“The Crooked Man” was a three-issue comic book arc written by creator Mike Mignola and drawn by artist Richard Corben, published by Dark Horse Comics over the course of several months in 2008 as part of the “Hellboy” comic book series. It resembles the above synopsis very closely — “The Crooked Man” arc takes place in the year 1958 in the Appalachian Mountains; the plot involves a community of witches; and the main antagonist is a devil called “The Crooked Man.”
In the comics, The Crooked Man is the malevolent, demonic ghost of Jeremiah Witkins, an unscrupulous gunrunner, merchant, and all-around war profiteer who settled in the mountains and made his fortune by exploiting the American Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and various violent conflicts involving local Indigenous tribes. His misdeeds eventually caught up with him, and he was executed by his own community.
By 1958, his spirit haunts the mountains, where the local witches assist him in his crusade to corrupt and steal innocent souls. Ultimately, Hellboy, in collaboration with a reformed witch and a blind priest, sends him to Hell for good.
