Lobster Johnson, The Iron Prometheus.

Lobster Johnson is a mythic character that started his apperiences in the pages of Hellboy. 

Is he real or a fiction character? This story comes to prove that he was real (at least in the Hellboy world) and that he is here to stay.

A cultist organization with a misture of Fu Man Chu-like conspiracies (the evil character reminds me a lot of Rasputin) and Nazis trying to get advantages of magic and monsters. Fighting then there is this Lobster Johnson character and his friends, in a pack that is a mirror of Doc Savage and his crew.

With Guy Davies and Mignola as developers of the original story, the work of artist Jason Armstrong was raised to a peak and this story is a satisfactory one, with a lot of action packed fights but with a great script running all the strory. A must have.

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Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game.

Here is a fine book.

This could be difficult to find, but it was a great way to jump into the Rolplaying game by playing an adventure game, meaning you don't have to create a character and learn all the rules to play straight away.

Let's see, if you read without having to memorize a single rule the 35 pages character creation part (you have to read it, but skip the part were you have to compose a character) you only have 15 pages of rules. That's all. A great commintment.

GMs section is also short, but he must read the whole book to get the feeling and all the aditional rules (nobody said that being the Master means an easy path).

This game book is powered by GURPS and works smoothly with all the rules that you can add from the big game. There is some differences, essentialy in the magic part, but anyone acoustom to the GURPS set of rules can easily play the game.

On the finishing line, I must say that this is an easy to jump book for any newbie, but it is a delicius book for any player because it is writen by Masters and Woodward, two great RPG names that write for the new player but adds information and flavour to the diehard gamers. 

The book is rounded with a story by Michael Golden and a comic by Zach Howard (Mignola, Nitz and Reed are the scripters).

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Hellboy Weird Tales Volume Two.

This second compilation of short stories by some of the best artist of the comic field playing with Mignola 's creation is even richer than the first one. It even has a Lobster Johnson serial, but it lacks as many humor as the fist part. One couldn't get all.

PRAGUE

Well, some people could consider this only an ilustration but it is in fact a one page - four panel comic. Hellboy fights the Golem at Prague. We can see his doer and the sheet of paper that gives him life. And Hellboy relaxes at the sight of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Art by Lee Bermejo.

MY VACATION IN HELL

Craig Thomson is one of my favourite artist ever and this short story didn't disappoint me. It is a fake and humorous medieval tapestry of Hellboy on vacation in Hell. Just relaxing again and fishing... Leviatans.

A LOVE STORY

A ghost love story with happy ending and dogfight. Cool. By Tommy Lee Edwards and Don Cameron.

SHATTERED

Hellboy is asked to return to B.P.R.D. with the Xul Chalak a vase that made him see so many things that he return with it, but in peaces. By Marz and Starlin.

FRIDAY

Doug Petrie and Gene Colan has Liz suffering from loneliness while fighting an strange guy. But Abe helps her.

COMMAND PERFORMANCE

Amazing art by P. Caig Russell to tell a story by Pfeifer about a haunted guignol that Hellboy must defeat on stage.

LOVE IS SCARIER THAN DEATH

J. H. Williams III and Haden Blackman go for romance when a Goatman attacks Hellboy and Emma. No fat chance of a luxury time for our heroes.

THEATER OF THE DEAD

A zombie headless gangster makes justice by killing his summoners with a Thompson. By Pascoe, Fassbender and Wilkins.

TOY SOLDIER

Japanese approach to Hellboy. Our guy must fight a puppeter that turns to life his creeations. A monk is a new adition to the league of friends of Hellboy. By Yoshida and Asamiya.

PROFESSIONAL HELP

Dorkin presents Roger in a setting I read in a Spanish comicbook where a rock band that want to rescue the old European gods (the similarities end here), allied with nazis and create a big-big baby. The adventure ends with a fight.

FIFTEEN MINUTES

¡Ah! Jill Thompson. Another reason to buy this book. This is a fun story where skeletons complain about the treatment Hellboy gave to them while fighting a giant Were-rat.

