Horror Comics and Religion

While many genres offer the potential for theological reflection and exploration of religious issues, the nature of horror provides unique ways to wrestle with these questions. Since EC Comics of the 1950s, horror comics have performed theological work in ways that are sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, but frequently surprising and provocative.
This collection brings together essays covering the history of horror comics, from the 1950s to the present, with a focus on their engagement with religious and theological issues. Essays explore topics such as the morality of EC Comics, cosmic indifference in the works of Junji Ito, the reincarnated demons of the web-comic The Devil is a Handsome Man, religion and racial horror in comic voodoo, and much more.

Brandon R. Grafius is associate professor of biblical studies and academic dean at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, Detroit. He has written widely on the intersection of horror and religion, including such publications as Tor.com, Salon.com, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
John W. Morehead is an independent scholar who specializes in new religious movements, the intersection of religion and popular culture, and interreligious conflict. He lives in Syracuse, Utah.

Edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead. Series Editor Matthew Brake
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 281
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9637-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5414-0
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Studies in Comics and Religion

Foreword: The Spirit Hidden Within the Grid—Clay McLeod Chapman 1
Introduction: Gaps and Frames—Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead 5

Part One: The Classics
Justice through the Resurrection of the Dead: Moral Theology and Eschatology in EC Comics—Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. 19
Holy Horror: DC Comics’ the Spectre as Theodic Monster—Brandon Dean 38
Capitalism as a Religion: Political Theology and Alan Moore’s From Hell—Jon Greenaway 54
“The Power of Sequential Art Compels You!”: Exorcism in Comics—John McGuire and Adam Possamai 70
Religion and Racial Horror: Comics Voodoo in the Golden Age—Yvonne Chireau 87

Part Two: To Hell and Back
Children of God: Divine Abuse and the Devil in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman—Lucinda Holdsworth 109
“Violent persons must always be disobeyed”: René Girard in Conversation with Ghost Rider: The War for Heaven—Neal Foster 126
The Mother, the Daughter, and the Wholly Monster: Personhood in Monstress—Emily FitzGerald 141

Part Three: Beyond Marvel and DC
“But you are dead”: Life-Death Ambiguation in Yukito Ayatsuji and Hiro Kiyohara’s Another and Revelation 3:1–6—Kai Akagi 161
Nothing Is What It Seems, No One Is Who They Are: The Problem of “Religion” in the Work of Junji Ito—Douglas E. Cowan 177
TNT and the Myths He Bu(r)sts: Analyzing the Subversive Portrayal of Tantriks in City of Sorrows—Debaditya Mukhopadhyay 196

Part Four: Breaking the Frames
Mingling the Sacred and the Abject in The Devil is a Handsome Man’s “The Case of the Cryers”—Ayanni C.H. Cooper 213
Gideon Falls: Cosmic Horror in a Gnostic Cosmos—Vasileios M. Meletiadis 231
“But three days later, my brother came from the woods”: (Un)Divine Horror in Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods—Brianna Anderson 251

About the Contributors 269
Index 273