The jewel in the crown

I'm just back from a week on the continent, where I sipped cocktails and watched polo matches and slept in the bed of a member of the British royal family. But never mind all that; it's another story. What made the homecoming a pleasure, despite the water torture of an English summer after the dazzling blue skies of France, was the waiting parcel of Dark Horse titles from Avalon Comics, formerly my local comics store on Lavender Hill but now a mail order business with a difference. (Try them, you won't be disappointed.)

Any visit to the Mignolaverse is a treat, but this package of titles really stood out. "Being Human" in Hellboy 54 is another quantum of perfection from the team of Mike Mignola and Richard Corben. We previously had "The Crooked Man", which must be one of the spookiest stories ever. And "Hellboy in Mexico", in which the big red boy took on a masked wrestler who was the avatar of an Aztec bat-god, followed by the deliriously Weird Tales-y "Sullivan's Reward". Mignola's writing seems to inspire Corben to attain the very pinnacle of his art; having Corben there to realize his imaginings spurs Mignola to create stories that really matter. And when you have those two guys working at the top of their game, it really doesn't get any better than that.

Another treat in the package was the latest outing for Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder. The story itself in this case isn't anything special. Sir Edward himself is unconvincing as a character and, perhaps recognizing that, Mignola uses the story as a showcase for a bunch of new cowboy characters. It's like that old episode of Star Trek where Roddenberry was trying to set up a spy series spin-off. But any tiredness in the storytelling is more than redeemed by the art of comics legend John Severin, now pushing ninety and still able to conjure up atmosphere and drama with the best of them. It's actually the simpler touches that I like in Severin's art, like this:

But there's no denying that his action drawings have extraordinary power too:

A good scare

Over on the brilliant Cloud 109 blog, Peter Richardson has been running some veritable comics classics, with today's offering being a tense little drama from the pages of Creepy drawn by the legendary Richard Corben. In a career that has produced some truly great strips, Corben's standout story has to be "The Crooked Man" from Hellboy #33-35. Horror comics are at best usually intriguing rather than truly frightening, but this story (written by the equally gifted Mike Mignola) has chills to spare. It benefits from being inspired by the Silver John stories of Manly Wade Wellman, who drew on North American folklore to whip up some yarns that are so nightmarishly disturbing that you want to look away but you can't, you just can't. If you're into comics that push the boundaries, seek it out - but don't blame me for the sleepless nights.