I Read Hellboy Out of Order... It's Working. Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others – Review

By now, I've accepted that my journey through the Mignolaverse is never going to be in chronological order. Honestly... I don't think I care anymore. Every collection I've picked up has offered something completely different, and The Crooked Man and Others might be the strongest one yet.

This isn't just another collection of monster stories. It's folklore, horror, ghost stories and dark fantasy wrapped together with some of the most atmospheric artwork I've seen in a comic. It’s Appalachian Horror done right

The headline act here is The Crooked Man, and it's easy to see why so many Hellboy fans rate it among the character's best stories. Instead of relying on giant monsters or world-ending stakes, the story digs into Appalachian folklore, witchcraft, curses and old-fashioned superstition. It feels authentic, almost like someone found an old campfire tale and quietly slipped Hellboy into the middle of it. Tom Ferrell is a fantastic companion for Hellboy, carrying the burden of mistakes made decades earlier, while the Crooked Man himself is exactly the kind of villain I love. He isn't just evil; he feels inevitable, as though he's been waiting patiently for old debts to come due. It reminded me that some of the best horror isn't about jump scares or gore. It's about knowing something terrible is coming and being powerless to stop it.

The title story may be the reason to buy this collection (I personally borrowed from the Library), but the extra stories make it feel like a proper showcase of everything that makes Hellboy work. In the Chapel of Moloch was probably my favourite of the shorter tales. It's weird, unsettling and has one of Hellboy's funniest moments. Only Hellboy could look at an artist possessed by an ancient evil and basically tell him to give up painting because he wasn't very good anyway.

They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships gives us ghost pirates, Blackbeard and Abe Sapien. Honestly, if someone had pitched me that combination without the Hellboy logo attached, I'd probably have bought it anyway.

Then there's The Mole, a bizarre little nightmare that only lasts a handful of pages but somehow manages to stick in your head long after you've finished reading.

Every story feels different, yet every one unmistakably belongs in the Mignolaverse.

Richard Corben's artwork on The Crooked Man is phenomenal. His characters are rough, expressive and wonderfully ugly in all the right ways. The Appalachian mountains feel isolated, the witches genuinely unsettling, and the Crooked Man himself looks like something pulled straight out of an old nightmare. The other artists deserve credit too, but Corben's style perfectly matches the dirty, earthy horror that the main story is aiming for.

Fuel for Sector 102

One thing I wasn't expecting from reading Hellboy was how much inspiration I'd find for my own worldbuilding. As someone constantly tinkering with Sector 102, this collection was overflowing with ideas. Not because I want to copy anything, but because Mignola has this incredible ability to make folklore feel lived in. Every village has a story. Every old building has history. Every monster feels like people have whispered about it for generations. That's exactly the feeling I want when someone explores Sector 102.

Not that they're discovering monsters...That they're discovering legends. I can’t help but feel inspired.

Final Thoughts

Every Hellboy collection has impressed me for different reasons. Into the Silent Sea won me over with atmosphere. Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1953 expanded the world. The Silver Lantern Club made me fall in love with the wider cast. The Crooked Man and Others is the first one that genuinely creeped me out.

It's horror done properly, it’s quiet, patient and rooted in folklore rather than spectacle. Add in some outstanding artwork and a handful of excellent backup stories, and you've got one of the strongest Hellboy collections I've read so far.

I'm still reading Hellboy out of order...and it's still working.

Thanks for joining me on this silly adventure.