10 Best Single Issue Comics Ever

4. Hellboy #6 - The Corpse

Anyone familiar with Mike Mignola's Hellboy will attest to just how easy it is to access, and with so many of the Dark Horse character's greatest hits being self-contained stories, it makes sense as to why he's found himself on 'best of' lists every other year.

The most recent one-shot, Krampusnacht, continued the trend Mignola established some twenty years ago, but it's The Corpse that makes for the character's best solo story. Set in 1959 during Red's early years with the B.P.R.D., the story finds Hellboy in Ireland to track down a kidnapped child. This being a Hellboy comic, a supernatural angle was always going to be involved, and it soon transpires that the child (Alice Monoghan) had been replaced by a disguised Gruagach. These two characters would go on to play a pivotal role in the character's comics, but there's another reason why The Corpse is so compelling - the atmosphere.

This issue exudes an abundance of charm and horror - the kind that would define Mignola's creation going forward - with Hellboy forced to deliver the corpse of one Tom O'Clannie to his rightful resting place in order to save Alice.

The dialogue is wonderful, the story is classic Hellboy through and through, and the fact it stands alone makes it all just that little bit better.