Hellboy: Krampusnacht Review

This won Best Single Issue at the Eisners this year – what a thin year it’s been for quality comics! Hellboy: Krampusnacht isn’t bad but it’s your standard Hellboy story: Big Red goes someplace spooky to punch a monster. He’s done it a hundred times before and he does it again here with no variation to the well-defined formula. What so impressed everyone??

Well, Adam Hughes’ art is outstanding for one. Krampus’ initial appearance is unsettling, creepy and wonderfully gruesome, and Hellboy looks terrific – full marks on the art. I would love to see Hughes draw more Hellboy books in the future.

And, though the story was fairly unimaginative and archetypical by Mike Mignola’s standards, I liked what he did with Krampus. For anyone not in the know, Krampus is basically the anti-Santa, punishing – or in this case killing! – kids at Christmas who’ve been naughty but Mignola writes him as a cursed, tragic figure, tired of doing what he does. And showing who he really was was also unexpected.

So it does have some merits but, really, an Eisner Award? That seems a bit much. Krampusnacht is your average Hellboy comic, neither deserving to be on the naughty or nice list, with some cool art and at best a middling story - not that special overall.