I recently got a pair of hardback graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics by Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell. As a big Hellboy fan, I was interested in this series about a pair of vampire hunters that is separate from the Hellboy universe, and I was not disappointed.
The first books is Mr. Higgins Comes Home (2017), which was written by Mignola with art by Johnson-Cadwell. Here we meet our two vampire hunters. Professor Johannes Meinhardt is from Ingolstadt University, and is your typical academic, skinny and wearing glasses, but gets involved in the action. Mr. Knox, no first name given, is the brawn to the Professor’s brain. The time is the past, and while not stated, I would think about the 1700s, but maybe earlier (Ingolstadt University was shutdown in 1800). Guns are muzzleloading, and we see horses and carriages, but no railroads, at least in Eastern Europe where these adventures seem to be set.
Here the pair meet Mr. Higgins, who made the mistake of encountering the Count and Countess Golga while on his honeymoon. The pair turned his wife into a vampire and him into a werewolf. He is hiding out in a nearby monastery. The Count is holding a huge gathering at his castle in celebration of Walpurgis. He decides to “invite” the trio to his castle. But things don’t turn out the way any expected, all due to the actions of another character. Much of the humor is in the dialogue.
Next came Our Encounters With Evil (2019), which this time is written and drawn by Johnson-Cadwell, though Mignola does the cover. In this volume, the Professor and Mr. Knox are joined by Ms. Mary Van Sloan. Mary is in the style of various female adventurers. She’s clearly able to get into the action, and thankfully we don’t have to deal with the Professor or Mr. Knox trying to keep her out of things.
Not a single story this time, we get a series of short stories, with some connections. The trio first stop a vampire from getting safely to a castle. With Mary injured, the pair go after the dangerous Duke Kurtz and find the evil Duke imprisoned in a bizarre way. I guess there is evil too evil for even vampires. The trio are back, dealing with a group of bizarre, giant bats. These bats are the living remains of two vampires who, in a bizarre fight, had chopped each other to bits. Each bit becoming a bat creature and reuniting, though not as they expected. Finally, we have a story where the pair are hunting for a vampire, while themselves are being hunted by a werewolf. An epilogue sets up for a third volume.
These two volumes are pretty good. They remind me of Hammer vampire movies, though with an element of dark humor, not to the degree of What We Do in the Shadows. At first look, Johnson-Cadwell’s art isn’t a style I normally care for. But in these stories, it works. I do hope we get a third volume.
If you like old-style vampire hunter stories, check these out. You can preview some of the pages at Dark Horse’s website.
