Is there a comic writer who possibly loves spooky season as much as Hellboy’s Mike Mignola? Perhaps not, which is why the beloved creative is teaming up with artist Rachele Aragno to introduce a whole new spooky delight — and giving them terrifying tales not just for Halloween, but for Christmas too.
io9 has your first look inside Dark Horse Comics’ Leonide the Vampyr: Miracle at the Crow’s Head, written by Mignola and featuring art from Aragno, alongside colours from Dave Stewart and letters Clem Robins. The one-shot follows the titular Leonide, a new character crafted by Mignola and Aragno thanks to a chance social media encounter last year.
“Last October I was publishing daily sketches on social media. Mike Mignola had seen the first one, a portrait of a vampire girl, and he loved it,” Aragno said in a press release provided to Gizmodo. “From there we started talking about the idea of a collaboration between us, and that my vampire portrait could be the basis of a story. When Mike sent me the outline, I went crazy with joy. It was perfect, and I was delighted to be able to draw and put those words on paper. Mignola has always been in the pantheon of my favourite authors, and I was honoured to be able to work with him.”
Miracle at the Crow’s Head is set in a small coastal village that finds the lives of its quiet denizens upended when a shipwreck brings a mysterious, small coffin to its shores — containing what is first believed to be a miracle, but becomes anything but. But Crow’s Head isn’t the only time we’re going to be seeing Leonide this year. Gizmodo can exclusively reveal that the vampire will return in A Christmas for Crows, a holiday one-shot set to release in December, which sees Leonide and her small coffin discovered by a group of mountainfolk just in time for a chilling Christmas carol. Maybe folks should just stop opening any small caskets they find, honestly. Check out the variant cover, by Mignola and Dave Stewart, below!
“Leonide’s first story gave me the opportunity to start creating a very aesthetically strong main character along with many supporting actors or antagonists that I wanted to bring to light,” Aragno said in a statement provided to Gizmodo over email. “I like the fact that an innocent-looking little girl steals souls and a mummy priest wants to exorcise her. In my opinion the stories that might be told about them could be very creepy!”
“The second story Mike wrote totally captivated me. I loved it from the first moment because it allowed me to expand the universe of Leonide with both new characters and new settings,” she continued. “I think the air you breathe is special at Christmas. Together with ghosts and a girl vampire, it’s a dream for all lovers of the genre. But, above all, this story allows us to understand how vast and articulated the world of Leonide can be.”
“About two seconds after I came up with the first Leonide story, A Christmas for Crows popped into my head. I wasn’t trying to come up with a story––it just appeared. Sometimes that happens,” Mignola added. “And as the first part was timed for Halloween, it just made perfect sense for this one to be about Christmas. I always associate ghost stories with Christmas, and so I tried to do something very old-school — even to allow a dose of good old-fashioned religion into the story. It’s not often I let that stuff in but, hey, it’s Christmas.”
Leonide the Vampyr: Miracle at the Crow’s Head hits store shelves October 5 — read on to see our exclusive preview. In the meantime, Leonide the Vampyr: A Christmas for Crows is due for release December 7.
