Hellboy Vol 1: Seed of Destruction
Written by John Byrne
Art by Mike Mignola
1994
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Hellboy Vol 2: Wake the Devil
By Mike Mignola
1997
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Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others
By Mike Mignola
1998
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Hellboy Vol 4: The Right Hand of Doom
By Mike Mignola
2000
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Hellboy Vol 5: Conqueror Worm
By Mike Mignola
2002
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Hellboy Vol 6: Strange Places
By Mike Mignola
2006
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Hellboy Vol 7: The Troll Witch and Others
By Mike Mignola
2007
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Hellboy Vol 8: Darkness Calls
Written by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo
2008
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Hellboy Vol 9: The Wild Hunt
Written by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo
2010
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Hellboy Vol 10: The Crooked Man and Others
Written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart
Art by Richard Corben, Jason Shawn Alexander and Duncan Fegredo
2010
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Hellboy Vol 11: The Bride of Hell and Others
Written by Mike Mignola
Art by Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Kevin Nowlan and Scott Hampton
2011
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Vol 12: The Storm and The Fury
Written by Mike Mignola
Art by Duncan Fegredo
2012
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Ok then: Hellboy. I'm gonna admit: I've never been much of a fan. Something about the way it's never really transcended it's influences or rather: the bits that it put together to make up the character. So that - it's always felt like just a typical down-on-his-luck tough guy with a steady supply of quips plastered all over in red and given a pair of horns (and to be really damning: there's not really much (or anything) separating Hellboy from a video game character - which I mean in all the worst possible ways: there's no growth in any of these volumes - apart from putting Hellboy in lots of different exotic (and not so exotic) locations). I get that the things that he picks fights with (or pick fights with him) are all mythic beasts and fairytale legends and lovecraftian monsters - but I'm bored with fight scenes and I've been bored with them a long long time and I guess it doesn't help that The Sandman was one of the first comics I ever read properly - so that kinda fantasy/legend mash-up thing needs to do more than just be happy with itself in order to impress me.
One of the things that irritated me is the way that pretty much every Hellboy story (especially the big ones) all seemed to rely on some corny deus ex machina to save the day (turns out that the ghost can save everyone - or someone else has a power that no one mentioned before or whatever...) which manages to kill the story stone dead and left me feeling cheated. But then again - there's not really much in way of story in any of these thing. Sure - they have an appearance of story - people go places, stuff happens - but the characters never rise above being voice boxes for plot mechanics and blah-blah exposition and the dialogue rarely rises above the level of an 80s action movie (eg Hellboy shouting "get stuffed!" as he fires a gun) which got real old real quick (or maybe I'm just a big old humbug?).
It was halfway through volume 4 that I realised what my problem with the whole series was: Hellboy isn't really 'about' anything other than the stuff that happens: there's people talking about old legends and stuff - and fights (lots and lots of fights) - but at no point does it ever really convey anything deeper or strike any emotional chords. Ok - there's a bit in The Conqueror Worm where a granddaughter is betrayed by her grandfather which is pretty horrible and actually made me feel something - but as the rest of it: it's just pretty pictures (very very pretty pictures) going all out sound and fury with nothing really said apart from a few empty-seeming gestures here and there about sacrifice and being your own person/not being defined by who you were.
And even after reading all the books in the series - you're not really left with any better understanding of who Hellboy is than you are at the start. Which isn't so good.
Every other bad guy making long speeches about the secret history of the world that - while full of classical text easter eggs - do little to advance the story. In fact - most of the time Hellboy feels like an extended almanac of unearthly spooks and monsters: hitting the reader from all sides with citations and references - and little in the way of fun, action and adventure: all tonic and no sugar (as opposed to Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - which covers a lot more ground but (mostly) manages to provide a few bangs for your buck).
On the plus side: The artwork is totally amazing: consistently doing loads of fun things with shadows and small shafts of light not to mention the fine handling of the colours palette (I wonder how feted Hellboy would be if it was drawn by an artist without Mignola's evident talent? oh - and what's with all the people always falling from places?). And - judging from the introductions - there's a lot of fine people who seem to think that Hellboy is worth his weight in gold (including Alan Moore and Michael Moorcock among others).
But yeah: Blah blah blah. All in all - I'd say: Read B.P.R.D. instead. Or better yet: The Sandman. Although I will admit that the later stories do get better - check out Makoma in Vol 7 and The Crooked Man in Vol 10 - which can be dipped into without any prior knowledge needed...
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Links: GraphiContent Review of Hellboy #1, Comics Should Be Good The Crooked Man Review, Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader Review of In The Chapel of Moloch, Comic Book Resources Review of The Crooked Man #3, Comics Alliance Review of Hellboy in Mexico, PopMatters Article: The Devil You Know: Mignola's Hellboy in the Chapel of Moloch and the Old Debate, Robot 6: Your Wednesday Sequence Article.
Further reading: B.P.R.D., B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Sandman, Lucifer, iZombie, Fables, The Goon, Turf, Mezolith.
All comments welcome.
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