Lauren RabainoSo I’m probably going to nerd out on you right now but I don’t care. You probably already know that I’m pretty into comics, and if you don’t, you do now. I’ve read quite a few of them in my day (probably an understatement) and I try to let people know which ones are good and which ones are crap. When I went home for Christmas I had to keep my load of comics to the bare minimum, because, you know, I had to socialize with my family and stuff. So I decided to take only my favorite comic series ever: “Hellboy.”
My guess is that most people at least know of Hellboy by name, most likely from the movies, the first one which came out a few years back, and the follow- up, “The Golden Army,” which came out last summer. Honestly, I really enjoyed those films. They were a blast if only for the fact they portrayed pretty much the most badass character ever.
Little may you know, however that “Hellboy” has been out for about 15 years now. In that time, creator Mike Mignola has churned out some eight trades (or “graphic novels” if you prefer that term) not to mention a whole wealth of related stories, such as “B.P.R.D.” by borrowing everything from Irish and Russian folklore to the hard-hitting action of 1930s and ’40s pulp fiction, all through a unique modern perspective that make up the Hellboy universe.
Where do I even begin describing Hellboy? Well, let me start by asking a question: what more could you want in a comic, or any story, really, than for a huge red half-demon creature who was brought into this world to bring about the apocalypse but rather chooses to do good and eat pancakes, fighting off hordes of evil with his “Right Hand of Doom”? Honestly, I can’t think of anything more I could ever want. I mean, after reading “Hellboy,” I just don’t appreciate a comic as much if I don’t see a robotic ape, created by a Nazi scientist, whose head is preserved in a jar, getting punched in the face. To top it all off, “Hellboy” is full of strange and loveable characters, like Abe Sapien, a weird but articulate fish-man found in an incubating tube, to Roger, a homunculus: a man created in a jar by a specific formula consisting of roots, herbs and bodily fluids. The awesomeness never stops!
There is just so much more to say about “Hellboy,” but honestly you just need to stop being a shiny and go out and read the comics. As with anything, it’s best to start at the beginning, which would be “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction.” You won’t be disappointed.
Don’t miss next week’s article because I’m talking about arguably the best piece of fiction to come out in super hero comic book history: DC’s Identity Crisis. It’s something that even people who aren’t dorks can appreciate, at least in theory.