Howling at the Moon: 21 Horror Comics about Werewolves

When the moon turns full, they emerge, transforming the bodies of their sometimes unwilling hosts into raging, snarling beasts. They terrorize farms, small towns, cities and even apocalyptic wastelands. The Werewolf has carved a large, bloody niche for itself in popular culture since Lawrence Talbot howled at the moon in 1941’s The Wolf Man, though the creature has existed in folklore for hundreds of years.

In comic books, the werewolf has shown up regularly over the decades and as this list shows, has seen a fairly large revival of late, often mixing genres to keep the storytelling fresh.

---

1. Werewolf By Night (1954-Current)

First appearing in 1954 in a pre-Marvel comic called Marvel Tales from Atlas comics, the Jack Russell (yep) incarnation began proper in 1972, becoming its own title not long after. Russell’s lycanthropy comes from a family curse, and he uses his wolf persona to fight a host of other monsters and villains, even butting heads with Moon Knight, who also harnesses the power of the moon. He teams up with other characters such as Elsa Bloodstone, Man-Thing and others to fight evil. Marvel Studios have recently produced a live action special for Disney + featuring Gael Garcia Bernal as the titular wolf.

2. Swamp Thing (1985)

Alan Moore introduced a werewolf into his iconic run of Swamp Thing in issue #40 with ‘The Curse’. It deals with Phoebe, a woman whose wolf form is unleashed as a response to her oppression by the patriarchal society. During a dinner party, she snaps and turns into a wolf, rampaging into the night. Swamp Thing senses her dark energy and tries to help her. A deeply metaphorical tale steeped in feminism, it has been hailed as one of the great werewolf comics.

3. The Astounding Wolf-Man (2007 – 2010)

A more recent title, Robert Kirkman’s comic features Gary Hampton, a billionaire businessman who, after being bitten, tries to use his lycanthropy for good. He also teams up with other super-heroes from Kirkman’s universe, such as Invincible, Tech Jacket and Brit to fight the villainous Emperor. Like some of the other super-hero werewolves, Gary has control of his powers and change at will.

4. Wolf Moon (2014)

Wolf Moon is a revenge story, which also introduces a twist to the formula by having the wolf change bodies, with the curse jumps to a different host each full moon. Former hosts hunt down the wolf to seek their vengeance. Another little twist is that the former hosts can remember what happened while they were possessed.

RELATED: 13 Tempting Horror Comics about Romance and Sex

5. Judge Dredd in Cry of the Werewolf (1983)

Werewolves from the Undercity invade Mega-City One and only Judge Dredd can sort them out. The werewolves in this incarnation have mutated due to a chemical spill in Undercity, a subterranean city containing mutants and criminals alike. The werewolf lore is slightly muddled though as they can still pass on lycanthropy through a bite. But hey, it’s the future!

6. Moonshine (2017—)

Image Comics Moonshine is set in 1920’s prohibition era West Virginia and combines a gritty crime tale about bootleggers and werewolves. Another of the modern werewolf books that mix up genres and go all in on the gore.

7. Wolfsbane, from The New Mutants (1982-Current)

Wolfsbane is a female mutant whose lycanthropy is biological and not magical as such. Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McCleod, she first appeared in The New Mutants in 1982. Wolfsbane was a part of a few X groups – X-Force, X-Factor and also taught at Professor X’s Academy in New X-men. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) portrayed her in the troubled New Mutants film.

8. High Moon (2007-2010)

This western horror webcomic was published by DC imprint Zuda as a result of an online competition. The story follows bounty hunter Matthew Macgregor as he investigates werewolf related happenings in the American West. The comic ran for three series and featured memorable artwork by award winning artist Steve Ellis.

9. Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August (1994)

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy investigates a Balkan village where everyone seems to have been killed by a wolf. It turns out the town had a dark past with a family of werewolves that were (supposedly) put to death. The story was originally serialised in a Dark Horse Presents run and was Mike Mignola’s first fully written and illustrated Hellboy comic.

