Avatar Press is an independent American comic book publisher founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois.

Later the company became better known for publishing particularly violent titles by popular and critically acclaimed writers such as Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Jonathan Hickman, and Kieron Gillen.

[17][18] Ellis's 2007 title Black Summer, about a superhero assassinating the President of the United States, garnered a cover story from American Prospect magazine.

[21] Avatar also licensed comic book adaptations of famous science-fiction and horror movies and television shows, such as RoboCop, Stargate, Night of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

[22] The company launched the comic book and pop culture news site Bleeding Cool in 2009 with Rich Johnston as head writer and Mark Seiffert as managing editor.

In need of quick money to pay a tax bill, Moore created a new comic book mini-series for Avatar called Neonomicon.

Much of what Moore says will be his final comics work before retiring from the medium was published by Avatar Press, including Crossed +100, Providence, and Cinema Purgatorio.

[26] Avatar continued to expand its line-up of titles from high profile writers in the early 2010s, adding books like Kieron Gillen's Uber and Jonathan Hickman's God Is Dead, both in 2013.

"[27] In 2013, Delano said he wouldn't do any " and further work for Avatar after the company sold a "torture" variant cover depicting sexual violence towards women for an issue of Crossed he wrote.