LONG DISTANCE CALLER

Johann aborts an alien invasion by only being there. Amazing art by Kev Walker.

COOL YOUR HEAD

Hellboy on vacation talks to an old man that turns his mind outside down. By Scott Morse. 

LOBSTER JOHNSON
After a Hellboy gallery (Cho, Kaluta, Noto, Williams III, Stewart Fields, Templesmith, Stevens and Purcell), a fake Lobster Johnson comic serial, estimated 1939. By John Cassaday. It is followed by an sketchbook. 

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Hellboy Weird Tales volume one.

This is the first collection of Hellboy where Mignola was not the artist. Here many artist (and I mean many) draw and write Hellboy stories from their unique point of view to add more fuel to the little red guy (as Scott Allie said in the introduction) well crafted legend.

Midnight Cowboy

Eric Powell plays a little with Hellboy Junior and his haunted dog. A great joke with amazing art.

Haunted

The jokes' on Hellboy. Sniegoski and Nedelcu bring a european vision to the guy but here he is mock all the time. And the joke is really fun!

Family Story

A boy toying with his little action figure that turns his family outside down. And Hellboy is the next voodoo doll. By Ryan and Lieber.

Hot

Japan is the location of the next Weir Tale. This one is Stradley and Kim's adventure. Hellboy fights a monsters in a lake that uses charming as a weapon. And Hellboy has a bigger horn at the end. Nothing a good saw couldn't fix, said the big boy.

Childern of the Black Mound

Nicieza and Raffaelen tell this story about Baba Yaga and the way she was defeated.

Big-Top Hellboy

Cassaday creates an amazing mood for this story where Hellboy fights an entire ghost Circus. Perhaps a little too violent and superhero the ending with the blast. But it is OK. It was his vision.

Flight Risk

Hellboy is the excuse to tell the story of a jet-pack and the way a giant bat could help saving your life. By Casey and Parkhouse.

Downtime

B.P.R.D guys suffering an Intern Demon. A joke by Fingerman.

Abe Sapien: Star of the B.P.R.D.

Here the joke is on Abe. When Abe dreams about being more popular thatn Hellboy, the red guy mocks him outloud. Arcudi and Langridge

Curse of the Haunted Doily

Well, with a name like this, is no secret the ghost must be a... mother?! This time Kate Corrigan that doesn't seems to be pleased with her B.P.R.D. relations. Well,  Kate gets rid of that ghost by telling what a mother wants to hear. She'll be a good girl. By Mark Ricketts and Eric Wight.

The Dread Within

Jason Pearson brings us the exorcist girl's little sister to fight Liz Sherman. And the story is great.

Still Born

A very curious art by Maleev and Hollingsworth with one of the weirdest battle of Hellboy.

Party Pooper

Happy birthday, Hellboy! But take care what you wish for. By Andi.

And at the end a nice art gallery and Sketch book.


Wow, it took more to review than to read. Wait for next post about Weird Tales 2.

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B.P.R.D. vol. 1: Hollow Earth and other Stories.

This book is the first in the compilation series that focuses on B.P.R.D, the Boureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

Hollow Earth

The main story serves to present the supporting group of characters that helped Hellboy in his career, both in fiction and in popularity among friends.

Liz has being kidnap by down-Earth people that has taken her from a monastery in the Himalayas. The whole group of paranormal employees fight to death to rescue her.

That's the excuse to see the first days of  Liz in the B.P.R.D headquarters, how Hellboy, the only one that could survive her powers eruptions, gave her a lollypop and became friends. And how Abe really cares about her.

The story was wrote by Mignola, Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski. The penciller was Ryan Sook with inks by himself and Curtis Arnold and colors by Dave Stewart. Letters by Clem Robins.

The book is completed with some short stories. There is a three page  teaser of the series that appeared in Dark Horse Extra.

The Killer In My Skull

The first story of Lobster Johnson. In the 30s the killer brain has a body puppet to commit crimes. A joke that in Mignola hands (pencils by Matt Smith and inks by Ryan Sook) turns into a great mini-story.

