Hellboy 7: The Troll Witch and Others by Mike Mignola

Hellboy 7: The Troll Witch and Others by Mike Mignola is again based on several myths and folktales. The first story has Hellboy confronting a Penanggalan, a Malaysian folklore version of the vampire. The Hydra and the Lion was created with his daughter whose favorite creature at the time from Disney’s Hercules was the serpent water beast, Hydra. An interesting modern day twist on the legend of Hercules that even leaves Hellboy scratching his head. The Troll Witch is based off a Norwegian folktale about two sisters but with a slightly different ending than the original tale.

The Vampire of Prague was based on a puppet Mike Mignola and Guillermo de Toro fell in love with when scouting out locations for Blade II. Attached to the puppet was a booklet telling about the legend of the gambler ghost of Prague. Mike Mignola said for the most part he stayed faithful to the gambler legend but took the liberty of also turning him into a vampire since supposedly there are few vampires that haunt Prague. Interestingly, P. Craig Russell illustrated this story.

The last story Makoma, that he stumbled upon in an Andrew Lang Fairy Book, is a tale told by a mummy in the New Your City Explorer’s Club. Mike Mignola also does not illustrate this one but instead by Richard Corben.

Also included in this addition are the stories, Dr. Carp’s Experiment and The Ghoul. Then in the back is a small preview of all three artists’ sketchbooks, Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell and Richard Corben.