And isn’t great to have a story with so few preconceived notions? “Koshchei the Deathless” could really go anywhere. Conventional wisdom would say that expanding the universe through an obscure character won’t work, but then this is Mignola we’re talking about-he seems to be at his best doing things that shouldn’t work. Let’s face it, this is not an easy sell.Īnd yet this sort of project really excites me. Oh, and the story is going to be drawing heavily from Russian folklore.

But how about a villain that appeared in a single story ten years ago? Aside from his confrontation with Hellboy, the villain has no major connections to the Hellboy Universe. Abe Sapien, Hellboy’s pal at the B.P.R.D., the fish-man with the really iconic design, makes perfect sense as a spin-off. I mean, if you think of the spin-offs that existed ten years ago (“Abe Sapien,” “Lobster Johnson,” “Witchfinder”), they were all pretty straightforward, marketable projects. Mignola returns to Hell and to the bizarre folklore that’s filled some of his greatest books, reuniting with one of his favorite collaborators, Ben Stenbeck ( Frankenstein Underground, Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels, Baltimore).įor a while now, the Hellboy Universe has been exploring odd little avenues that didn’t exist before. Now Koshchei relives every horrible act on his road to immortality and beyond, with none other than Hellboy himself-in Hell. Sent to kill Hellboy by the Baba Yaga in Darkness Calls, Koshchei the Deathless hinted at a long and tragic life before being enslaved to the Russian witch.

Hellboy koshchei the deathless