Legal Comics Downloads

Most indie publishers offer at the very least a six or seven page teaser of their issues. Some that really self-publish will offer a digitial version for download (I "think" comics published through lulu generally offer a digital version). Usually the digital version is cheaper than the print version.

As for the tone, you might wanna check out Hard Way Studios and Alterna Comics. They are working on their own things and doing some things together.

One of the titles is Morbid Myths. The idea was to do stories like from The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hickcock Presents, with a liberal spash of horror. It's anthology style, so you can see one to two self-contained stories in an issue. Some might have arcs that cross issues, or recurring characters, but generally you can pick up an issue and leap in.

Morbid Myths started as pretty much a self-published project (with digital version) by Hard Way, then was picked up by Alterna who planned on making the book quarterly, but promotion, sales and a listing in the Wizard "Top 40 Indies you should know" helped it get a bi-monthly pick-up.

I know one of the writers for the series very well and I think he's an awesome guy (can ya guess who? ). I won't link, because that might look like a shameless plug, but you can google both companies and you'll see what they are doing. Might be just what you are looking for.