Book Review: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb and Others by M. Mignola et al.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb and Others stories by Mike Mignola, art by Zach Howard, Matt Smith, Tiernen Trevallion, and Adam Hughes, and colors by Dave Stewart and Adam Hughes

I love me some Hellboy, so why not read another collection of recent(ly published) adventures?

The Return of Effie Kolb--Facing a monster from The Crooked Man story, Hellboy heads back to Appalachia in 1967 to visit his old friend Tommy. He's found a young girl who thinks she's a witch. She can see things that come true in the future. She sees trouble, bad trouble, up the mountain. She and Hellboy head off into the woods and have a harrowing adventure. I enjoyed this sort-of sequel. The ending left some other possibilities open, so that's intriguing too.

Long Night at Goloski Station--Hellboy is summoned to a remote Siberian train station by the promise of information. When he gets there, he finds a hunter who has killed the contact. The contact was a werewolf out for revenge since Hellboy shot Baba Yaga's eye out. A lot of Russian supernatural creatures have their sights on Hellboy. The hunter regales Hellboy with his own history when a trio of evil folk show up, clearly wanting to take down Hellboy. This story is another odd bit of folklore that Mignola is so good at crafting.

Her Fatal Hour--The daughter of another old friend summons Hellboy magically to help her get out of a marriage she does not want. The old friend was a crone who helped Hellboy fight the Beast of Vargu, so there's a supernatural element to the problem. Hellboy helps out in his usual style.

The Sending--A remote estate library in England has been ransacked by supernatural means, drawing the attention of the B.P.R.D. Hellboy and a bookish old guy come to find out what happened. The butler provides an interesting twist that leads to a clever confrontation. The usual action and resolution ensues.

The Seven Wives Club--Hellboy is out in the field with B.P.R.D. Agent Pauline Raskin. A young woman with a penchant for visiting haunted houses is accused of murder. She went to a house with a cute boy (the murdered person). The house was formerly owned by a Lothario who had seven wives, all in different houses in the city. He gathered them all at the house one night, burned the room they were locked in, and hanged himself. The B.P.R.D. is in to find out if the young woman was the victim of ghostly influence. The story gets weirder and more complex as it unravels, ending with the typical action and winsomeness.

The collection has a lot of interesting stories, including some sequels to previous one-shot tales. I enjoyed it a lot. Mignola's writing is very creative. The artists do a fine job presenting Hellboy in their own styles.

Recommended, highly for Hellboy fans.