Abe Sapien Versus Science

From the point of view of my favourite character in this series we can see how Abe help Roger to return to life. It was a need to bring him to the series and an easy to recognize friendship that is founded on the feeling that they are the same kind of "living experiments".

Drums of the Dead

Abe stars in the first story of Hellboy without, well, Hellboy. He is going to take the remains of the victims of an slavery ship that were thrown overboard by the captain. Demons and sharks. But Abe could see underneath the surface and understand the situation. A touching story.

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Hellboy vol. 7: The Troll Witch and Others

The seventh volume of Hellboy includes many short stories and an tiny miniseries that has in common the Prague Mignola's travel and the collaboration of two great artist from the Seventies and Eighties that expanded their careers into the category of god-like authors: Richard Corben and P. Craig Russell. Instead of the up and down compilation, this book is full of great stories.

The Penanggalan

The first Hellboy adventure where our hero fights a demon from the Malaysian folklore. It is a common craziness of Mignola. Hellboy walks willingly into the lair of a monster, this time a body-less head with his intestines as tentacles that give the big guy a great fight. Cool story. 

The Hydra and the Lion

A classic monster renewed from a Disney's adaptation of the classic myths (Hercules, you know), Mignola's daughter's imagination and an epilogue to try to come up something from it. A fun story again.

The Troll-witch

One of the best Hellboy stories is the sad Norwegian folktale adaptation into a modern comic by Mignola. Two sisters, one lovely and one troll-like create a bond so strong than the damnation over the human sister. The Troll sister explains her vengeance and how to get rid of the killers that in fact are the bad trolls that cursed her sister.

The Vampire of Prague

This story came with Mignola from his travel to Europe to help Guillemo del Toro in the first Hellboy movie. It is drawn by P. Craig Russell and although it has so many cool ingredients lacks in real interest and energy. The fight against a vampire that always runs away it is only sustained by the amazing art of the comic legend author.

Dr. Carp's Experiment

A haunted house where Hellboy remembers a long forgotten memory of a Doctor using Hellboy's blood to transform an ape into a killing machine is the only reason for this cool fight scene where we see how cool a monkey could be in the hands of Mignola.

The Ghoul

The story of a ghoul that sacrifices himself to serve his master to the end mixed with Hamlet. It was an experiment, but It worked better than other well-plotted Hellboy adventures. It could not be a fan favourite, but I really like it.

Makoma

Makoma, the longest story in the album is the comic miniseries (two issues) that showcased the talents of Mignola and Corben. An Africa legend, as big as the continent itself is the reason for this adventure. Hellboy impersonates Makoma a legendary hero that spawned himself the whole continent. Hellboy travels in this half-dream memories far and across Africa, searching for Giants and demons that he defeat one by one. Each one of them make him stronger until he helps the Spirit of Africa (an amazing giant rino) to give birth to all the life. A great read and one of the best Hellboy stories.

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Hellboy vol. 6: Strange places.

The Third Wish. 

The sixth volume has great stories about Hellboy and among them, my favourite: The Third Wish. Taking Andersen's Little Mermaid seed and watered by Mantlo's Namor back in 1983, this story tells the voyage to the bottom of the Ocean that our hero fares.

He meets in the heart of Africa a warlock, Mohlomi, asking for guidance and how not to fulfill his destiny (in fact, the creatures of the night, outspoken by Sir Edward state that Hellboy's story is not yet written and if it is, he is rewriting it). In a vision, he discovers that his next step should be taken at mermaids lair.

So, aided by an amulet that allows him breath underwater, there he goes. He is then attacked by three mermaid sisters that work under the command of a Witch. Hellboy looses the amulet in the fight and without air, he is vulnerable. A magic nail tailed in his horns allows to breath water and a chain made with bones of a werewolf ties him magicaly.

