Indeed this is possibly one of the most quietly self-referential stories in the 'Hellboy' run, Mignola openly hangs a lantern on the comparisons that his art draws to Goya, even going so far as to add a little “after Goya” to the signature on the issue's cover. Simultaneously self deprecating and drawing another link with 'Pickman's Model' where the central artist is also compared with Goya.

“I don't believe anybody since Goya could put so much of sheer hell into a set of features or twist of expression” - HP Lovecraft

Mignola's writing sits in another grey area, between the classic supernatural horror of Poe or Stoker and the more modern cosmic horror of Lovecraft or Ligotti. Equal time is given to scheming, aristocratic vampires as it is to be-tentacled nightmares. But it is not the case that Mignola takes or plagiarizes these ideas, he's not simply 'ripping off Goya' but he subverts our expectations, he blends our familiarity with these established ideas and then subverts them to create something which is truly his own.

The classic Lovecraftian story arc tends to be the academic or artist descending into madness after acquiring arcane knowledge. Instead Mignola drops in Hellboy and gives us the 'What If?' scenario of a near indestructible, demonic Philip Marlowe turning up and punching that arcane knowledge until it stops moving. We see the strangeness of the bombastic and horrific, blurring with the deadpan reality of the procedural detective.

Alongside these manipulations of horror fiction tropes we have the bending of history itself. Enough factual basis is given to offer a sense of verisimilitude, Moloch really was worshiped as a deity and according to the bible child sacrifices seemed to be involved:

“And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech” - Leviticus 18:21

These historical details are then muddied with the fictional accounts of the “Knights of St. Hagan” and the inexplicable “Carpathian Goat”.

Again we see that grey area of uncanniness, this is where a great deal of good horror writing sits. Between the boundaries of life and death, the awake and the dreaming, sanity and madness even truth and fiction, this is where an author or artist can push at our suspension of disbelief. Mignola is constantly bringing us into these liminal spaces, his heavy shadows and minimal dialogue allowing for our own interpretations of what he presents.