By Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, P. Craig Russell, Dave Stewart & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-860-7
Hellboy was first seen in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally debuting. That launch was in miniseries Seed of Destruction with John Byrne scripting over Mignola’s plot and art.
As a baby Hellboy was taken – on December 23rd 1944 – from Nazi cultists by American superhero The Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers. They had interrupted a satanic ritual predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professor Trevor Bruttenholm and his associates.
They were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when the abominable infant with a huge stone right hand materialised in a fireball. Raised by Bruttenholm, the child grew into a mighty warrior fighting a never-ending secret war. The Professor trained the infernal foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy supernatural threats – the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
After years of such devoted intervention, education and warm human interaction, in 1952 the neophyte hero began destroying unnatural threats and supernatural monsters as lead agent for the BPRD. “Hellboy†rapidly became its top operator… the world’s most successful paranormal investigator…
As the decades unfold, Hellboy gleans snatches of his origins, learning he is a supposedly corrupted creature of dark portent: born a demonic messiah, somehow destined to destroy the world and bring back ancient powers of evil. It is a fate he despises and utterly rejects…
This sinister seventh spellbinding compendium of graphic grotesquery and grave wit collects material from 2003 to 2007 as previously seen in The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft, The Dark Horse Book of the Dead, The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings, The Dark Horse Book of Monsters, 2-issue miniseries Hellboy: Makoma, the Hellboy Premiere Edition and Hellboy: Wizard 1/2. Also included is an original story created especially for his trade paperback edition.
The format is a gathered scattering of short yarns and vignettes presenting exploits from Hellboy’s chequered career as a “weird-buster†and, following an engaging Introduction from fellow multi-talented tale-weaver Walter Simonson, Mignola briefly expounds on the folkloric influences and other antecedents of the uncanny yarns which follow before the eldritch enigmas at last unfold.
Coloured and lettered by regular support crew Dave Stewart and Clem Robins, ‘The Penanggalan’ (Hellboy Premiere Edition, 2004) is set in 1958 Malaysia with the already world-weary troubleshooter investigating a macabre vampiric creature with disgusting habits and a neat line in deceptive camouflage. Even though appearances are frequently deceiving, the veteran monster-hunter is not fooled by a pretty face or placid demeanour…
‘The Hydra and the Lion’ (The Dark Horse Book of Monsters) resulted from a collaboration between Mignola and his young daughter: subtly referencing Hercules’ legendary battles against the Nemean lion and a many-headed dragon. Hellboy’s frenetic clash occurred in Alaska in 1961 after the death of a circus strongman somehow led to recurring raids by monsters in the fog…
Eponymous lead feature ‘The Troll Witch’ came from The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft and is set in Norway circa 1963. It opens with Hellboy quizzing a wizened crone whilst investigating a series of bizarre and unnaturally savage murders. She relates an old legend of a barren woman who sought magical aid to give her husband children. The successful outcome was two girls. One was beautiful and one was not…
When trolls took the lovely lass, her ugly sister responded with great fury and effect to save her… and therein lay the clue to Hellboy’s latest case… and its eventual solution…
‘The Vampire of Prague’ – written by Mignola, mischievously illustrated by P. Craig Russell, with colours by Lovern Kindzierski and the lettering of Galen Showman – was created especially for this compilation and was the result of the author’s trip to the Czech republic whilst scouting movie locations…
With sublime wit and sly joy, it details the depredations of an ancient gambling-addicted bloodsucker and how the reign of terror was finally ended in one night in August 1982 when a certain red-faced, stone-handed hero hit town…
Mignola, Stewart & Robins reunited for ‘Dr. Carp’s Experiment’ (The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings) with Hellboy embroiled in an atypical ghost story, confronting restless spirits in an old house on Long Island in 1991: a dank domicile blighted not just by gore-drenched phantoms but also malevolent time-travellers and killer-apes wielding electric harpoons…
‘The Ghoul or Reflections on Death and The Poetry of Worms’ by Mignola, Stewart & Robins is an experimental item from The Dark Horse Book of the Dead, taking place in London 1992 with our paranormal paragon hunting a predatory, verse-spouting cadaver consumer.
The narrative remainder of the book offers Mignola’s broad interpretation of African myth Makoma and the Giants, realised here by the one-and-only Richard Corben, with Stewart & Robins in dutiful attendance.
‘Makoma or, A Tale Told by a Mummy in the New York City Explorers Club on August 16 1993’ is a story within a story outlining how Hellboy’s visit to a venerable institution exposes an unsuspected connection to one of Earth’s earliest and most important champions who tackled terrible titans, tamed the wild places and faced devils and dragons whilst setting mankind in his rightful place in the world hierarchy…
The epic adventure is supplemented by a new Mignola pinup, a Corben cover gallery and sketchbook pages by Mignola and Russell.
Baroque, bombastic, suspenseful and explosively action-packed, this is another superbly scary rollercoaster ride to delight one and all.
™ and © 2007, 2006, 2005 2004 and 2003 Mike Mignola. Hellboy is ™ Mike Mignola. Introduction © 2006 Walter Simonson. All rights reserved.