Hellboy’s Winter Special in stores this week

Tis the season for carols, lights, and the big guy in red. Of course, when you’re talking Dark Horse Comics, that means Hellboy.

Time for a good ghost story

“There is a long tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas,” said legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. “I love ghost stories more than just about anything and I love that Christmas time of year so I wanted to do my bit to carry on that tradition.”

Mike Mignola

Odd as it is for me, I don’t think I’ve ever read a Hellboy Winter Special. I know there’ve been a few, and I’m a big fan of Mignola’s heroic hellion, but for some reason I’ve never caught it.

I think I’m in the minority there though, since the newest edition apparently has quite a bit of enthusiasm behind it. Landing in stores this week, the Hellboy Winter Special promises a trio of tales that’ll leave you frozen in fright.

• In “Happy New Year, Ava Gallucci,” writer Mike Mignola, artist Ben Stenbeck and colorist Dave Stewart team-up for a New Year’s Eve séance gone wrong when Hellboy visits a family’s English home;
• In “Lost Ones” celebrated cartoonists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá revisit the acclaimed B.P.R.D.: Vampire; for a haunting, midnight ceremony;
• And in “The Empty Chair,” acclaimed artist Tonci Zonjic returns to write and draw a Lobster Johnson tale of mobsters, mayhem and murder at the holidays.