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Graphic Novel Review: Hellboy Omnibus, Volume 2: Strange Places by Mike Mignola, art by Mike Mignola, Gary Gianni, and Richard Corben

Hellboy Omnibus Volume 2: Strange Places stories by Mike Mignola; “Into the Silent Sea” story by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni; “The Right Hand of Doom”, “Box Full of Evil”, “Conqueror Worm”; “The Third Wish”, and “The Island” art by Mike Mignola; “Being Human” art by Richard Corben

Dark Horse, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-50670-688-7

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, comiXology

 

Hellboy Omnibus Volume 2: Strange Places includes Hellboy’s adventures from 1998 to 2005, in chronological order. In these tales, Hellboy searches for answers about himself and his destiny.

In Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, the titular character meets Adrian Frost, the son of Professor Malcolm Frost who spent the last years of his life trying to kill Hellboy. The priest tries to convince Hellboy of his father’s fear of him, and that he wasn’t an evil man. He offers to sell Hellboy the only surviving clue that he found in his father’s notes about himself. The price is a story, the story of Hellboy. He tells a story of the Mad Monk who came back, his death at Hellboy’s hand, and the search for who Hellboy really is, who he is meant to be.

“Box Full of Evil” finds Hellboy and Abe Sapien investigating the case of a mysterious man who can paralyze a household while he digs through the walls of a gentleman’s sitting room only to pull out a small locked box and a pair of commonplace fireplace tongs. What could the box hold, and who is the man who had the power to subdue everyone in a large house merely with a hand shaped candle?

In B.P.R.D.: Being Human, Hellboy convinces the B.P.R.D. to let him take Roger the Homunculus out in the field to investigate the dead bodies of the Quillen family, who walk out of their graves to return to their run-down estate. They discover a Black woman with a vendetta to settle. She was born out of the rape of her mother at the hands of the head of the household, and she wants them to pay in their afterlives.

Roger and Hellboy are sent out again in Conqueror Worm, with a guide to Hunte Castle, to stop the Nazi spacecraft that is estimated to crash land there. Hellboy discovers the terrible truth about something the BPRD decided to add to Roger’s internal workings when they brought him back to life. When they arrive at the castle, they find they were led into a trap, and Lobster Johnson is real.

Trapped by the nail of the Bog Roosh, Hellboy must fight his way to freedom in “The Third Wish”. The youngest mermaid of three proves an unlikely ally in his journey, and reconciles with her father in the process. Hellboy meets the cursed being that set his existence into motion in “The Island”. This creature underestimates Hellboy’s strength and humanity in the end. In the final story in the omnibus, Into the Silent Sea, the true commander of a crew of men on the ship named Rebecca is called by something in the sea, just as she calls to it. Will anyone survive her visit?

Also included in this volume is a Hellboy sketchbook with notes by Mignola. The sketchbook is a bonus to see how Mignola crafts his stories and artwork as well. It has been fantastic to read these stories in chronological order to see how Hellboy’s story unfolds. This also provides a new reader the opportunity to become familiar with the short stories in the Hellboy/B.P.R.D universe. There are, of course, mythological and Lovecraftian overtones galore. Something that seems to be prevalent in the Hellboy stories is the subject of humanity’s inability or unwillingness to recognize the fact that Hellboy is not human, based on his actions and decisions to aid humans when at all possible, even risking his own life at times. They don’t have any qualms about calling other creatures, whether they be demons or homunculi, inhuman. This, of course, gets under Hellboy’s skin and he is not shy about addressing it. We even see the big red guy quit the B.P.R.D. as a result of something he can’t sit by and watch. Highly recommended.

Contains: some blood, violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Graphic Novel Review: Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola


 

Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola

Dark Horse, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1-50670-666-5

Available: Kindle edition, paperback

 

Hellboy’s complete story is presented in chronological order in Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction. This is a massive tome, at over 300 pages, written and drawn by Mignola. We read from Hellboy’s summoning during his World War II origin all the way to his confrontation with the mad monk who brought him to Earth. Hellboy continually resists accepting his alleged fate as the harbinger of the end of the world while he is fighting the supernatural. Hellboy’s career at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is bolstered by the aid of the noble Abe Sapien and firestarter Liz Sherman at his side.

Volume 1 reprints Hellboy’s adventures from 1994-1997, Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, and the stories “Wolves of St August,” “The Chained Coffin,” and “Almost Colossus” from The Chained Coffin and The Right Hand of Doom. Included in the last pages of this book is a sketchbook with character designs from the earliest versions of Hellboy, Abe, and Liz to the current iterations. The sketches show the physical evolution that Mignola explored as he created his epic characters.

I would recommend this book particularly to readers new to the world of Hellboy and fans of the big red lug with the red right hand alike. It was great to be able to read the story of Hellboy in chronological order in one sitting to get the whole saga. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Graphic Novel Review: Hellboy in Hell, Library Edition by Mike Mignola, art by Mike Mignola

 

Hellboy in Hell, Library Edition by Mike Mignola, art by Mike Mignola

Dark Horse, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1-50670-363-3

Available: Hardcover

 

Hellboy in Hell, Library Edition contains storylines originally collected in the trade paperbacks The Descent  and The Death Card, and takes place after The Storm and the Fury.  In the opening chapter, we witness Hellboy’s liberation from an abyss by Sir Edward Gray, followed by a battle with a demon he once defeated, and a Dickensian introduction to Hellboy’s journey through Hell. It is the perfect beginning to the end. We witness Hellboy’s travels: Pandemonium denying his birthright and throne; the creation of his immobile army by the Fisher of Souls (who tells him “there is only one object that can breathe life into that army—your own right hand” p. 49); the birth of Hellboy; uncomfortable family reunions; a battle for the unwanted throne; facing old enemies thought long gone; and, ultimately, fulfilling his destiny to destroy Pandemonium. Shakespeare and Dickens references are scattered throughout, which really helps solidify what is happening at certain points in the story.

Mignola’s art is superb, as usual. The atmosphere and feeling of each chapter, with shadows and oppressive environments, set the tone for the overall book, even when there are brightly rendered scenes such as in Chapter 7, “The Trials of Dr. Hoffman”.

Looking at other reviews for this book, it seems that the consensus is clear: it’s sad to see the end of such a remarkable character, but what a graceful ending it is. I could not think of a better send-off for Hellboy. It still feels too soon for his saga to be over, but there is so much more to the character revealed in this last tome. I can’t go beyond that, lest I spoil the book for potential readers.

Additionally, this volume contains “The Magician and the Snake,” by Katie Mignola (age 7) and Mike Mignola (“much, much older”) and “The Exorcist of Vorsk: A puppet story told in Hell” by Todd and Mike Mignola. The first story in particular is moving in its storytelling simplicity. Also included is Mignola’s sketchbook material. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker