BOWLING WITH CORPSES AND OTHER STRANGE TALES FROM LANDS UNKNOWN / Script and Art by MIKE MIGNOLA / Colors by DAVE STEWART / Letters by CLEM ROBINS / Published by DARK HORSE COMICS

The word mythology is often thrown around in relation to comics. They have been called our modern mythology and indeed there is a great supehero RPG with that name. While I agree one could make a case for this, charting the Justice League to the Olympian pantheon, I do think the term has become somewhat overused. And yet there is no other word to describe what Mike Mignola wrought with Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown but mythology.

In the afterward of this collection, Mignola describes his process as a writer and how he normally builds a world around a character. This time, he did the opposite, taking images from different folktales that resonated with him and bending the stories in new directions. The end result is a book of twisted tales from a world that’s resemblance to Medieval Earth is passing at best.

The opening story, Bowling With Corpses, is a prime example of this. Its inspiration lies in an Italian folk tale, where a young man does indeed bowl with the undead. Mignola builds upon this base to put a new spin on the story of the young man seeking his fortune.

Mignola knows the tropes of classic fairy tales and knows how to work against them. The other tales in this volume play out in similar fashion. There are wise men, brave soldiers, pirate queens and fae folk. Their stories, however, are far from typical.

What is typical, however, is the care and craft that Mignola puts into his stories and his artwork. He is in fine form here, and well backed by Dave Stewart and Clem Robins. The artwork, alien and disturbing as it is at times, is wonderfully weird. Fans of Hellboy will be on familiar ground, though this is not set in the same universe.

Mignola states that this is only the first volume of tales from his lands unknown. He says he will have more comics like this to publish and tales to tell so long as Dark Horse will allow him to do so. For his sake, and for ours, I hope they agree that this volume is as good as I think it is.