Hellboy, Vol. 10: The Crooked Man and Others
As a collection of one-off stories, this is a nice volume for the Hellboy-curious to get a good sense of Mignola’s flexible, occult-centric storytelling in a variety of milieus. The centerpiece has Hellboy wandering the Appalachians, where he wanders into what amounts to an old folk tale of witchy possession and other devilish backwoods Americana-horror come to life, marvelously drawn by frequent collaborator Richard Corben. Another story pits Hellboy and Abe Sapien against the ghost of Blackbeard trying to reunite with his lost skull. In addition, Mignola, who focuses primarily on writing these days, draws one here, too, which is always a treat. --Ian Chipman