Okay, I'll admit it... I've got Hellboy fever. I'm a latecomer to the character (in fact, I've still only read the first trade paperback), but all the gorgeous photos from the upcoming movie, a late-in-developing appreciation for Mike Mignola's artwork and just a general love of the whole concept has turned me into a fan. That Dark Horse has gotten some of my favorite talents to contribute to Mignola's universe in the form of Hellboy: Weird Tales and B.P.R.D. one-shots just seals the deal. In this particular case, the name that grabbed my attention was Guy Davis, one of my favorite under-rated comic-book artists whose style seems perfect for a B.P.R.D. story set in a small Massachusetts town. I wasn't as sure about the name Brian Augustyn, as his work is very hit-and-miss for me, but this is a good solid story relating back to the Salem witch trials and providing not only some good moments with B.P.R.D. regulars Abe Sapien and Roger but adding a couple new characters into the mix for this story.
Augustyn and Davis have crafted a story that works very well as a one-shot, benefiting from the done-in-one style of the format and reading like a mini-movie or a good solid episode of a TV series more than anything else. The opening is very cinematic, a series of idyllic establishing shots that pan down on a small-town happening before ending on a foreboding cliffhanger. Cue the music and the credits rolling and the introduction of our heroes in the next scene. I especially like that Augustyn spends these opening two pages also establishing a couple of background players, the opportunistic mayor who is more or less comedy relief and the female town sheriff whose sarcastic good nature makes her a strong player in the story as a whole.
Like most of the Hellboy material I've read, Augustyn ties this story into familiar myth, in this case the Salem Witch Trials, but he takes it off in a different direction. Certainly we've all seen riffs on the evil religious bigot whose actions and thoughts aren't much different than the intolerant fools who perpetrated the trials back in the 1600s, but contrasting that aspect of the religion against a more tolerant religion is a nice touch, and having a mystical threat that centers not on a witch's curse or an evil judge but rather on the shame a town felt over participating was another nice little twist.
One of the things I like about the B.P.R.D., and it's been shown in most of the one-shots, is that these aren't the spooky, foreboding paranormal investigators that we're conditioned to expect from something like The Exorcist. The B.P.R.D. are basically just cops with very strange appearances and abilities, and I like the sort of routine nature of what they're doing, making the characters and their jobs approachable even though what they actually deal with is so out there. Some of my favorite moments of this issue come not from the big action set-pieces but from seeing Abe and Roger interact with Constable Rackham as a fellow law-enforcement official, or talk to Reverend Shaw in a friendly manner to get some background. It's played more Law & Order than Men in Black, and I like that.
Which isn't to say that the fantastic elements aren't to be found here. Davis's artwork is fantastic at bringing the real, grounded look of Shiloh to life, with beautiful pastoral colors from Dave Stewart, but he doesn't shrug off the paranormal stuff either. The mud golems and powerful winds that manifest in the tail end of the book are powerful images, and the wild-eyed and frantic nature of Pastor Blackwood is as palpable as the gentle manner of Reverend Shaw, his opposite number. I've made no secret of being a fan and follower of Guy Davis's artwork, but I think his work here, with Stewart's incredibly beautiful colors, is some of my favorite, standing out even amongst his work on Sandman Mystery Theatre and Deadline, two of my other favorite Davis projects.
