Heartbreakingly Horrific...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over the past couple of years, I have become a devoted follower of Dark Horse Comics, especially their Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series.\u00a0 Though I have devoted\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2009\/07\/the-crooked-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heartbreakingly Horrific...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the past couple of years, I have become a devoted follower of Dark Horse Comics, especially their Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series.\u00a0 Though I have devoted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2009\/07\/the-crooked-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pop Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-28T18:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/files\/2009\/07\/cover-large-195x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J. 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{"id":1030,"date":"2009-07-28T10:27:29","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T18:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2009-07-28T10:27:29","modified_gmt":"2009-07-28T18:27:29","slug":"the-crooked-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/poptheology\/2009\/07\/the-crooked-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbreakingly Horrific…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past couple of years, I have become a devoted follower of Dark Horse Comics<\/a>, especially their Hellboy<\/em><\/a> and B.P.R.D.<\/em><\/a> series.\u00a0 Though I have devoted significant attention to the intersections of spirituality\/theology\/religion and popular culture in film, television, and print, the latter has rarely included comics.\u00a0 I read numerous comics each week, but because I feel less knowledgeable about the histories, theories, and techniques of the art form, I am less comfortable writing about them.\u00a0 However, a recent short Hellboy <\/em>series entitled \u201cThe Crooked Man\u201d was just too good to ignore.<\/p>\n

This three-part story sat on my shelf for quite some time.\u00a0 I sat down last weekend and re-read the first issue and then quickly finished the last two.\u00a0 Hellboy <\/em>creator Mike Mignola<\/a> has come up with yet another engaging story and guest artist Richard Corben<\/a>\u2018s work makes it all the more haunting and heart-breaking.\u00a0 \u201cThe Crooked Man\u201d tells the story of Tom Ferrell, a young man from the Appalachian Mountains in the 1950s who returns home after a 20-year absence.\u00a0 During that time, the devil and a group of witches have wreaked a fair amount of havoc on this rural community.\u00a0 In fact, as a teenager, smitten by a young girl, Tom even made a deal with the devil as well, which he ironically never exploited.\u00a0 In a sense, he has returned to make things right again.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t say much more about the plot, but it centers on themes (obviously) of good and evil, redemption, and forgiveness.\u00a0 As most people know, even non-readers of the series, Hellboy looks like the devil, or at least our popular notions of him\/it.\u00a0 Yet Tom corrects Hellboy himself (and the readers) when he believes that Tom thinks he\u2019s the devil:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve seen him and he don\u2019t look nothin\u2019 like you.\u201d\u00a0 The interesting thing about the devil here is that he looks like a crazed Mad Hatter while also visually mirroring a priest that we meet later in the story.\u00a0 In the third issue, Corben and Mignola place panels side-by-side that highlight this similarity and complicate the good vs. evil tension.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Though Mignola locates most of his Hellboy <\/em>and B.P.R.D<\/em>. stories abroad in exotic locations and times with legendary evils, this time around, he places his story in America and revels in the legends and ghost stories that traditional Americana claims.\u00a0 Corben helps show readers that these stories can be just as disturbing as vampires and other terrible monsters.\u00a0 Nearly every page contains images that are simultaneously horrific and heart-breaking, a rare combination in this, or any genre or art form.<\/p>\n

Look for back issues of \u201cThe Crooked Man\u201d or its (doubtless) inclusion in a future trade paperback.<\/p>\n

Until then, you can preview the first issue here<\/a>, the second issue here<\/a>, and the third issue here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"