Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others

The Crooked Man

The Crooked Man  , scripted by Mignola with art by Richard Corben , was first published from July 2008 through September 2008 as issues 1-3 of an eponymous limited series . The issues were numbered 33 through 35 of the overarching Hellboy series.

Synopsis

Wandering in the Appalachian Mountains in 1958, Hellboy Encounters Tom Ferrell, a native of the region returning to the world for the first time in his life. Ferrell has never practiced magic but carries a “witch-bone” which has gotten him safely through his travels. They befriend Cora Fisher, a witch driven by personal tragedy, and encounter Effie Kolb, the youthful-appearing witch who first induces Tom, and who brings him back to his horse. . Tom resolves to take over the corpse of his father to a church in “The Hurricane,” a part of the mountain dominated by “The Crooked Man,”Hell to be the region’s own version of the Devil . Tom invites along Hellboy and also Cora whose soul he hopes to save from the Crooked Man – “It’s too late for me.” He’s gonna  have  me – but if I can do right by her and my pa somethin. ”

Tom and Hellboy discusses the burden Hellboy is carrying the burden of Tomorrow. They try to take Cora through a region of coal mines since 1902 collapse the mines had been infested with deformed cannibal witches descended from the Roanokecolony. Cora can hear the witches calling her. Tom tells Cora they’re safe while it’s daylight in the Hurricane they’re “on the devil’s time” and night falls immediately. Cora explodes into a shower of small demonic animals Tom and Hellboy are only saved by Tom’s first use of his witch-bone. They arrive at the church to find out, and the church’s pastor, blind Reverend Watts, who tries to persuade Tom that whatever he’s done he can still be saved. Effie and the region’s witches surround the church grounds which they can not enter, calling to Ferrell to join them. The Crooked Man arrives.

There is a brief interlude how-to page where a witch named Grammy Oakum and his cat teaches the reader about how to create witchball projectiles for cursing enemies and the damning process oneself to Hell.

Back at the church Witkins calls in demanding Tom pays him his debt. Reverend Watts confronts Witkins and is tempted with stacks of gold for rebuilding his church, and with the return of his youth and his sight. Witkins sends the coffins of the graveyard’s more evil residents. Watts prays, successfully, to be made old and blind again. The Crooked Man Reminds Hellboy de son demonic origins: “Be a sport, reach over there and Tom’s neck snap for me Fetch me That Lucky bone of his, and come on outta there We’ll-have a..  Good ol time! “Learning that the bone is what Witkins is after, Watts takes Tom’s hand containing the bone and squeezes the holy spirit into it – they burn a cross to the blade of a shovel and give it to Hellboy (” That fella’s got a hard road ahead of him, and  no end of trouble … let him get some licks in while he can. “) who dispatches Witkins with it The witches go fleeing, and in the morning with Tom’s father buried in the churchyard, Tom and Hellboy go to Wikins’ mansion to Witkins can not get away from it all, but it’s not easy to find the souls of the dead. BEWARE! BEWARE! I AM A WITCH! ”

They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships

“They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships”, written by Mignola and Josh Dysart with art by Jason Shawn Alexander , was published by Dark Horse in 2007 for the release of Konami ‘s  Hellboy: The Science of Evil  video game. The story Hellboy and Abe Sapien against the ghost of the pirate Blackbeard . The title is from Psalm 107 : “They are going to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters.

Synopsis

Newburyport, Massachusetts , 1986 – Marc Arrow, a Fortune Waterfront Fortune, finds a skull in an antique shop when the firm containing it spontaneously topples over-touching it’s way to its first-of-its-kind psychic vision and so he kills the proprietor with a handy sextant and steals it. A month later the BPRD are staking out North Carolina ‘s Ocracoke Island , the antique dealer’s ghost (communicating via medium) HAVING tipped ’em off to the theft of What They Realize is the skull of the legendary pirate. A walkie-talkie carrying Abe SapienA Blackbeard’s Headshot, a Blackbird’s Headhole, a Blackbird’s Headhole, a Blackbird’s Headhole macabre drinking goblet. Marc has partnered with criminal Whitey Pacelli to bring back to the island, and when Marc insists to negotiating with him, Whitey shoots him. His partner dead, Whitewave to the head for ransom goal Blackbeard’s body bisects him with a cutlass. Hellboy confronts the re-formed Blackbeard and is shot in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Abe finds his way to the body of one of Blackbeard’s victims. They swim off after Blackbeard and Abe follows. Hellboy punches off Blackbeard’s head and the body almost kills the time when he reaches for it. Hellboy and Blackbeard fight in the water and Blackbeard invites Hellboy to join him as a pirate, to which Hellboy replies with a deadpan “Let me think about it.” Blackbeard’s Dead Victims Ride Around Blackbeard and Dreaded Water – Abe, who has swum to the location, sees Blackbeard’s body pulled into the depths, its head dragged down behind a screaming stream of bubbles. Greeting Greeting Hellboy who comments “Everybody loves a pirate,” and they head back to the mainland.

In The Chapel of Moloch

In The Chapel of Moloch  , story and art by Mignola, was first published in October 2008 as a one-shot issue of Hellboy.

Synopsis

Tavira, Portugal , 1992. Hellboy and a New York art promoter Jerry, an American painter intended to be preparing for an important gallery show. Jerry has been working in the old chapel attached to the premises, but has stopped painting and turned to a gigantic bull-headed humanoid in the clay which (based on his now-incoherent mumblings) depicts the deity Moloch . At night when the sculpts, the non-lockable chapel doors will not open yet. Jerry is asleep in the house as they investigate the chapel, Jerry’s paintings, and Hellboy notes that Jerry is “ripping off Goya, “Jerry, who is reappropriating Goya, is saving Goya’s ass!” which Hellboy seems to find unconvincing.Helsewhere in the chapel he finds a mark of the Knights of St. Hagan (a fictional analogue to the Knights Templar) of the spell left by their investigators at sites where they are stamped out of serious occult practice. The two wait inside the chapel for Jerry to arrive. When he does, a tiny hunched climbs climbs up onto his shoulders from a hole in the floor. As it whispers to Jerry (who begins to decorate the sculpture with a motif of bodies in fire), Hellboy produces a relic from his pockets, “a silver button from the coat Bishop Zrinyi was wearing a Carpathian goat” and tosses it goes into the eye, lighting up the inside of its skull and making it run in agony. As the corpse topples senseless back to its hole, the Moloch statue comes to life and Hellboy readies to destroy it while re-awakened Jerry shouts “I do not do it!

The Mole

“The Mole”  , written by Mignola with art by Duncan Fegredo , was first published in the 2008 Free Comic Book Free Hellboy comic book. It takes place shortly before  Hellboy: Darkness Calls  .

Synopsis

England , the home of Darkness Calls’ Harry Middleton. A drunken Hellboy is playing cards with Middleton and two other ghosts, who reads a book on his hand. He wakes up alone at the table to find that the mole has gotten bigger. It quickly swells to its own size and reveals to another demon, who emerges from the boil leaving nothing of Hellboy and his apocalyptically powerful stone right hand. Hellboy’s skin tears away from the hand and blows out the window, finally coming to rest on a weathervane across town. Left alone in the room, the demon takes the place of the world. At that moment Hellboy awakens, for this time, back at the table. He emptied his shotglass, and, reassuring himself that it was “just a dream,” refills it.

Addenda

The collected edition featured in a section of Dysart’s, Mignola’s and Corben’s preparatory sketches for the collected stories, and an essay by John Pelan entitled ” Manly Wade Wellman : American Mythmaker,” introducing readers to the pulp writer to whom  The Crooked Man  was written in tribute .

References