Richard Corben (1940 – 2020) was an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine, especially the Den series which was featured in the magazine’s first film adaptation in 1981. He was the winner of the 2009 Spectrum Grand Master Award and the 2018 Grand Prix at Angoulême. In 2012 he was elected to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

I was first introduced to Corben’s work through the stories that he drew for Hellboy, namely Makoma and The Crooked Man, both of which are collected in this volume. His style of art work left quite an impression on me because it was so markedly different from that of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s, and his rendering style is richly detailed with a kind of dots treatment that sometimes remind me of the French painter Georges Seurat’s Pointillism movement.

Although a few of his Hellboy stories ( the aforementioned Makoma & Crooked Man ) are already included in some of the earlier Hellboy library editions, this dedicated volume collects it all in one book and makes it much easier to enjoy them without having having to sift through several different volumes.

Book synopsis – Own the complete collection of horror master Richard Corben’s Hellboy comics in this deluxe edition. Revisit some classic Hellboy stories including The Crooked Man, Makoma, House of the Living Dead, and more!

Oversize 8″ X 12″ format includes a cloth spine and foil cover treatment.

Collects: Hellboy: Being Human one-shot, Hellboy in Mexico one-shot, Hellboy: House of the Living Dead OGN, Hellboy: The Bride of Hell one-shot, Hellboy: Makoma #1–#2, Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil one-shot, Hellboy: The Mirror short story, and Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1–#3.

(above) Size comparison between my copy of the Hellboy In Hell Library edition ( read my review here ) and the Corben volume; the latter is the same height but more narrow, but otherwise still a very hefty sized book.

I’m just guessing here, but I have a feeling Darkhorse put together this book to 1) honor the artist, who passed away in 2020 and 2) use the opportunity to re-invigorate interest in his Hellboy comics, in particular The Crooked Man which will see a live-action adaptation in November this year. I’m definitely excited to see it.

If you’re like me and already own all the Hellboy library editions, there’ll be some double-dipping, but as a big Hellboy fan I’m actually perfectly happy picking this up as a consolidated volume that makes it much easier to enjoy all of Corben’s Hellboy work in one single book. My only small regret is that there is no sketches section included at the end of this book, something that Darkhorse has been doing for most of the Mignolaverse omni-bus volumes. That said, this is still recommended.

“Hellboy Artists Collection : Richard Corben” art book details :

– Dimensions – 8.25 x 1.24 x 12.26 inches
– Hardcover, 312 pages
– Full color

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