"Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things", independent comic series, written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh
Dark, Gothic Fantasy set in the 21st century.
Edward Gorey
One of Ted Naifeh's directly quoted inspirations, Edward Gorey, has inspired similar gorthic works and Lemony Snicket's Tales, "A Series of Unfortunate Events".
"When I was first writing 'A Series of Unfortunate Events,' I was wandering around everywhere saying, 'I am a complete rip-off of Edward Gorey,' and everyone said, 'Who's that?' Now, everyone says, 'That's right, you are a complete rip-off of Edward Gorey." - Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)
Shapes, color use, and line style feels like a gothic variation of "Eloise".
Basic plot: Young girl with an unstable support system and parents too dead set on adapting themselves to their new classist suburban surroundings to function as emotionally mature or avalible caregivers. Moves in with her reclusive, esoteric great uncle only to discover he and the house are entangled with the world of the Night Things, malicious creatures, goblin, and fae from traditional european folklore.
Also see, short poem, "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti
Folklore and fairtails have been funtionally used as consequential warning and to tell moral lessons about the real world. [Modern narrative game choices often serve this same purpose.]
Each chapter follows a relatively simple format, starting with Courtney's encounter with the Night Things. The encounter usually funtions as a direct interruption or obstacle at her attempts at normalicy, (IE the kid from your babysitting gig getting stolen and replaced by changlings), and are often paired with illustion of choice. (Moral Responsibility vs Ignorance and Self Preservation). A combination of wit and her knowlege of the night things, usually stemming from her grandfathers unpermitted reasearch, resolves the interuption and she is pulled back into normalicy. Each loop drives her further into the world of the night things before she, her Great Uncle can temporarily unsnarl her from the night world.
This narrative trope using the 'monster compendium', can also be seen within Gravity Falls, Fablehaven, How to Train Your Dragon, where the protagonist has a physical log about a creature and world they use as a guiding tool against encounters. These encounters additionally serve to approve or disprove the origional log, usually both relying on the information and the readers ability to interpret, adapt, or fill in the blanks. This is similar to characters using logs to learn and encounter a magic system in any classic fantasy trope, (think of litrally any Witches, Wizards, and Mage centered media off the top of your head).
There are many ways the monster compendium already intersects with different forms of play. For example, via Player vs Enemy (Undertale gameplay loop and setup) or even more directly via exploration and discovery centered play (Subnautica, Pokemon, Slime Rancher)... uhhh more to think about for later possibly