The Horror Writers Association has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards, which includes a graphic novel category. Dark Horse Comics, Mad Cave Studios, Cullen Bunn and James Tynion’s Tiny Onion all appeare multiple times on the ballot.
The annual awards recognize “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction. Previous winners in the graphic novel category include Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel, Amy Chu and Soo Lee’s graphic novel Carmilla: The First Vampire and H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe, which won in the category last year.
The preliminary ballot for the “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category includes:
Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Luckert, Danny (artist) – Jumpscare (Dark Horse Comics)
Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Mitten, Christopher (artist) – The Autumn Kingdom: Through the Blight (Oni Press)
Carey, Mike (writer) and Raimondi, Pablo (artist) – Ghostbox (Mad Cave Studios)
Cleveland, Anthony (writer) and Cormack, Alex (artist) – Buried Long, Long Ago (Mad Cave Studios)
King, Sandy (editor) – John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 (Storm King Comics)
Kraus, Daniel (writer) and Dani (artist) – Athanasia (VAULT Comics)
Mignola, Mike – Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown (Dark Horse Comics)
Oeming, Michael Avon – William of Newbury (Dark Horse Comics)
Tynion IV, James (writer), Foxe, Steve (writer), and Kowalski, Piotr (artist) – Let This One Be a Devil – (Dark Horse Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)
Tynion IV, James (writer) and Walsh, Michael (artist) – Exquisite Corpses (Image Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)
“The Preliminary Ballot represents the discernment of 13 awards juries, the work of HWA staffers and awards committee, and the admiration of the entire HWA membership. We’re delighted to present this curated list of 130 pieces of horror fiction and non-fiction, and I’m excited to see what our voting members select for the Final Ballot,” said Laura Blackwell, co-chair of the awards committee.
The final ballot will be released later this month, with the awards presented in June at StokerCon 2026 in Pittsburgh.