North 40

Somewhere in Midwestern America is a place called Conover County. A quiet place of farms, simple folk, and small-town dreams. Then an old book of runes is opened — used in haste and ignorance — and the county becomes a den of monsters and nightmare.

North 40 is the six-issue horror miniseries written by Aaron Williams and drawn by Fiona Staples, published by Wildstorm/DC in 2009. It’s a Lovecraftian bloodbath set in the American heartland — and it’s the book that proved Fiona Staples could carry a series, two years before she changed comics forever with Saga.

The Farm Where Nightmares Grow

The premise is gloriously simple: a teenager named Wyatt, desperate to escape his small-town life, finds an ancient grimoire in the county library and reads it aloud. The resulting blast of occult energy warps everything within Conover County’s borders — turning neighbors into flesh-hungry abominations, cows into shambling horrors, and the local sheriff into a man who can see the darkness coming. Three unlikely heroes rise against the tide: Wyatt, whose botched spell made him a walking weapon; Amanda, a teen witch apprenticed to forgotten arts; and Sheriff Morgan, whose ties to Conover County go back farther than anyone remembers.

Williams (known for PS238 and The Nodwick Chronicles) wrote North 40 as a gore-drenched, smart, self-aware horror comic — but the real draw is Staples’ art. Her character designs, from the monstrous transformations to the three leads, crackle with energy, and her ability to make horror feel both funny and genuinely disturbing caught the attention of an industry that was about to be blown away by her next project. The book earned Shuster Award recognition and a devoted cult following.

North 40 is collected in a trade paperback and a new edition from DC. For fans of Saga’s Staples, Lovecraftian horror, or just really good monster comics, this is the hidden gem you’ve been looking for.