Dark Horse Comics will pay homage to the illustrative work of the late Richard Corben next year with a special collection of every Hellboy story the artist worked on with series creator Mike Mignola, Forbes Entertainment can exclusively reveal.
The omnibus features over 300 pages of seminal Hellboy tales, including the Eisner-winning “The Crooked Man” and several one-shots: Hellboy: Being Human, Hellboy in Mexico, Hellboy: The Bride of Hell, and Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil. All of the stories were colored by by Dave Stewart and lettered by Clem Robins.
“Corben was a genius,” Mignola said in a statement. “I was a fan from the first moment I saw his work in Heavy Metal magazine way back when. I never, in a million years, thought I’d get a chance to work with him, but I did and it remains a highlight of my career. I wrote ‘The Crooked Man’ specifically for him, and it remains my favorite Hellboy story.”
Check out the cover art below:
And speaking of “The Crooked Man,” the story was adapted into a feature-length screenplay by Mignola and Chris Golden.
The project, which wrapped principal photography back in May, was rewritten and directed by Brian Taylor and stars Jack Kesy (Deadpool 2) as Big Red. It marks the fourth live-action Hellboy movie after the two Guillermo del Toro blockbusters with Ron Perlman and the 2019 reboot helmed by Neil Marshall and fronted by David Harbour. Speaking to Variety earlier this year, Mignola described The Crooked Man as the first Hellboy adaptation to be an out-and-out “horror movie.”
“Taylor does not have a reputation as a horror movie director,” he continued. “But, so far, we’ve had two horror movie directors make Hellboy movies and we’ve never gotten a horror movie.”
Ketchup Entertainment (Hypnotic) nabbed distribution rights to the movie this week, although an official release date has yet to be announced.
Corben — who passed away in late 2020 at the age of 80 — built a prolific career spanning half a century. Appearing in such publications as Heavy Metal, Creepy, and Eerie, his work attracted critical acclaim and cultural notoriety, with distinguished prizes like the Eisner Award, Spectrum Grand Master award, and Grand Prix de la ville d’Angouleme all finding their way onto Corben’s mantle.
In addition to his contributions to comics, Corben was also famous for devising the album art featured on Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell, as well as the poster graphic for Brian De Palman’s Phantom of the Paradise.
He discussed his Hellboy tenure during a 2018 interview with Horror News Network, praising Mignola as “one of the top writer/artists working in comics.”
“I knew I could learn a lot from his great talent and it was a great pleasure drawing his stories,” Corben admitted. “They consisted of an action synopsis rather than a complete script. He would add the final text after I had completed the art.”
Hellboy Artists Collection: Richard Corben goes on sale from Dark Horse in 2024.
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