Written By: Christopher Golden & Mike Mignola

Art By: Peter Bergting

Color Art By: Dave Stewart

After the month that was DC Purgatory last month, it’s nice to expand my reviews to a Dark Horse title. Additionally, it’s always a fun ride to go into the Mignola-verse, so reviewing Baltimore: Empty Graves 1 this week was an extra treat. I dropped off the Baltimore titles at some point last year, for some inexplicable reason, but have always remained interested from what I read before. This issue reaffirmed my enjoyment of the Baltimore books, from both the story and art end.

I’ll say this before getting into detail that the Baltimore story, while split up into multiple minis, is much more fulfilling if you’ve been reading since the first series. While you can pick up the story with any given mini, there are moments that tie directly to events from previous stories (like most Hellboy titles, and thankfully explained through editor’s notes). This issue continues Lord Baltimore’s journey to hunt down and destroy the Red King. While there’s a small point that furthers that long form story, majority of this issue is Baltimore’s crew digging graves for their fallen, and stories being told of their past. Between discussing the loss of Captain Aischeros or the “origin” story of Harish, an Indian man who came across a village torn apart by demons during his time in the army. The story is just as gruesome and horrifying as any story you get in the Mignola-verse. This issue is just a further example of how large this universe can be, and even with the “end” of Hellboy on the horizon, there’s a near endless world of stories left to tell. In addition to that, the writing is wonderfully colorful, in both world and character building, in a romantic style a la Lovecraft or even 19th century English folklore. With a cliffhanger that suggest someone from their past might come back to haunt them, literally, I’m chomping at the bit for the next issue.

There’s a certain style that you come to expect with these Mignola-verse books.The overarching connection id Dave Stewart’s colors, but there’s also a sense of line work that’s hard to explain, yet you’ll know it when you see it. Stemming from the great work of Guy Davis on BPRD, this chunk of Dark Horse books always puts you firmly planted in the world. While I’ve never encountered Peter Bergting’s work before, he’s an excellent fit for the Baltimore world. It’s much more raw and angular than the work of Ben Stenbeck, who defined the Baltimore books early on, but it’s similar enough that it flows smoothly with that general design in mind. He, just like the artist’s that came before him in this world, has an excellent hold on storytelling, which is the most important aspect of these types of comic stories; in my opinion. Dave Stewart does something interesting here as well. While he’s usually fairly flat in terms of his palette, this issue seemed to have a little more rendering in the colors. It’s still heavily based in that Mignola-verse palette we know and love, but that slight differentiation separates this from the BPRD/Hellboy titles. That subtle change, that clues the reader into the whole books place, is why Stewart is one of if not the best color artists in comics history.

I might have lapsed on this title in the past, but after this chapter, I’ll be sure to never let that happen again. If you’ve been interested in the Mignola-verse, but felt overwhelmed by the backlog, I would recommend picking up the Baltimore books, and this issue is a good jumping on point.

 

4.5 Bloody Princesses out of 5