………..Hellboy: House of the Living Dead – Mike Mignola………..

3 crampons out of 5

In his Hellboy one-shots, Mignola has, as of late, been freed of the increasingly heavy narrative that’s been building in Hellboy / BPRD titles, and that remains true in ‘House of the Living Dead.’ But what made early Hellboy and makes the current one-shots entertaining is, in part, their brevity, and as such, expanding on the formula for this mini graphic novel ends up feeling like a stunted tale, neither long enough to be affecting or short enough to read leisurely.

Still, it’s drawn by Corben, so if you’ve liked his previous takes on the big red one, you won’t be disappointed, as there’s plenty of Corbenness within.

This basically functions as an expansion of the Mexican wrestler one-shot Corben drew for Hellboy not too long ago. Mignola adds to that tale in a funny enough fashion and then, in the last third of the book, pushes it toward some monster movie stuff. Hellboy plot lines tend to bring in a lot of mythology and so I wouldn’t accuse them of being straight-forward, but part of the averageness of this tale is that the story is just bonkers all over the place. As soon as you settle into a direction, it zips toward something else that only sort of fits in with what you’re reading.

So it was probably a pleasure book for both the writer and artist. It’s a handsome looking book, and the colors are very rich on higher quality stock than in a regular Dark Horse issue. It’s not tied to the direct storyline, but I figure if you’re reading HB you’re probably reading it all and you’ll pick this up anyway. Overall, don’t expect this to be the Holy Grail – despite the presentation, it’s a pretty average read.