SDCC 2010: Mignola, Arcudi, and Severin Head West for ‘Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever’

As hinted on our Talksplode with John Arcudi  way back in July on '09, Witchfinder Edward Grey is headed to the Wild West. Tonight, Dark Horse finally announced the upcoming five issue mini Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever, by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi with art by the sensational John Severin. This is a title I've been chomping at the bit to see, and we've finally got the details on this new occult western.

Lost and Gone Forever follows last year's Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels, a terrific mini that saw the origin and exploration of an Englishman set upon by unholy demons. In this new story, occult detective Edward Grey journeys to the American West in the late 1800s to face even more terrors.

I talked to co-writer John Arcudi about the project and he had this to say:

"Mike created Edward Grey a long time ago in the Hellboy books as his sort of "prototype" for a paranormal investigator.  While he was busy with Hellboy, he was never able to get around to writing any stories for Grey, so he and I would talk a lot about it, kick "what ifs" around instead, and eventually came up with a Western themed story for the character (basically because I wanted to write a Western — really, it was that simple).  When Mike finally found the time to start working on Grey stories, John Severin had just been enlisted by Scott to do a "War on Frogs" one shot and the timing seemed perfect.  Sev on a Western;  what could be more natural?

"And yeah, John Severin's pages are amazing, of course!  And they're illustrating MY script!  Sometimes that doesn't quite seem real to me.  When you work with a living legend, you can't help but feel incredibly lucky."

Let's take a look at some of this pages:

Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #1 hits the shelves next February.