Plague House by Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm
Oni Press (January 20, 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Michael W. Conrad is a writer currently living in Portland, Oregon. Michael has worked on a number of books at DC Comics, including Wonder Woman, Batgirls, Nightwing, and more. Elsewhere, Michael has written stories for iconic characters including Godzilla, Dracula, and Boris Karloff. Michael’s creator-owned work such as Tremor Dose, Double Walker, and Neptune have revealed a level of oddity that has captivated audiences looking for experiences unlike anything else on the shelves today.
Dave Chisholm is a graphic novelist and musician currently living in Rochester, New York, where he received his doctorate in jazz trumpet from the Eastman School of Music in 2013. His expertise in music, as well as his formal inventiveness within the comics medium, has resulted in a string of critically acclaimed music-centric comics and graphic novels, including Spectrum (Mad Cave Studios), Miles Davis & the Search for the Sound, Enter the Blue, Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker in California, and the groundbreaking graphic novel + original soundtrack Instrumental (Z2 Comics). Chisholm also has a passion for education and teaches comics and music at the Hochstein School and the Rochester Institute of Technology. In his free time, Dave enjoys spending time with his family and his cats. Their newest collaboration is Plague House.
Thirteen years ago, Orin McCabe was a family man living a privileged life in the California suburbs. Today, he’s condemned to death row for murdering his entire family in an unexpected fit of hammer-wielding brutality. In the aftermath of his heinous crime, it’s fallen to a trio of eclectic, but dedicated, ghost hunters — Jacob, the holy man; Holland, the skeptic; and their leader, Del, a true believer in the occult and worlds beyond — to surveil the abandoned McCabe home in search of proof for the existence of the undead and whatever supernatural source may have possibly fueled McCabe’s inhuman massacre. After the team dissolves in the aftermath of the investigation, it is clear their lives are affected. One mysteriously jumps from a window, another gets institutionalized for her babbling visions, and the third begins seeking holy vengeance to appease the dead, only to become more monstrous himself. What they discover won’t just affect their lives but will have drastic consequences that will affect the entire country.
Conrad’s writing is exceptional. The characters are clearly motivated, and the way the antagonist is able to twist and manipulate those motivations is disturbing to watch. However, it’s Dave Chisholm’s artwork that propels this book. Chisholm’s images are graphic, gorey, and blood-soaked. His use of color, especially muted palates with violent stains of red, creates violent and arresting visuals that advance the tale and drive home the themes of bloodlust. Plague House is an exceptional horror graphic novel, one both haunting and visually disturbing in equal measures, and should find its place on the shelf of any horror fan.
