4 out of 5

All of the house Hellboy artists have offered up choice takes on the world, but Scott Hampton nailed the horror.  One of his (I think) only two Mignolaverse appearances, The Sleeping and the Dead, had me hoping that Hampton might be a returning sight; his heavy use of blacks align it with the general vibe of the series, but his realism-dashed characters and water-colory grey tones edge it toward a classic, black-and-white vibe.  Horror has often taken a backseat in HB to lore and pulp, but these issues are a nice reminder that all of the mythology Mignola pulls from can be mighty spooky.

The Sleeping and the Dead is mostly a vampire tale, starting in media res with HB (in 1966) in the midst of a sting to take down a particular bloodsucker, then following her and, intercepted by an old man, hearing about her strange and unfortunate history.  But this isn’t the story-telling dump that Mike occasionally hits us with: it’s a brief, to the point, emotional recollection, and then we’re right back in the mess, with some other B.P.R.D. agents showing up to spar with legions of undead that happen to be woken up by the scuffle.

Hampton gives one vampire too much of a real-life reference, making him stick out, and his panels are very close cropped, which can make some of the action hard to read.  But The Sleeping and the Dead is one of the rare HB books that manage to tie Mike’s generally succinct storytelling to an actually frightening atmosphere.