Cover by Wylie Beckert
Via Daily Dead, Dark Horse Comics have announced a new four-issue miniseries for the Hellboy Universe, “Castle Full of Blackbirds.” The title will focus on Sara May Blackburn, a character previously introduced in 2020’s “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb,” who set out for the mysterious Linton School for Girls at the end of the tale, hoping to find answers about her powers. To help tell the story, Mignola has recruited novelist Angela Slatter (in her comics writing debut), artist Valeria Burzo, and cover artist Wylie Beckert. Rounding out the rest of the team are regular collaborators colorist Michelle Madsen, and letterer Clem Robins.
Regarding Slatter’s work on the book, Mignola said, “I love what she’s done and can’t wait to see where this will go. My hope is that this is just the beginning.” He speaks as someone that was already a fan of her work himself. “She is one of the small handful of fantasy writers I really love reading these days, and we were lucky enough to get her to write a short story for the last Hellboy prose collection, Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors. After that we somehow got to emailing, and that led to this.”
“If I could go back and tell Past Me that I’d be writing a story set in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy Universe, I’m pretty sure Past Me would tell Future Me to GTFO,” said Slatter.
As for Sara May Blackburn, she was simply a character whose story needed to be told. “About halfway through writing ‘The Return of Effie Kolb’ I knew our little witch girl was going to want her own series,” explained Mignola. “I had an idea how something like that was going to start, but really had no idea where it might go. I DID know that as it was a book about a young girl, I wanted a female perspective. Someone who would bring something new to the Hellboy world while still playing with the history and mythology we’ve created for the place. Angela was the first (and I think only) name that sprang to mind.”
“Castle Full of Blackbirds” #1 will be released September 14, 2022, with a variant cover by Vanesa Del Rey. If you missed ‘The Return of Effie Kolb,’ it will be reprinted in the upcoming collection “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Return of Effie Kolb and Others,” coming January 2023.
Art by Vanesa Del Rey
