Go ahead. Let out your inner monster. We’re all friends here.

What makes a monster? Is it a strange and horrific physiology? A cruel and vicious disposition? A malevolent and otherworldly air? Perhaps the answers lie under your bed. In the deep, dark woods. Behind your eyes. Monsters lurk everywhere, and you will find them aplenty—from the deceptively adorable to the mind-breakingly incomprehensible, from the fantastical to the all-too-real—within this installment of Humanoids’ celebrated genre anthology, Metal Hurlant.

Inside this 272-page monster of a tome: an interview with writer/director/producer Brian Yuzna (Society, Bride of Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead 3), a study of Noël Carroll’s taxonomy of monsters, a brief walk through the enduring legacy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and 25 tales of magnificent monstrosity from these terrifyingly talented comics creators