Hellboy: Makoma, or, A Tale Told by a Mummy... #1 (SPOILERS to come)

[Xequals10]

I didn't see a thread for this yet. The preview for the first issue is up at DarkHorse dot com or Comicscontinuum dot com. Very cool stuff!

[Triton]

i was already drooling in anticipation before, now i'm just frothing at the mouth..lol. wow, that last page is awesome ! can't wait for this one, especially after seeing that page by Corben a while ago. WOOT :p

[Tad]

I didn't expect the introduction to be tied into Hellboy's chronology so specifically. Not only do we get a date, we get references to existing stories. The last page is great but I also enjoyed the reveal of the mummy and how the "camera" focuses closer and closer. You get the sense of Hellboy being drawn in, almost hypnotically.

Which is the point. Wonderfully done.

Time to update those timelines, everyone.

[Angilas-Man]

Jeez, this is gonna be something special. It's just 4 pages and yet I was already completely enthralled in the story!!!

Mignola's art in there is magnificent, and from what I've seen Corben's draws a mean HB himself. Only about two weeks right?

[hellboyone]

What a beautiful and fun opening sequence. Can't wait to see the rest of the book!

R.

[morna]

D'oooooo! I kinda wish I hadn't looked, now I'm all anticipatey. Exquisite Mignola pages and young HB! Way too kool! Two whole weeks?

GAAAAH!

[Tad]

I think that whole "anticipatey" thing is why they put the previews out there. :p

[hellboyone]

Anticipatey! What a great word. Right up there with truthiness!

R.

[plut]

isn't this the first time we see Young Hellboy featured in a whole series? Exept some photo and his "birth" in Seed...

[Mikolaj]

I just love the interiors of the club. So many wieard things in such a climatic place. And wasn't Mike planing to use some of the big rhinos in the Third Wish? I distinclty remmember see'n them in the "art of" in next to the lion sketches.

[hellboyone]

isn't this the first time we see Young Hellboy featured in a whole series? Exept some photo and his "birth" in Seed...

Pancakes. Not a series but a full story, anyways (despite being 2 pages). :)

R.

[Maija]

11 posts and still no links for those of us who don't want to dig through Darkhorse "dot com" (:confused: )? Is there a new rule against linking to previews that I don't know about? Well, I guess I'll find out...

http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/preview.php?theid=12-467

[hellboyone]

Lazy! :)

Wasn't it worth diggin' for??

R.

[morna]

11 posts and still no links for those of us who don't want to dig through Darkhorse "dot com" (:confused: )? Is there a new rule against linking to previews that I don't know about? Well, I guess I'll find out...


sorry, I'd fully intended to put one up since it was a bit harder to find than I'd thought... and I guess I forgot!

sorry :)

[Maija]

Wasn't it worth diggin' for??


OooOOH, I [i]guess. :p
[/end whiney eight-year-old voice]

[Brisco]

Wow. Cool, cool, cool! Already more Mignola than I was expecting from this comic! Awesome.

[Spoilers based solely on the DH preview, so if, like most people at this point in the thread, you've read it already, it's OK to proceed.]

So Hellboy says he's only been to Africa once at this point, in 1993. And that was back in '47. So what happened to the Christopher Golden novels being considered "loosely in continuity?" 'Cause in The Lost Army Hellboy was in North Africa in 1985. (Libya, I think?) So does this comic effectively erase that story from the Hellboy timeline?

I know, that sounds like an awfully nerdy nitpick, but I can't help wondering. (Also, it would appear to shut the door to a lot of possible stories that could be told down the road, in HB's past. But oh well. This one looks amazing!)

Brisco

[Sparky]

"He was cute back then."Back then? Back then? He's still cute!

[Neil Hill]

Yay!! New Mignola artwork! I'd almost forgotten that Mike was supposed to be contributing artwork of his own to both Makoma volumes! I guess it's probably redundant to add that I now have a huge smile on my face! :D

[ADamUnRama]

Here's my problem with those preview, I want to read the rest of the book. Wow, I mean really thats all I can say

[Neil Hill]

Here's my problem with those preview, I want to read the rest of the book. Wow, I mean really thats all I can say

But doesn't that just about say it all? :D

[kid cthulhu]

Page four I must own. Amazing!

[Mist the Soul-Gatherer]

Wow. Cool, cool, cool! Already more Mignola than I was expecting from this comic! Awesome.

[Spoilers based solely on the DH preview, so if, like most people at this point in the thread, you've read it already, it's OK to proceed.]

So Hellboy says he's only been to Africa once at this point, in 1993. And that was back in '47. So what happened to the Christopher Golden novels being considered "loosely in continuity?" 'Cause in The Lost Army Hellboy was in North Africa in 1985. (Libya, I think?) So does this comic effectively erase that story from the Hellboy timeline?