The witch, the grandmother of the mermaids and a mermaid herself (the Bog Roosh), ask their granddaughters what do they dessire (therefore the three wishes). The first two ask for their lovers and their needs and perishes by their fulfillment (the first ask to give back to live to his old lover, that comes from the dead and kills her in order to rejoin in death and the second wants to transform into a human being to join his human lover, dying by pressure and suffocation). The third one only wants the spear of his deceased father. That she obtained and return the weapon to his father's grave. There the ghost of his parent is angry. By harming a being that did nothing against mermaid, the girl has doomed them all.

The old witch knows that if Hellboy dies, he would bring the Armageddon to Earth. In order to avoid it, she would destroy Hellboy's body and give part of it to her fellow witch companions.

The young mermaid knows what to do to prevent the damnation of her family: free Hellboy. With the Spear she broke the chains and them with the same weapon, Hellboy kills the witch. Now the young mermaid should take the place of the old one. But now she would be together with her father.

I think this is the first time I found Hellboy interested, or really interested in someone of the opposite sex. And the young mermaid deserves. As you can see, the story is one of a kind. A true jewel.

The Island.
Opposite to the first story of this book, The Island is a difficult one. I came from a two part miniseries that was started and then interrupted by illness of the author. Then, retaken, the story turned into a three part miniseries and stopped again. Mignola rethink it again and the final version of two issues is what we can see here, along the eight pages of the beginning of the first version.

And well, so much versions means in this case too much information to chew. Absolutely.

It starts in the Sargasso Sea, based on Willia Hope Hodgson's Work. But we change place very early. From the drinks Hellboy has with a bunch of ghost sailors to a conversation with old Iron Maiden to a castle were we can see an Inquisition procedure incriminating a devil follower. That process follows after the dead of the participants. And here Hellboy doesn't know nothing about it. He fights and fights a dragon and a demon while all other participants develops the content. What is important: we are now aware that Hellboy is coming home. Wow!

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Hellboy vol. 5: Conqueror Worm.

Hellboy: Conqueror Worm, the fifth volume of the series takes its name from a poem by Poe. In this strange book, in my opinion not one of the best in Hellboy, Roger and Lobster Johnson are the real heroes of the adventure.

Our heroes fight the Nazi menace of a space incursion into the Void, thus bringing to Earth the Conqueror Worm that will obliterate the Earth and bring their darkness world. And Hitler was into it as the leader of the 3rd Reich.

It was a chaos and the castle fall down. But the crazy bunch of Nazi monsters remain there, I’m not sure what for. The mystical halo that Mignola wanted to add to this story made it more tiresome.

To me the best is the Guillermo del Toro’s introduction idea that BPRD are in fact Hellboy’s “benign captors”. It made me thought and it was the logical germ that forces Hellboy to go out of their list.

The ending of the book showcases the main villains, from Baba-Yagah to Rasputin. And their speeches on what are going to be the development of the future of Hellboy. But, aside this part, the story is a little unnecessary addition to the Hellboy canon. Well, it is my opinion, but this series won in 2002 the Eisner.

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Hellboy vol. 4: The Right Hand of Doom.

The fourth book of Hellboy is composed of several short stories and a long story that it’s related to the importance of the Stone Hand of Hellboy.

It starts with a joke. Pancake is a two page comic about Hellboy as a boy and his love for pancakes. It was a joke, but it stands as one of everyone favourites. The Nature of the Best is some kind of experiment to try Hellboy’s abilities against a dragon and King Vold mixes Norse gods and werewolves.

Part two is a collection of three tales with different kind of monsters to fight. Heads is a Japanese story about head-vampires. In Goodbye Mr. Tod we can see a Lovecraftian ectoplasm coming out from a spiritualist. The Vârcolac is a vampire story.

In part three is the main story of the book. The Right Hand of Doom is a conversation between Hellboy and Adrian Frost, a preacher from Lizarza, Spain and son of Malcolm Frost (if you remember, he tried to kill Hellboy). Our hero wants to know what all about this hand. This tale relates the importance of Hellboy as a key to awake the Ogdu Jahrad, and to conquer Earth and Heaven from Hell.

