Hellboy: Winter Special 2019

Dark Horse Comics

Writers: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Scott Allie

Artists: Márk László, Leila Del Duca, Andrea Mutti

Christmas. A time of the year that we’re told is about showing goodwill towards our fellow man. A more cynical view would be that it’s about marketing and sales but I think it’s important that people, especially children are regularly reminded of the importance of generosity and consideration for others. This latest Hellboy Winter anthology aims to do this with work from a wide variety of artists and writers. The special contains 3 shorts, “The miser’s gift”, “The longest night” and “The beast of Engelheim”. Let’s see whether they’re any good.

The first short story, “The miser’s gift” is written by Hellboy founder Mike Mignola with art by
Márk László. It’s incredible. This is the only short where Hellboy appears and he’s a minor character but it’s an impressive read. Mignola crafts a simple story in which a young man stumbles upon a strange street and helps an old man carry his bags. It’s Hellboy so it can’t be too simple and the old man, the titular miser turns out to be a spirit who forces a coin on the young man as payment. This all leads to Hellboy helping the young man return the coin and it’s really heart-warming.

The miser is cynical, believing they’ve come to steal from him and he attacks but the moment where he realises the truth is the heart of this story. This set of panels is the highlight of this book and I can’t praise the art here enough. We see this flaming spirit die down into a weak old man, so grateful that he bursts into tears. It’s a poignant reminder of how important human kindness is, especially at this time of year.

Our second short is the weakest of the three. “The longest night” is basically the final chapters of a whodunnit. The art by Leila del Duca is decent enough but Chris Roberson’s writing is the weak point. There’s just not really much going on. We start off with a little bit of exposition about how the locals use their housefires to repel a monster stalking the area. You can probably see where this is going. From there we hear that a man has been murdered and we see a woman identifying that murderer in a crowded room. It’s not really anything that special and as you might expect the culprit flees and the monster eats him. It’s not a bad short but it’s very unremarkable, especially in comparison to the other two in this book.

Finally, we have “The beast of Engelheim”, written by Scott Allie with solid artwork by Andrea Mutti. Another simple story but with significantly more depth than “The longest night”. This one focuses on a priest recounting his younger days of hunting those who his religion branded as evil. In this case, some animals and a person have been torn apart and the priest and his men track the creature responsible to a small log cabin. Here they find that the culprit is a baby wolfman. It’s a brief but effective story about realising your own prejudice as the priest and his men are stunned by this revelation. They’d assumed a monster to be responsible rather than an innocent child and the panel of them leaving the cabin with their heads bowed in shame is quite powerful.

Overall, two out of three ain’t bad. The Hellboy winter special for 2019 is a solid read, even if it technically released in 2020. You’re getting great art all throughout this book with Márk László being the standout. Mike Mignola is still a mind-blowing writer and his work along with Scott Allie’s more than makes up for the somewhat disappointing turn by Chris Roberson. I highly recommend picking this issue up if you get the chance.