bedsitter23

Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon #1 by Mike Mignola

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As I said previously, I was giving my comic book shop owner (and longer time friend) that he does not seem to ever stock Dark Horse, or at least Mignolaverse titles. So having done that, i was pretty much obligated to buy this when it came in.

I read Hellboy for years, probably up until around 2012. To be fair, he was just too prolific for me, and my comic shop at that time wasn't carrying them. The early titles were so good, that it also feels like Mignola has done it all.

So, I picked up Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon. Horror is hard, and I think Rasputin is actually a good fit in the Mignolaverse. He fits that mold of Alistair Crolwey occult meets Temple of Doom action. While this book is pre-Hellboy and pre-BPRD, it is a logical step to see Rasputin plotting with the Nazis (spoiler alert: and being all Rasputin-y about it).

There is more to this comic than that, and this has a great World War 2 era- England angle. It reads true to me, or at least as anything Garth Ennis writes via Max Hastings histories.

So there is a lot to like about this book. It does seem Mignola has done it all in almost 25 years of these characters, but he has expanded his Universe enough to mostly keep it fresh and add as many new angles as he can. This is another example of that.

I thought the art was really good, or at least appropriate to the title (drawn by Christopher Mitten). It really is Dave Stewart's colors that bring it to life; and that cover is striking and sticks with you.

This book has me excited for Mignola once again after my hiatus. I don't know if I am up for buying 8 to 12 miniseries or whatever he puts out in a year, but I am in, and i hope my comic book shop guy is too.

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