Welcome to today’s installment of 31 Days of Halloween! This is our chance to set the mood for the spookiest and scariest month of the year as we focus our attention on horror and Halloween fun. For the month of October we’ll be talking to creators working in horror and share and recommend various pieces of underappreciated scary media-books, comics, movies, and television-to help keep you terrified and entertained all the way up to Halloween.

In December, two of the greatest comic book creators are joining forces again to get spooky with Hellboy. Adam Hughes and Mike Mignola have already won an Eisner for their one-shot Hellboy: Krampusnacht. Now, they’re hoping to set fire with a follow-up, Hellboy & the B.P.R.D.: The Seven Wives Club.

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Set in Savannah, Georgia, the book finds Hellboy aiding a young girl during a botched ghost hunt. From there, the tale winds its way into an abandoned medical school, where all sorts of horrors await our demonic hero. We recently had the chance to ask Hughes a few questions around the upcoming title for our “31 Days of Halloween” extravaganza. As you’ll see from his answers, Bridges is a man with a silver wit (and maybe a love for Spanish moss).

AiPT!: Hi Adam, David Brooke here, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. Congratulations on winning the Eisner for your last collaboration with Mike Mignola Krampusnacht. After that success were you guys thinking, “what’s next” when this idea came about?

Adam Hughes: I was! I’m not sure Mike was. I sat by the phone, pining for the fjords, waiting for him to call. I rubbed the Eisner and whisper-screamed “Mignola!” three times. Nothing happened (apart from now having a very shiny award). Eventually, he emailed and said, “You wouldn’t be interested in doing another one of these, would you?”

AiPT!: This is another spooky Christmas story, can I ask what is your take on the holidays, traditional, spooky, crackling fire…what?!

AH: It’s not, actually. Not in the least. It comes out in December, but it’s not a spooky Christmas story at ALL. It’s more of an eerie Hanukkah cautionary tale.

AiPT!: Do you have any horror influences when working on a scary story?

AH: Great horror films on my trusty studio TV. Lots of screenings of The Shining and The Exorcist, to help combat my natural tendencies towards wanting to provide laughs and keeping the tonality of Mike’s tale right where he wants it. Unchecked, I would fill the comic with farting zombies.

AiPT!: I’ve been to Savannah, GA and it’s wonderfully macabre yet pretty. What sort of work goes into capturing such a beautiful American town?

AH: Macabre yet pretty, just like Mike Mignola! I’m just drawing old dark houses covered in kudzu – the Georgia Weed! – and trees with lots of Spanish moss – the Spanish Moss!

AiPT!: We’ve seen your cover art so far, wonderful by the way, and I noticed the holiday element is absent, is there a reason for that?

AH: The misconception that this is a spooky Christmas story is a complete & utter fabrication of the Fourth Estate! It’s a creepy Kwanzaa fable, at best.

AiPT!: Is there a link between Krampusnacht and Seven Wives Club (aside from the creators of course) that fans might look forward to?

AH: Well, six of the Seven Wives are way sexier than Krampus. Does that count?

AiPT!: What is it about the horror/fantasy genre that is so timeless for you?

AH: For me? It’s the one genre where you can just make everything a silhouette and it doesn’t look like you’re punking out on the art. Haha, I kid, I’m a kidder. It’s all about the chicks, man.

AiPT!: First we have Krampus, now ghosts, in the perfect world how would Mike Mignola and Adam Hughes close out a trilogy?

AH: Nothing says “we’re fresh outta ideas, kids” like BUSTY VAMPIRE ALL-NIGHT BIKINI CAR-WASH and Hellboy is driving Christine.

Hellboy & the B.P.R.D.: The Seven Wives Club hits comic stores on December 11, 2019.