The October Faction #1

Four figures pose before a curtained archway overflowing with skulls — an older silver-haired man in a dark suit, a young woman with a whip, a young man in black, and a blonde woman seated in a red velvet chair clutching a poison-labeled bottle — and together they make one of the most atmospheric family portraits horror comics had to offer in 2014. Steve Niles and Damien Worm launch The October Faction with a cover drenched in gothic menace: draping black fabric, flickering candles, and skeletal imagery frame this enigmatic ensemble with quiet, unsettling confidence. Worm's painterly linework gives the whole thing a dark storybook quality that pulls you in before you've even cracked the first page.