With Halloween just a few days away, you're gonna need some spooky stuff to read, right? Luckily, Dark Horse Comics has you covered with two new releases from creator, Mike Mignola.
The first is a brand-new Hellboy one-shot entitled Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Long Night at Goloski Station. Set in Russia, circa 1967, the comic finds the world's greatest paranormal investigator hoping to rendezvous with a professor only to find himself contending with decapitated werewolf heads and backstabbing demons. For longtime readers, there's also some nice little nods to the character's previous eye-gouging encounter with the Baba Yaga.
"When I think about Russia-the Russia of my imagination (no modern politics please)-I think of snow and forests and werewolves. That's just me," Mignola said in a statement. "And a remote little train station somewhere, late at night, in my Russia, seems like just the kind of place you are sure to run into a werewolf. Unless, of course, a Russian werewolf hunter happens to get there first. That's pretty the string of thoughts that ran through my head and led to this story. I figure there have to be other guys who wander through this world of mine, hunting down monsters, and every once in a while, Hellboy should just get a chance to sit on a porch somewhere and chat with one of them."
Written by Mike, Long Night at Goloski Station was drawn by Matt Smith, who makes his world debut in the "Mignolaverse" with this book.
"As far as recollecting my experience working on this book, the main thing I think about is reading that script for the first time: soaking in the great atmosphere of the story and being able to picture the look of the characters," Smith said. "Mike had written such a great new character in Yad, the werewolf hunter, that my first move was to run though a bunch of sketches trying to capture his tone-ranging from a certain kind of grim cheerfulness to deadly serious. Working with Mike and the editors at Dark Horse, Katii and Jenny, couldn't have been a better experience. I sure had a great time working on it, and I hope the people who pick up the book have a great time reading it."
Dark Horse was generous enough to provide Forbes Entertainment with the first five interior pages from the one-shot. You can see them exclusively below:
Long Night at Goloski Station goes on sale this Wednesday, Oct. 30. Dave Stewart handled the colors and Clem Robins did the lettering.
But wait! There's more! The Hellboy one-shot was just the appetizer, folks. The main course is actually Our Encounters with Evil: Adventures of Professor J.T. Meinhardt and His Assistant Mr. Knox.
This follow-up to Mr. Higgins Comes Home(2017) continues the adventures of a monster-hunting group fronted by the Holmesian J.T. Meinhardt. At his side, are Mr. Knox and the vampire hunter known as Ms. Mary Van Sloan.
Mignola, who drew the front cover, hands off the writing and interior artwork reigns to Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, the original illustrator for Mr. Higgins. His personal style is hauntingly unique and vaguely reminiscent of the art seen in Emily Carroll's viral comic, His Face All Red.
"Professor Meinhardt and Mr. Knox are vampire hunters. It's their day job (with night shifts)," Warwick said. "'Vampire hunters' is a broad description, as they have to deal with the varied multitudinous Hordes of Evil. In Our Encounters With Evil ... we take a peep into their endeavors over three short stories: A tale of vampire vengeance, one about the perpetual persistence of evil, and one of a hunter of vampire hunters. We first met the Professor and Mr. Knox in Mr. Higgins Comes Home, and here (occasionally accompanied by the formidable Mary Van Sloan) we get a broader view of the strange, gory, gothic world they work in so we don't have to."
"Warwick is a genius. It's pretty much as simple as that," added Mignola. "Shortly after we did Mr. Higgins Comes Home, he sent me a list of story ideas for a potential follow-up. They were all great, and I told him, 'Yes-you should do them all.' And then I just got out of his way and watched him go. I'm so happy to see this series (this world) go on, and I hope it continues for a very long time."
Check out the cover and five exclusive interior pages below...
Our Encounters with Evil hits stands on Tuesday, Nov. 26. A true renaissance man of the comic book medium, Johnson-Caldwell also did the coloring. Clem Robbins handled letters.
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