Coffin Hill, Vol. 3: Haunted Houses
Caitlin Kittredge, writer; Inaki Miranda, artist; Eva De La Cruz, colorist
Vertigo Comics, 2015
Coffin Hill ends here with issue #20. In her Afterward writer Caitlin Kittredge says she had enough warning to end the story her way, and it does feel complete. This final story arc is all about putting the ghost of original Coffin Witch Emma Coffin to rest. Emma was the darkest and most powerful of the line, and for centuries she has only wanted revenge upon the angry villagers who killed her after she preyed upon them for years. She has always reached into the living world, but her power has grown sufficiently that the veil between this world and the next has grown extremely thin.
Current Coffin Witch Eve Coffin has been reluctant to assume the mantle, but when her ancestor starts killing her friends she quickly comes to grips with the situation. With the help of some of the ghosts, she figures out a way. In the course of that she uncovers a great many Coffin Hill secrets--as do her friends on the Coffin Hill police force. The series ends with the new police chief (who had been an orphan) finding his birth mother, one of the few positive results.
This series really was a classic ghost story, complete with haunted woods, haunted houses, ghosts, and witchcraft. I can't remember the last time I read one of those. Although I can imagine the series going on for longer, what we got was a very good read.
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