Halloween Reads 2020

It has finally cooled down over here in Yonago, Japan, after a late and hot end to the summer. The leaves are starting to fall and we can feel autumn in the air. This time of the year is one of my favourite times for reading and I like to bring in a Halloween theme to my selections for October.

I don’t read as much horror as I used to. As I get older, I find that I enjoy weird fiction more than the gore-soaked horror of my teenage years. So, what exactly is weird fiction? Instead of consulting wikipedia, here is a brief definition from Penguin Random House:

 “It’s a literary style that can blend speculative fiction with elements of horror, fantasy, magical realism, Lovecraftian Cosmicism, and others to create a genre that is surreal and deeply unnerving.” 

Hellboy: Wake the Devil (1996) by Mike Mignola

“I sought the dark behind the stars.”

Wake the Devil follows on from the first Hellboy mini-series, Seed of Destruction. Written and drawn by Mike Mignola, this five-part story takes Hellboy from a wax museum in New York to an ancient Romanian castle. He is on the trail of the missing corpse of a nobleman who was rumored to have worked with Hitler during WWII. Assisted by BPRD agents Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman, Hellboy must uncover the conspiracy behind the theft of the body and shed light on his own mysterious beginnings.

The Nazis from Seed of Destruction are back. This time they are planning to resurrect a Romanian vampire in the hope of creating an army of bloodsuckers. The Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defense gets wind of the plan and sends Hellboy with a couple of agents to investigate. Their journey will take them across the world to Eastern Europe where powerful and deadly forces lie in wait.

Hellboy, Vol.1: Seed of Destruction (1994) by Mike Mignola & John Byrne

“I’d be the first to admit that I have no shortage of faults. But if I had to pick one, the one that’s gotten me into the most trouble over the years … it would be that I sometimes get angry.”

-Hellboy by Mike Mignola & John Byrne

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This is the first Hellboy story and was my first experience of Mike Mignola’s work. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys comic book horror with a good dose of Lovecraft. The artwork is excellent; it’s very atmospheric and the limited colour palette with a focus on red and black adds to this.