By Mike Mignola, Bill Wray, Stephen DeStefano, Dave Cooper, Hilary Barta, Pat McEown, Glenn Barr, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Stewart, John Costanza & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-988-6 (TPB)
Although probably best known for revitalising the sub-genre of horror-heroes via his superb Hellboy and B.P.R.D. tales, creator Mike Mignola (Batman, The Witcher, Rocket Raccoon) conceals a dark and largely unsuspected secret: he has a very dry, outlandish and wicked sense of humour…
Since 1997, whenever nobody was looking, he and co-conspirator Bill Wray (Big Blown Baby, Ren and Stimpy) have concocted outrageous, uproarious and vulgarly hilarious spoof tales which might – but probably weren’t – untold yarns of the scarlet scallywag’s formative days in hell before being drawn to earth and reared as a champion of humanity against the Things of the Outer Darkness…
Moreover, they convinced the gullible fools at Dark Horse Comics to publish them, first in the Hellboy Junior Halloween Special and again in an eponymous 2-issue miniseries in 1999 which also included many scurrilous and hilarious spoofs, pastiches and pokes at a host of family-friendly favourites from parental favourite Harvey Comics: beloved icons such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Stumbo the Giant, Baby Huey and Hot Stuff, the Little Devil…
With most of the material scripted by Wray, this appallingly rude, crude, compelling compilation bolts all the material together and even springs for an all-new feature, beginning with Bill & Mike’s painfully cruel ‘The Creation of Hellboy Jr.: a Short Origin Story’, before tucking into ‘Maggots, Maggots, Everywhere!’ An all-Wray buffet of gastric ghastliness, here the stone-fisted imp, fed up with his meagre ration of icky bug-babies, goes looking for something better to eat. Perhaps, however, he shouldn’t have taken restaurant advice from that sneaky Adolf Hitler, whose rancid soul Junior should have been feindishly tormenting anyway…
After that monster-infested odyssey, Mignola illustrates a mordant, wry adaptation of a German folk tale in ‘The Devil Don’t Smoke’ before Stephen DeStefano (Ren and Stimpy) outrageously illuminates agonisingly hilarious ‘Huge Retarded Duck’ and Hilary Barta (Starslayer, American Flagg!, Plastic Man) lends his stylish faux-Wally Wood pastichery to ‘The Ginger Beef Boy’, wherein a frustrated crossdresser (sorry folks: it’s an old book and no other term will do here!) creates the son he always yearned for from the ingredients of a Chinese meal…
Following a stunning Kevin Nowlan (Doctor Strange, Plastic Man) pin-up (by him not of him – that would be silly), Dave Cooper (Futurama) draws ‘Hellboy Jr.’s Magical Mushroom Trip’, wherein our ever-starving imp and his pet ant disastrously attempt to grow their own edible fungus. They end up in deep shiitake when their psychotropic crop brings them into conflict with the big boss. Fans of evil dictators might appreciate and welcome a guest appearance by Idi Amin…
Implausibly based on a true story, Wray & Mignolas’s ‘Squid of Man’ details the Grim Reaper’s wager with a mad scientist endeavouring to birth a new Atlantean race from the freshly dead remnants of cephalopods, arthropods, crustaceans, fine twine and lightning, whilst ‘The Wolvertons’ details the life and loves of an Alaskan lumberjack, his multi-tentacular alien wife and their extraordinarily hybrid kids Brad and Tiffany. Wray & Pat McEown (Grendel) spared no effort in their passionate tribute to Basil Wolverton, cartoon king of the Grotesque, so read this one before eating.
Back in Hell, Jr. regretfully experiences ‘The House of Candy Pain’ – by Wray, Barta, John Costanza & Dave Stewart (Daytripper, Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist) – when he and fellow imp Donnie flee to Storyland and the Forbidden Forest of Festible Dwellings. They should have stuck with the shack made from steaks or Tofu Terrace, but no, they have to enter the Gingerbread House…
Following a Barta bonus pin-up, Wray does it all for the tragic tale of ‘Sparky Bear’: a cub torn from his natural environment and raised by humans as a fire-prevention posterbeast and safety spokesperson, whilst Cooper-limned parable ‘Somnambo the Sleeping Giant’ proves that even if your village is overrun with demons, sometimes the cure is worse than the affliction….
That idea is echoed in ‘Wheezy, the Sick Little Witch’ (DeStefano): a poorly tyke whose cute li’l animal friends can neither cure nor survive contact with.
After surviving a nasty fast-food experience in ‘Hitler’ and a mock ad for your very own Spear of Destiny, the all-new ‘Hellboy Jr. vs Hitler’ (Wray & Stewart) depicts how the little devil can’t even escort the Fallen Fuhrer to the depths of Lower Hell without screwing up and giving the mono-testicular reprobate another chance to resurrect his Reich…
After a painted Wray Halloween scene and saucy Hell’s hot-tub pin-up from Glenn Barr (Seekers into the Mystery, Brooklyn Dreams), the mirthful madness concludes with Mignola & Stewart’s ‘Hellboy Jr. Gets a Car’ wherein the Hadean Half-pint takes an illicit test drive in a roadster meant for a Duke of Hell. It does not end well…
This Chymeric chronicle also includes a ‘Hellboy Junior Sketchbook’ with working drawings, colour roughs and layouts by Wray, McEown & DeStefano, topping off a wildly exuberant burst of tongue-in-cheek, sardonic and surreal adult fun: a jovially jocund, gut-bustingly gross gas for every lover of off-the-wall, near-the-knuckle fun.
Hellboy Jr. ™ & © Mike Mignola. All individual strips, art & stories © 1997, 1999, 2003 their individual creator or holder. All rights reserved.