Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1

Mike Mignola's cover for this opening chapter of the six-part Darkness Calls series sets an immediately foreboding tone: a grimly stoic Hellboy stands in the foreground, cigarette in hand, while a looming shadowy figure with hollow eyes rises behind him against a deep blue night sky — and a small, delicate bird perches on a bare branch in the quiet foreground, an unsettling contrast to the menace above. The pairing of Mignola's artwork with Duncan Fegredo joining as interior artist makes this 2007 Dark Horse release a genuinely compelling start to the miniseries. If you've followed Hellboy through his earlier adventures, the atmosphere promised here suggests the series is heading somewhere darker and more mythically charged than ever.