{"id":34027,"date":"2025-10-14T17:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34027"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:03:18","slug":"hellboy-weird-tales-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/10\/14\/hellboy-weird-tales-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellboy: Weird Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Mike Mignola<\/strong>, Fabian Nicieza<\/strong>, John Cassaday<\/strong>, Eric Powell<\/strong>, Tom Sniegoski<\/strong>, Tommy Lee Edwards<\/strong>, Randy Stradley<\/strong>, Joe Casey<\/strong>, Sara Ryan<\/strong>, Ron Marz<\/strong>, J. H. Williams III<\/strong>, Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender<\/strong>, Will Pfeifer<\/strong>, John Arcudi<\/strong>, Matt Hollingsworth<\/strong>, Jill Thompson<\/strong>, Alex Maleev<\/strong>, Jason Pearson<\/strong>, Scott Morse<\/strong>, Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya<\/strong>, Doug Petrie<\/strong>, Bob Fingerman<\/strong>, Evan Dorkin<\/strong>, Andi Watson<\/strong>, Mark Ricketts<\/strong>, Kev Walker<\/strong>, Craig Thompson<\/strong>, Guy Davis<\/strong>, Stefano Raffaele<\/strong>, Ovi Nedelcu, Seung Kim, Steve Parkhouse<\/strong>, Steve Lieber<\/strong>, Jim Starlin<\/strong>, P. Craig Russell<\/strong>, Simeon Wilkins<\/strong>, Gene Colan<\/strong>, Roger Langridge<\/strong>, Eric Wright<\/strong>, Dave Stewart<\/strong>, Clem Robins<\/strong> & various (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-61655-510-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-121-8 (digital) 978-1506733845 (2022 Omnibus TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. It also has Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for comedic and satirical effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the establishment of the comic book direct market system, there was a huge outburst of independent publishers in America and, as with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few, however, were more than flash-in-the-pans and grew to become major players in the new world order.<\/p>\n

Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the shocking new concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and professional outlook and attitude – drew many big-name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller & John Byrne formally instituted sub-imprint Legend<\/em> for those projects major creators wanted to produce their own way and at their own pace. Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks; generating superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably the most impressive, popular and long-lived was Mignola\u2019s supernatural thriller Hellboy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The hulking monster-hunter debuted in San Diego Comic-Con Comics<\/strong> #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction<\/strong> (with Byrne scripting Mignola\u2019s plot & art). Colourist Mark Chiarello added layers of mood with his understated hues. Once the fans saw what was on offer there was no going back…<\/p>\n

What You Need to Know:<\/em> on December 23rd<\/sup> 1944 American Patriotic Superhero Torch of Liberty<\/em> and a squad of US Rangers intercepted and – almost – foiled a satanic ceremony predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm<\/em> and Malcolm Frost<\/em>. They were working in conjunction with influential medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones<\/em>. Those stalwarts were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody.<\/p>\n

Far, far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island<\/em>, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin <\/em>whose Project Ragna Rok<\/em> ritual seemed to have failed. The Russian was unfazed. Events were unfolding as he wished…<\/p>\n

Five decades later, the baby had grown into a mighty warrior engaging in a never-ending secret war: the world\u2019s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm spent years lovingly raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters – The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense<\/em>. \u201cHellboy\u201d quickly became its lead agent.<\/p>\n

As the decades of his career unfolded, Hellboy gleaned tantalising snatches of his origins, hints that he was an infernal 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, even though the universe keeps inexorably and relentlessly moving him towards it.<\/p>\n

Hellboy<\/strong> earned the status of \u2018actual legend\u2019 in the comics world, starting as the particular vision of a single creator and, by judicious selection of assistants and deputies, cementing a solid take on the character in the hearts of the public. That\u2019s just how it worked for Superman<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong> and Spider-Man<\/strong> (except for the whole \u201cowning the fruits of your own labours\u201d thing) and a big part of the same phenomenon was the eagerness of fellow creators to play in the same universe. Just how that and this collection came about is detailed in Editor Scott Allie\u2019s Introduction<\/em> preceding a blazing welter of strange and bizarre entertainment…<\/p>\n