The story continues in Box Full of Evil in a longer format. Hellboy, Abe and Kate Corrigan, from B.P.R.D. face the menace of a minor demon and his summoner. They fall in their trap, stealing this demon the crown of hell from Hellboy. But after a battle of wits our heroes win. Not without taking good note of the important role Hellboy has in the main scheme of the war between Heaven and Hell.

This volume ends with a wonderful set of sketches of demons from Mignola himself.

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Hellboy vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others.

This book contains many short stories that are among the best there is in the Hellboy series. If you don’t know anything about Hellboy and want to give him a try, here is a good option.

There are many special stories and DHP short stories from the beginning of Hellboy. Here Mignola is fooling around with his character, developing only good stories without the intention of a continuity convention. Therefore, Hellboy usually runs solo in most of the adventures. And the stories are good. Oh, yes they are.

The Corpse.
This is one of everybody favourites. An ancient Irish story turn into the steampunk version of Hellboy. A baby is kidnapped and Hellboy uses the help of a corpse to find him, while helping the dead man to be buried in peace. A beauty.

The Iron Shoes.
Another short story based on Irish traditional tales. A big monster, a big fight and a nice ending.

The Baba Yaga.
One of the most important antagonist of Hellboy debuts here. We get to know why she is so angry with Hellboy. She missed an eye.

A Christmas Underground.
A Christmas special based on another traditional tale. Hellboy finds a hounted house, with a salamander-dragon and a big Were-rat. The fire purifies all at the end.

The Chained Coffin.
Here we can see some of the BPRD pals of Hellboy, like Abe. And what’s most important, a Demon who seems to be Hellboy’s father. Our hero is frightened to dead.

The Wolves of Saint August.
A huge, beautiful story. Hellboy and Katie, from BPRD travels to a city where a Dracula-like werewolf is the king of all. And Hellboy is here to free the city from the monster. But is the city willing?

Almost Colossus.
A big monster plus the introduction of the BPRD Humunculus. This was a two part miniseries. Roger (we get to know that his name is that at the end of the story) found his “brother”, a homunculus with power delirium. Hellboy gets really angry.

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Hellboy vol. 2: Wake the Devil.

The second miniseries in the Hellboy canon is Wake the Devil. In it, the personal story of Hellboy’s destiny is mixed with a classic Romanian vampire, Nazi steampunk menace and Rasputin. In fact, a great story.

First, the Nazis that survive the fall of the regime are very strange. They are mutilated and have supplanted the missed limbs with mechanical devices. A commando send them a message from the master, and the master is no other but Rasputin himself. Ilsa, a nazi leader that has succumbed to the all-powerful Rasputin’s women seduction. She will follow her true master to the end, and that would be seen.

B.P.R.D. headquarters are on the move and send a group of their agents to fight the more than possible menace of the nazi’s to recover the vampire serum program from back the year 1944. Everybody races to Rumania.

Hellboy is a commando in himself. The other agents act in little groups. Hellboy goes into direct confrontation from minute one. Perhaps the worst idea from this miniseries, letting little place to character development. Our hero reacts as a force of nature, while his colleagues behave in a more logical way.

In its way to kill the vampire Giurescu, a Dracula for this series, Hellboy fights all kind of menace. It makes me think the way women are the bad guys of this story. First, the women of the vampire and a flock of half-birds half-women, then a half-woman half-snake, then and Iron Maiden with the essence of Ilsa and the tail of a snake. And, lastly, Baba Yaga and his fellow witches.

There is this Raganarok, this waking the devils that Rasputin tries to achieve by sending Hellboy directly into the prison-hole of the dragon or Ogdru Jahad. It could be easily remembered as the levitating stones where several demons are confined. Hellboy horns start growing, waking the demons and then Hellboy get ridded of the horns, stopping the witches scheme.

Meanwhile, the B.P.R.D. agents are being exterminated (do not worry, not a single main character suffers any permanent damage). They fight almost everything, finding the homunculus that would turn into a B.P.R.D. agent. I wrote about him in a previous post.

