In May of 2010, Mike Mignola and Richard Corben were the writer
and artist on a one-shot 32-pager Hellboy in Mexico, which I reviewed in my Hellboy in Mexico post.
Hellboy: House of the Living Dead, is a direct sequel to
that one-shot, in a hardcover graphic novel format that clocks in at a whopping
56 pages! Mignola admits in his forward to the graphic novel that it was written
as a love letter to the Universal horror movies of the 40’s: House of
Frankenstein and House of Dracula. The story begins with Hellboy drinking in a
bar, devastated over the loss of his luchador comrade to vampires. Hellboy is
soon coerced into participating in an ultimate wrestling match with a massive
Frankenstein-like monster! That is only the beginning of this madcap story of
Hellboy’s fight and eventual confrontation with vampires, a mummy and a werewolf!
Mignola’s writing is terse and intense as always and Corben’s artwork is
perfectly suited to the wild visual needs of the many fantastic creatures and
settings of this graphic novel. If I have any complaints with this graphic
novel is the steep price of $14.99. Even at 56 pages, it is still a fairly
quick read – even for someone like me, who likes to linger over fantastic art. I
did not purchase this at my comic shop (where I buy all my Hellboy comics), because
of the price; but instead asked for it as a Christmas present. It was a
wonderful gift and I have no doubts that I’ll be reading this again – along with
its prequel – in the near future!
ComicBookResources.com did an interview with Mignola about Hellboy:
House of the Living Dead several months before its publication. Here are a few
brief exerts:
CBR: What made you want to return to this time in HB's life?
MIGNOLA: It was so much fun doing the first one! When I did
the first one-issue comic, at the end Hellboy mentions that he doesn't remember
what happened the rest of the time he was in Mexico. That was really going to
be it, but then I just thought, the beauty of a chunk of time that he doesn't
remember -- either he doesn't remember or he says he doesn't remember because
he doesn't want to tell anybody what happened -- that's a great period to tell
stories, because you can do the craziest stuff and maybe it really didn't
happen, maybe he was so drunk he thought this is what happened. It kind of took
on a life of its own.
This story, I made up because I saw how much fun Richard had
doing the "Hellboy in Mexico" stuff and I wanted to do a Hellboy in
Mexico story, so I made up this story for me -- and then realized it would be
so much better drawn by Richard. So I turned it over to him. I've actually
plotted a couple more stories that take place in this chunk of time. So it's
really that whole lost weekend. Five months in Mexico is going to be a
significant chunk of Hellboy stories.
CBR: Aside from Hellboy being upset about what's happened to
his luchador friend, what's going on in "House of the Living Dead?"
Then go out and beg, borrow or steal – okay, go out and buy
a copy and read Hellboy: House of the Living Dead!