HELLBOY

Hello everyone!!

Hase here!

I would like to apologize to my future fans for not starting writing before.

Lately my life has been pretty busy (as it is pretty usually), and I mostly read at airports, so I take ages to finish any book.

However, if I do not start now, I won't ever do.

Last night a friend lend me the second volume of Hellboy: "Hellboy: Wake the Devil". He is a very nice friend coming home and taking around 20 comic-books and when I ask about some of his... He forgets at his parents, who live 100 kms away.

So I can tell you I read the first volume of this series like... 10 months ago.

Hellboy is the creation of the great artis Mike Mignola. It first saw light around 1993/94 and his adventures have been coming sporadically since.

There are currently 2 movies (which I enjoyed, and I would recommend the second).

Hellboy is a big, tough, guy. Only he has some other characteristics, such as a tail, two huge round.. emmm, "things" in his forehead, and red skin. Well, with a name such as Hellboy, what did you expect?

Yes, our little friend is just that. A poor little boy from Hell, summoned to our world during the Second Wolrd War. But don't you worry, his stories are at the present time.

He works for a kind of secret bureau in the States (with offices all over the world) which fights evil, and mostly supernatural, forces. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is everything you can think of: an elegant mix of the C.I.A. or M.I.6 you see in movies, with hidden bases and highly advanced technology.

Mignola has a peculiar drawing style, which some people assume is pure heritage of one of the biggest comic-book creators: Jack Kirby. Personally I see also lots of influence of European comics (mostly French and Italian) and a personal... Oh, I just read at wikipedia that *Hase bows* Mr. Alan Moore despicted Mignola's style as "German expressionism meets Jack Kirby". And this was my last point. In Hellboy, Mignola not only gives a really dynamic structure of pages, but also plays alot with black and pure colours. You might be used to see lots of white (because a comic is normally printed in paper).. Here you have black... Or more accurately... DARKNESS. Figures are always half in complete darkness, and because of this, many times you will have to imagine where the lines ends.

This goes excepcionally well with the kind of stories you will read... full of dark-gothic science-fantasy, with other dark realms blending the world around our main characters.

In this second volume, the main arc focus on a ver interesting point of view over... oh wait,

I wanted to tell you that this volume is dedicated "To Dracula, and all those vampires who inspired me" (or something like this, I don't have the volume with me right now).

So! Far away for just giving you the cool fight of your main hero against Dracula, Mignola gives us a new point of view and origin of the myth of the vampires.

I was pleased to see that lots of references to different mythologies, not the common library of myths that are being used constantly in any of this kind of X-files series; but the ones I have taken some years to learn from other freak writers and video-game designers.

And this is something Hellboy, as a book gives you with excepcional mastery. It ties, mix and fuse real historical facts, mythologies from all over the world and science-fiction-fantasy. I am sure you can find a dozen of inspirations for Mignola's creation, from Lovecraft to Tarantino. And probably all of them are right... and all of them are greatly connected giving you a modern action cultural comic.

Until now, having just read the two first volumes, I have to admit that plots arent to complex... or at least not at level of complexity I personally like. But the unique style of picture, and the world it creates... together with the fresh dialogues and charismatic characters goes perfectly with a correct story.

Really, you should have a look.

Hoping to make you read me soon,

Hase

Edit: I just read the third volume ("Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and others") and I'm even more possitive about. I mean this third volume is a compilation of short stories!! Most of them based in old Scottish and English fairy-tales. Just so cool.