Originally an 8-part comics series wherein a star-studded cast of creators tell their own stories in their own varied styles under the watchful supervision of the big cheese himself in his unique infernal playground, Hellboy\u2019s Weird Tales<\/strong> was gathered into a 2-volume set in 2004. This luxurious hardback and digital reissue originated in 2014, supplementing the original miniseries with back-up stories from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt<\/strong> #2-4.<\/p>\n

Dramas that add to the canon nestle alongside bizarre and humorous vignettes that simply live for the moment and begin with \u2018How Koschei Became Deathless\u2019<\/em> crafted by Mignola, Guy Davis, Dave Stewart & Clem Robins. The filler from Hellboy: The Wild Hunt<\/strong> #2 & 3 details the valiant trials of a noble warrior and the bad bargain he made, after which a crafty man turns the tables on the world\u2019s wickedest witch in \u2018Baba Yaga\u2019s Feast\u2019<\/em> (H:TWH <\/strong>#4).<\/p>\n

The mother of monsters returns in Fabian Nicieza & Stefano Raffaele\u2019s \u2018The Children of the Black Mound\u2019<\/em> wherein a future soviet dictator has his own youthful, life-altering encounter with the queen of magic.
\n\"\"
\nJohn Cassaday spoofs classic newspaper strips with rollicking pulp science hero in \u2018Lobster Johnson: Action Detective Adventure\u2019<\/em> after which Nazi-bashing nonsense, Eric Powell explores Hellboy\u2019s childhood and early monster-mashing in \u2018Midnight Cowboy\u2019<\/em> whilst Tom Sniegoski & Ovi Nedelcu raise our spirits with an older ghostbuster failing to tackle a playful posse of spooks in \u2018Haunted\u2019<\/em>…
\n\"\"
\nA classical doomed East\/West war romance ghost tragedy is settled by Tommy Lee Edwards & Don Cameron in \u2018A Love Story\u2019<\/em>, setting a scene for more Japanese myth busting in Randy Stradley & Seung Kim\u2019s \u2018Hot\u2019<\/em> wherein the B.P.R.D. star clashes with an unhappy Tengu<\/em> (water spirit) inhabiting a mountain hot spring…<\/p>\n

Joe Casey & Steve Parkhouse celebrate the glory days of test pilots and the right stuff in \u2018Flight Risk\u2019<\/em> when Hellboy is involved in a competition to see who\u2019s got the best jetpack, after which \u2018Family Story\u2019<\/em> (Sara Ryan & Steve Lieber) sees him acting as counsellor to the mum and dad of a rather diabolical kid, before we slip into all-out arcane action to retrieve a time bending artefact from a Guatemalan temple in \u2018Shattered\u2019<\/em> by Ron Marz & Jim Starlin.
\n\"\"
\nA stakeout with an over-amorous fellow agent leads to unanticipated consequences in J. H. Williams III\u2019s \u2018Love is Scarier than Death\u2019<\/em>, whilst Will Pfeifer & P. Craig Russell\u2019s dalliance with an undying theatre troupe traps our hellish hero in a \u2018Command Performance\u2019<\/em> and the entertainment motif continues in John Cassaday\u2019s \u2018Big-Top-Hell-Boy\u2019<\/em> as the B.P.R.D. try to exorcise a mass-murderous circus in Germany before Hellboy and aquatic investigator Abe Sapien<\/strong> battle zombies in the \u2018Theatre of the Dead\u2019<\/em> courtesy of scripters Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, as illustrated by Simeon Wilkins.<\/p>\n

