5 out of 5

More one-shot goodness from the Mignolaverse, and another exuberant outing for Richard Corben in the HB toybox.

What I love, here, is that Mike and Rich accomplish this amazingness without a lot of the typical (but lovable) BOOM punchiness that makes these standalone adventures pulpy fun; I’m in favor of that stuff, but it’s really encouraging to see how Hellboy tales can work without it.  Yes, a whole bunch of stuff gets destroyed and monsters are smacked into dust, it just has a very fresh flavor to it.

True to the impression left by its title, Double Feature has two stories, with a wraparound frame of zombie-types ‘watching’ (we can assume) these stories in a dusty ol’ theatre.  The first of the two, and the bulk of the issue, is a fantastic haunted house story, that takes notes from things you’ve heard before but is just timed and characterized so excellently by our creators that it’s a joy to read.  Story two rather humorously kicks of en media res with a museum worker abusing his knowledge to possess some mummies and try to make off with a damsel, but for HB’s interruption and a grand ol’ ‘that’s how it goes’ smirk of an ending.

Corbs is – as he has been more often than not on these books – incredibly on point throughout, and would seem, as told by his energetic pages, to be having as much of a kick with this stuff as we are.