HELLBOY AND THE BPRD: HER FATAL HOUR/ Story by MIKE MIGNOLA/ Art & Cover by TIERNEN TREVALLION/ Colors by DAVE STEWART/ Letters by CLEM ROBINS/ Variant Cover by MIKE MIGNOLA & DAVE STEWART/ Published by DARK HORSE COMICS

Hellboy and the BPRD: Her Fatal Hour and The Sending is a one-shot installment furthering the mythos of our favorite red guy: Hellboy. This issue drops with two separate vignettes from the history of Hellboy. While both make for fast reads, neither story lacks for content, adventure, or intrigue!

The first story is called “Her Fatal Hour” and sees us in 1979. Hellboy is sleeping off his most recent adventure in his room at the BPRD headquarters with a succinct note taped to his door: “DO NOT DISTURB!” In his slumber he is summoned to France by a woman named Nadya, leaving a wooden puppet in his Connecticut bed. In her youth, Nadya fell in love with a man and her grandmother did not approve. This grandmother is Violca, the old Romani woman from “The Beast of Vargu.” 

Shortly before her death, Violca ran off Nadya’s suitor, but not before he promised to return for her after ten years. Now, on the eve of the promised nuptials, Nadya calls in the debt Hellboy owes Violca in hopes of being released from the grasp of her suitor.

The second story is called “The Standing.” Taking place somewhere in England in 1991, Hellboy finds himself investigating the disturbance of a residential library by some horrible creature! After interviewing the family members, a secret library is discovered within the home and the wait begins. We learn that the creature is after an artifact that may or may not have been stolen by the previous owner of the house before he died.

Told only as Mignola can, each story is delivered with the attitude and humor that all Hellboy fans have come to love. From strange women teleporting him in his sleep without the comfort of pants to grabby mummy-things trying to steal stuff from him, the unexpected is taken in stride.

Tiernen Trevallion has the unenviable task of recreating the world of Hellboy through the lens of Mignola’s unique vision. He completes this without error, while ensuring his own fingerprints can be seen in the story. With the muted glory of Dave Stewart’s colors, we are delivered a gift that would be welcome in any library.

What I love most about having these stories released in bite-sized chunks is the versatility of the narrative. While the stories have a definitive year during which their events take place, each is designed to be consumed à la carte. This enables the reader to enjoy the stories in just about any order with necessary flashbacks keeping you on the road to entertainment. Longtime Hellboy fans and newbies will find this issue equally enjoyable.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Her Fatal Hour and The Sending will be available at your Local Comic Shop on Wednesday, December 2^nd, 2020!