Thanks to John Arcudi & Roger Langridge, the undersea avenger sort of stars in comedic daydream \u2018Abe Sapien: Star of the B.P.R.D.\u2019<\/em>, after which Jill Thompson takes \u2018Fifteen Minutes\u2019<\/em> to offer us the other side\u2019s view of the eternal struggle, whilst Matt Hollingsworth & Alex Maleev show us the struggle against evil starts before we\u2019re even legally alive in \u2018Still Born\u2019<\/em>. Indomitable psychic Firestarter Liz Sherman<\/em> acknowledges personal loss and the dreadful cost of the job in Jason Pearson\u2019s \u2018The Dread Within\u2019<\/em> before Scott Morse conjures up a calmer moment for Hellboy in \u2018Cool Your Head\u2019<\/em> and Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya return us to ghost-riddled Japan for an unconventional duel with childish spirits in \u2018Toy Soldier\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Bob Fingerman\u2019s \u2018Downtime\u2019<\/em> pits the cream of the B.P.R.D. against the vexatious thing inhabiting the office vending machine, after which Doug Petrie & Gene Colan follow Liz and Abe on a typical \u2018Friday\u2019<\/em>, even as artificial hero Roger the Homunculus<\/em> foolishly seeks \u2018Professional Help\u2019<\/em> during a devious demonic assault (as recorded by Evan Dorkin). Andi Watson tackles Hellboy\u2019s infernal heritage and possible future during a social function where he is – as always – the \u2018Party Pooper\u2019<\/em>, after which team leader\/psychologist Kate Corrigan<\/em> endures an acrimonious reunion with her dead-but-still-dreadful mother in \u2018Curse of the Haunted Dolly\u2019<\/em> (Mark Ricketts & Eric Wright), whilst Kev Walker pits bodiless spirit Johann Krauss<\/em> against a thing from outer space in \u2018Long Distance Caller\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The narrative portion of this stellar fear & fun fest rightly focuses on Hellboy himself as Craig Thompson takes the weird warrior on an extended tour of the underworld in \u2018My Vacation in Hell\u2019 <\/em>and there\u2019s still a wealth of wonder to enjoy with Mike Mignola\u2019s Hellboy Weird Tales Gallery<\/em> offering a selection of potent images by Cameron Stewart, Maleev, Dave Stevens with Dave Stewart, Steve Purcell, William Stout, Leinil Francis Yu, Phil Noto, Gary Fields with Michelle Madsen, J. H. Williams III, Rick Cortes with Anjin, Galen Showman with Michelle Madsen, Ben Templesmith, Frank Cho with Dave Stewart, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Lee Bermejo with Dave Stewart and Scott Morse.<\/p>\n

Baroque, grandiose, scary, hilarious and even deeply moving, these vignettes alternate suspenseful slow-boil tension with explosive catharsis, and trenchant absurdity, proving Hellboy <\/strong>to be a fully rounded character who can mix apocalyptic revelation with astounding adventure to enthral horror addicts and action junkies alike or enthral jaded fun-lovers in search of a momentary chuckle. This is a classic compendium of dark delights you simply must have.
\n\"\"
\n\u2122 & \u00a9 2003, 2009, 2014 Mike Mignola. Weird Tales is \u00ae Weird Tales, Ltd.<\/p>\n

Today in 1932 Francis Burr Opper<\/strong>\u2019s landmark strip And Her Name Was Maud<\/strong> ended. If only someone would release a definitive archive I certainly review it!<\/p>\n

Also today, the amazing and astounding Otto Binder<\/strong> died in 1974. He wrote everything from Superman to Captain Marvel to Mighty Samson so go seek him out too for a grand old time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Mignola, Fabian Nicieza, John Cassaday, Eric Powell, Tom Sniegoski, Tommy Lee Edwards, Randy Stradley, Joe Casey, Sara Ryan, Ron Marz, J. H. Williams III, Jim Pascoe & Tom Fassbender, Will Pfeifer, John Arcudi, Matt Hollingsworth, Jill Thompson, Alex Maleev, Jason Pearson, Scott Morse, Akira Yoshida & Kia Asamiya, Doug Petrie, Bob Fingerman, Evan … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hellboy: Weird Tales”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,280,113,163,122,66,125,395,108,396,225,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-animal-antics","category-comedy","category-hellboy","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-mike-mignola","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-monsters","category-mystery","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8QP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34034,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34027\/revisions\/34034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}