RELATED: 15 Horror Comics infected with Viruses

10. Werewolf (1966-67)

A bit of a fake-out here – Major Wiley Wolf isn’t actually a werewolf, more a super-spy with wolf-like tendencies and a wolf named Thor as his companion. He wears an impregnable suit that renders him almost invisible and an implant in is throat allows him to communicate with Thor. The comic only ran three issues in the 1960s.

11. Ferals (2012)

Described as a supernatural crime story, David Lapham’s Ferals features a police officer investigating a spate of bloody murders in small town America. Of course it’s werewolves. This is a list of werewolf comics!

12. Van Helsing vs The Werewolf (2017)

Coming from Zenoscope’s Grimm Fairy Tales, we follow Liesel Van Helsing, (daughter of you-know-who) as she battles a werewolf (obviously) as well as vampires, in her quest for an ancient demon-slaying sword in the Himalayas.

13. Jughead – The Hunger (2017-Current)

A part of the Archie Horror imprint, which also includes Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Afterlife with Archie, this comic has Jughead discovering he is actually a murderous werewolf, rampaging through Riverdale.

RELATED: Let’s Open These Curtains: Top 10 Vampire Burning Deaths

14. Nam Wolf (2017)

‘It was the summer of Marty Spencer’s 18th birthday when he set boots on the ‘Nam.”

Namwolf does what it says on the tin, sending young soldier Marty to war, where he finds out he is a werewolf. Writer Fabian Rangel, Jr. set out to create an ‘80s styled action movie feel with added werewolf.

15. Paradigm Shift (1999-2019)

A manga styled werewolf detective story set in Chicago, Paradigm Shift began as a web comic in 1999 before being collected in a series of books years later, with a new series arriving in 2019.

16. Cycle of the Werewolf (1983)

Stephen King gave us his werewolf tale with this short novel that followed a calendar style format, with each chapter representing one month of the year and accompanied by some gorgeous, flesh-tearing artwork by the legendary Bernie Wrightson. Cycle was also made into the fun film Silver Bullet featuring Corey Haim on a high speed wheel-chair, Garey Busey giving good Gary Busey and a goofy looking wolf.

17. Social Fiends (2020-Current)

Described as ‘V For Vendetta meets Underworld’ this post-apocalyptic story is set forty years after the collapse of civilisation, in a world filled with ‘devil dogs and bloodsuckers’. John J. Perez’s comic re-imagines the world into a class war between werewolves and vampires and the humans caught in the middle.

RELATED: 17 Spell-binding Witches and Occult Comics to Read Before Halloween

18. Beware! The Werewolf Was Afraid (1973)

Marvel went back to the werewolf well in the 1970s with this story in issue 1 of the Beware! Series. An English hunter comes across a werewolf while hunting in Austria. His motto of not killing an animal without provoking it backfires when it turns out the werewolf is playing a similar game with him.

19. Tales From The Crypt – Concerto for Violin and Werewolf (1954)

Included in Tales From the Crypt Vol.1 #42, a violinist visits his old teacher in a werewolf infested town. Hearing talk of the lycanthropes, the violinist plots to kill one for the publicity. This story has a meta element with the violinist referring to an earlier issue of Tales From The Crypt.

20. Superman & Batman Vs Vampires & Werewolves (2009)

DC’s stalwart superheroes square off against the top dogs (and bats) of the supernatural world in this six issue run from 2009. Also features Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and Etrigan the Demon.

21. Where Wolf (2022)

One of the latest comics off the block is Where Wolf, a webcomic written by Rob Saucedo and released on the Fangoria website. Described as a mix of Kolchak the Night Stalker and Fletch, it follows a reporter on the trail of the titular wolf and is drawn in a black and white, almost Scooby Doo-esque style.

Have you read any of these Werewolf/Werewolves comics?

Have you read any of these Werewolves comics? Let us know on social media.