Hellboy wins, making Rasputin angry. But now we know more about our hero and I sure want more.

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Hellboy vol. 1: Seeds of Destruction.

It is no surprise that I love Hellboy comics. I reviewed some of the latest titles and now I want to write about Hellboy from the very beginning and complete the profiles of the whole series. So I start with the first one, from 1994.

Seed of destruction is the first story and the one that almost ends it all. We can see a prologue that presents Hellboy as a demon child brought to earth by Grigori Rasputin, who is working for the Nazis. But a miscalculation made that Hellboy manifested in the allied camp. There, professor Bruttenholm, takes care of the boy and raises him as a man and as a competent member of the B.P.R.D. the agency related to act against paranormal treats.

In a normal case, Hellboy is in the crime scene were the frog-beasts kills his “step-father”. With the help of Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien (my favourite character in the series) team with Hellboy and travel to Cavendish Hall were the frog-beings could be hidden.

Here we can see all the influences Mignola tried to add to his masterpiece. First, pulp adventure. Our hero is the regular Pulp Hero. Then H. P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror takes the place of an ancient menace to human-kind. Add the spice of urban legends, like Rasputin magic powers, Nazis toying with the unknown, humans possessed by frog-monsters (well, that is not an Urban legend) and, voila, we have a Hellboy adventure. Well, of course, there is more.

Here it is another classic that everybody loves: writer Herman Melville and his Captain Ahab, Ishmael and Elijah, hidden under the name of Elihu Cavendish. He is the hero that directed the hand of Abe at the end of the story.

Hellboy faces Rasputin alone. Liz is under the magician’s power and Abe is possessed by Elihu. We can see a Lovecraft-like forgotten god that is the herald of the seven monsters (all of their names end in Jahad) that are imprisoned and that Hellboy only could free them. That’s the reason of our heroe’s existence. And he doesn’t like it.

After a fight that he almost looses, Hellboy harms Rasputin, his frog-men and Abe impales the magician with Elihu’s harpoon. Liz then wakes up and set to flames Rasputin. The menace is over (at least at the moment), but Hellboy has no opportunity to learn why is he here.

Read more about Hellboy and Seed of Destruction in this fine links:
Official Hellboy webpage.

Wikipedia entry.

Seed of Destruction as could be read in Wikipedia.

Dark Horse Profiles of Seed of Destruction, number one, number two and number three. Plus profile of the first issue.

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B.P.R.D vol. 9: 1946

The latest B.P.R.D addition to the Hellboy ongoing story is an old one, from the very beginning of the Bureau. Two years after its foundation, Professor Trevor Bruttenholn, the step-father of Hellboy starts a fight against the work of the Nazi’s Bureau, when they tried to create an army of super vampires.

And the project was so uncontrollable that even Hitler discarded it. But their own Vlad Tempest (well it is another count, but its resemblances are noticeable) didn’t like the resolution and maintained the project as something personal.

So, after the end of the WWII, the problem is still out there. And Bruttenholn fights this almost imposible fight. And it is quite a ride.

This volume is very different from the Abe Sapiens story. It is really something new to add and something very important. I really enjoyed this book.

Two new creators were in the Hellboy creative teams. New co-writer (Josh Dysart) and new artist (Paul Azaceta). The first is a writer that had a great idea and Mignola let him develop it. Azaceta, is a great penciler but I miss Guy Davis. No hard feelings here.

Here are some links about B.P.R.D. 1946:

In comics IGN.

Comicbook Bin.

DarkHorse TPB.

DarkHorse Comicbooks.

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Abe Sapien, the Drowning by Mignola and Jason Shawn Alexandre

The Drowning is the first solo adventure of Abe Sapien. In fact is HIS first solo adventure. He is asked to find a dagger that the late Edward Grey used in the 19th century to fight against evil. He was a mystic and an special agent of Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

With this mission to be accomplished, an inexpert Abe Sapien travels to France, to the quasi-Lovecraftian Saint-Sebastien island, at the beginning of the 1980s. This paradise island is a death trap to the entire community and to the group of B.P.R.D. agents that works side by side with Abe.

