Hellboy goes to 1850s Mexico in new Dark Horse compilation

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is doing some traveling in his next trade edition coming next week from Dark Horse Comics. In 1856 the red, brick-armed, demon with sawed-off horns called Hellboy journeyed across Mexico in a five-month blur of drinking with wrestlers and fighting along the way against monsters. A few months later some agents found him blacked out in a bar near Morales. This is Hellboy In Mexico, Hellboy’s own Lost Weekend story. It’s a good assemblage of funny encounters in nicely creepy locales.

Mignola serves as writer and creator of the stories, with artwork by Mignola, Richard Corben, Mick McMahon, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, and color work by Dave Stewart. Corben’s work really shines. He evokes the elaborate styling of Alex Niño in his Aztec environments, while Corben’s version of Dr. Frankenstein has a crazed Robert Crumb quality. Mignola’s style is a constant, and his work–and the entire book–is a great start point for anyone who thinks they might like the character, or fans of the two Hellboy movies.

Vampire hunting with luchadores, searching for Aztec gods, fighting evil turkeys and Frankenstein’s monster, drinking way too much tequila, and a bad marriage–this is one of Hellboy’s strangest, and maybe even one of the best, collections of his adventures so far. Check out a preview below after the break.

The new book includes Hellboy in Mexico, House of the Living Dead, and the stories “Hellboy versus the Aztec Mummy,” “Hellboy Gets Married,” and “The Coffin Man 2: The Rematch” from Dark Horse Presents, and “The Coffin Man” from the Hellboy 20th Anniversary Sampler. You’ll also find a sketchbook appendix and full-color cover art from earlier versions of the stories.

Here’s a preview courtesy of Dark Horse Comics: