Mike Mignola is a poet. His HELLBOY short stories, since The Chained Coffin have long broken out of the limits of the gothic creature genre, and for their sheer graphic power, the eloquence and literary resonance of his writing, the intelligence, the weird humor and melancholy that pervades them, these short tales escape into the lyrical. I think history will be kind to Mignola’s strange little gems, in which his renegade devil with broken-off horns wanders through the folktales of Ireland, Russia, Norway, Japan, Africa, and elsewhere.

This new one STRANGE PLACES, the first in three years, is outstanding. The short storyThe Third Wish alone makes this a must-have. And Dark Horse put together another nice package of this one, with a smart introduction and Mignola’s own process notes before each tale.