Then the series turns into a dark adventure where Abe Sapien must survive to prove himself worthy of being a B.P.R.D. agent. To me, the most important novelty in this series is the Vrooman’ Monks. They are ghost that works for this immortal, this Vrooman that need the life energy of the human beings to survive. It is a vampire of souls. And the monks are so carefully crafted by Mignola and Jason Shawn Alexander that they must be rescued to create a new adventure with them. They are so bad and so mean, and in fact so cool that they deserve that.

The art in this series is great. To tell you the truth, after taking a look, I search in the cover the name of Jae Lee, but no. It was this Jason Shawn Alexander and I must say that now I am a great fan of his work. So tasty and all in inks, no pencil. Such an amazing achievement. And of course, Mignola’s writing are as interesting as always.

Perhaps the story of the first adventure of Abe Sapien does not add anything basic to the Hellboy corpus, but I love this character and this story was really satisfactory.

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Hellboy vol. 8: Darkness Calls

[via Darkhorse]

Many things seem to be moving on the Hellboy series. BPRD is going wild and the main character was on retirement. With a new movie on the horizon, something like this has to happen.

This time, is Duncan Fegredo who is taking the pencils and what a wonderful addition. If you are only passing pages, you won’t notice that there is a new penciller. He fits perfectly. It is amazing the changes he had to do to adapt his own style to Mignola’s. Amazing.

The story of Darkness Calls is as impressive as his new artist. Hellboy is been demanded by his heritage. Witches are after him, and the biggest of all, Baba Yaga is after her revenge. So many plots are being played together but the story moves smoothly and it is nicely written. The way I see it, this graphic novel could be among the best, if not the best, Hellboy story.

Aside the main story, the drama of the eternal life of Kochei has a depth uncommon in comic book standards. Imagine being the most powerful being in the world, invincible but a slave of your own immortal condition. Your moral ideals are nothing if Baba Yaga ask you to do the most deplorable action but promises you to set you free. I was intrigued by detour of the adventure involving this character.

Things are moving and I think in the right direction in the Hellboy canon. I think this turning point in the series is for good. Hellboy is a well designed character and many interesting things are in his way. To me this is the opportunity to create a remarkable story to be remembered and perhaps better than what came before.

Even introduction by Jane Yolen is amazing. It is real fun to read, and wonderfully crafted. In only a page, she develops her powerful narrative.

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B.P.R.D vol. 8: Killing Ground

I have finished the last book (8 and counting) in the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) saga. I think this series is getting bigger and bigger every time a new TPB comes out.

This time the spotlight is on Benjamin Daimio. It is not really a Secret Origin story, but a new instalment in the Hellboy Saga Without Hellboy.

John Arcudi is in my opinion a writer in state of grace. The book has a narrative that runs fluently all along the five chapters. And of course, Guy Davis. In my opinion he is the best artist publishing today. I really, really love the way he portraits EVERYTHING. Perhaps Mignola has set the canon where we look for Hellboy stories, but, Arcudi and Davis, since The Dead story had been busier than ever and this second series in the Hellboy corpus is more proficient, with one book more than its parent creation.

Let’s see… The story. The characters are in BPRD headquarters and Abe is taking care of the Wendigo, Johann (my second favourite character after Abe) is enjoying his new found body, Liz is lost but she has found a new friend in Miss Panya (hope to see more of her soon) and Kate is in a one-way path to become a new Nick Fury. But the story is about Ben. I won’t be telling more because this would be a spoiler and I don’t really like them. But I must tell you the end really worth the effort (hardly at all) of reading the whole book. I must say that (read no further, perhaps a spoiler here) I’m glad that Johann loses his new body. Poor fellow. Perhaps next time he will be more fortunate (but may be not).

Here is an embed of the second Hellboy movie to be released soon. We will see more BPRD than in the first (and wonderful) movie. The Golden Army, that’s the name.



[via Black Tree Media]

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