Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast

by Mike Mignola, Rae Allen (Author And Illustrator), Michelle Madsen (Color Artist)

A descendant of El Bogavante fights chupacabras, gangsters, and more in this Wild West paranormal adventure!

Supernatural gun-for-hire and shape-shifting descendent of the notorious El Bogavante, Carmen Red Claw faces a new type of monster when investigating supposedly cursed ranch land. Something is killing the cattle at ranches all over the area, and along the way she’ll have to battle chupacabras, chase a runaway train, and deal with family drama to boot. But Carmen must find out if it’s really a beast to blame for the killings—or if humans are the real monsters here.

Writer/artist Rae Allen (The Manderfield Devil, Town with a Million Eyes) joins the Hellboy universe in this paranormal western adventure set in 1870s New Mexico territory!

Collects Carmen Red Belly of the Beast #1–#4 and bonus sketchbook material

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

112 pages, Hardcover

Published October 27, 2026

About the author

Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.

In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.

In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.

Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.

Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.

Reviews

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carmen Red Claw is a supernatural gun-for-hire and shape-shifting descendant of the notorious El Bogavante. Instead of being a feared killer like her ancestor, she hunts monsters. Her newest case involves a creature killing cattle, chupacabras, a runaway train, and family drama.

I went into this without realizing this was a spin-off based on the descendant of a Lobster Johnson villain. I just saw a kickass looking heroine, monsters, and a western setting and said sign me up! Carmen was a really cool character. She was a kickass fighter but had empathy for others, unlike her family members. I also found her sidekick, Pest, to be really interesting since he was the complete opposite of Carmen and was always trying to push her to kill.

The adventure to find the creature killing cattle and to rescue the stolen cattle was very interesting and kept me hooked to the story. I really enjoyed the whole runaway train scenario and all the different kinds of creatures, and magical beings, that ended up in this. Also I just love the expansion of the Mignolaverse with new paranormal fighters in different historical times.

Now onto the spinoff part of this, I have read Lobster Johnson but it has been years and honestly I had forgotten everything about El Bogovante. So reading this I didn’t really understand the importance of his character and how it was influencing Carmen until halfway through when it is stated she is his granddaughter. I don’t think its super necessary to have read Lobster Johnson Vol. 4: Get the Lobster which is where El Bogovante is introduced, but I do wish this had been explained a little sooner to better explain who Carmen is in this universe and why she is different from her family.

Overall, I really enjoyed Carmen and her story, especially since she is another badass female fighter in this series. I would love to read more of her adventures and hope we see another story with her.

TW: racism; animal death; gun violence; death;

*ARC provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.*

[Chr*s Browning]

I think it's neat that Rae Allen is getting to work with Mignola when her style is so clearly inspired by his work (with a bit of a Tumblr Cal-Arts cartoon-y twist), but story-wise, this is a bit scattershot and the Lizard Demon on the Shoulder is almost exactly Mushu, which makes the whole thing feel like Wild West Mulan more than it does Lobster Johnson antecedent (who it should be noted I enjoy, but is likely one of my least favorite HBU characters). Maybe it's just that there's too much backstory hinted at in a first arc that's ultimately just doing Ogdru Hem antics (why is her brother a cat?), so it could improve in future arcs if we get there. Falls into the "interesting, keep an eye on, but not too close an eye" bin of the Hellboy Universe.

[Zachary Shaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun and engaging wester story from the world of Hellboy!! EXCELLENT ART!!

I read this in single issues and I plan on buying the trade!

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good story except for the annoying talking lizard.

For the rest of the review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtube.com/shorts/9AeURjYJ0d...

Enjoy!