghost In The Shell. Illustrated by the legendary Satoshi Kon, Akira transports the reader to the neon-drenched metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, built on the ruins of World War III. Biker gangs rule the dystopian streets, but one young rider’s world is turned upside down after he comes into contact with an escaped government experiment. Exposed to metaphysical contamination, young Tetsuo begins to develop psychic powers. Not the “bend spoons” kind, but the “implode reality” kind. As Tetsuo’s power grows, his warped mind begins to bend the physical laws of the universe to the breaking point – resulting in a climax of cosmically horrible proportions.
Pretty Deadly
(Image Comics)
Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick is a western horror that gives Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series a run for its money. This is the tale of Deathface Ginny – the daughter of Death himself. She’s an avenging angel, a supernatural gunslinger who can be summoned by those who have been done wrong. The plot follows a young girl named Sissy and an old man named Fox, traveling across the wasteland trading snippets of Ginny’s story. Little does Sissy know, she and her companion play a bigger part in the legend than the little girl can possibly imagine. Hallucinatory, surreal, and sinister, Pretty Deadly is a true acid western – assuming you bought the acid off a toothless old prospector in an abandoned ghost town. You’re for a very good bad trip.
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.