I know, that sounds like an awfully nerdy nitpick, but I can't help wondering. (Also, it would appear to shut the door to a lot of possible stories that could be told down the road, in HB's past. But oh well. This one looks amazing!)

Brisco
When Hellboy says Africa, he means AFRICA, baby, not NORTH Africa.
Libya looks a lot different then where we've seen HB in the Third
Wish and where it looks like we'll see him in April. I think it's safe
to keep North Africa separate on the Hellboy timeline.

H

[Neil Hill]

When Hellboy says Africa, he means AFRICA, baby, not NORTH Africa.
Libya looks a lot different then where we've seen HB in the Third
Wish and where it looks like we'll see him in April. I think it's safe
to keep North Africa separate on the Hellboy timeline.

H

Just out of curiosity, what does Libya look like? :D

[Mist the Soul-Gatherer]

Just out of curiosity, what does Libya look like? :D

Stygian,
Here's more than you'll ever want to know about Libya, from the Wikkiepedia. Two main features are the Sahara Desert and the Sirocco wind storms. The Hellboy story "The Glass Road" in Odder Jobs takes place in Libya, near Al Jawf. As you'll see, the country doesn't have the African jungles and grassy plains with the animal life that I believe HB is thinking of when he says "Africa."
H

Geography of Libya
Libya extends over 1,759,540 km², making it the 16th largest nation in the world. It is bound to the west by Tunisia and Algeria, the southwest by Niger, the south by Chad and Sudan and to the east by Egypt. The country is also bound to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The climate is a mostly dry, desert climate. The North however enjoys a milder Mediterranean climate.
Geographic regions: Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan.
The chief cities are the capital Tripoli in northwest Libya and Benghazi, the country's second city. Other significant cities include Misratah, Sirte and Sabha.
Natural hazards: hot, dry, dust-laden sirocco (known in Libya as the ghibli) is a southern wind lasting one to four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms.
Oases: Ghadames, Kufra, many others.
The Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert is one of the aridest places on earth. In places decades may pass without any rain, and even in the highlands rainfall happens erratically, once every 5-10 years. At Uweinat, the last recorded rainfall was in September 1998. With such dryness, one would expect the desert to be totally lifeless. Yet there is a surprising abundance of lifeforms. There is a lagre depression, the Qattara depression, just to the south of the northernmost scarp, with Siwa oasis at its western extremity. The depression continues in a shallower form west, to the oases of Jaghbub and Jalo. There are other inhabited oases, Baharya, Farafra, Dakhla & Kharga west of the Nile in Egypt. There are a few scattered uninhabited small oases, usually linked to the major depressions, where water can be found by digging to a few feet in depth. In the west, in Libya, there is a widely dispersed group of oases in unconnected shallow depressions, the Kufra group, consisting of Tazerbo, Rebiana and Kufra. Aside the scarps, the general flatness is only interrupted by a series of plateaus and massifs near the centre of the Libyan Desert, around the convergence of the Egyptian-Sudanese-Libyan Borders. The Gilf Kebir plateau rises about 300 metres above the general plain, and lies entirely in Egypt. It roughly equals Switzerland in size, and is similar in structure to the other sandstone plateaus of the central Sahara. It's South-eastern part is well defined on all sides, with sheer cliffs and deep, narrow wadis. The North-east part, separated from the other half by a broad valley called the "Gap" is more broken, and supports three large wadis with live vegetation.
Slightly further to the south are the massifs of Arkenu, Uweinat and Kissu. These granite mountains are very ancient, having formed much before the sandstones surrounding them. Arkenu and Western Uweinat are ring complexes very similar to those in the Air mountains. Eastern Uweinat (the highest point in the Libyan desert) is a raised sandstone plateau adjacent to the granite part further west. The plain to the north of Uweinat is doted with eroded volcanic features.
In 1996 the movie "The English Patient" raised public interest, if not awareness, of the Libyan desert.
[edit]

[Neil Hill]

Wow, Mist-Gatherer! That WAS more information then I ever wanted to know! (kidding). BTW, are you like a history or geography teacher or something? Your responses to various posts are always very literate and well thought out (not that others aren't, but there's a different quality to yours), with detail to spare. I'm wondering if history and geography are just hobbies of yours, or something you actual teach or are involved in?

Thanks!

[Mist the Soul-Gatherer]

Wow, Mist-Gatherer! That WAS more information then I ever wanted to know! (kidding). BTW, are you like a history or geography teacher or something? Your responses to various posts are always very literate and well thought out (not that others aren't, but there's a different quality to yours), with detail to spare. I'm wondering if history and geography are just hobbies of yours, or something you actual teach or are involved in?

Thanks!
Thanks Stygian!!
Maybe I seem more literate because I'm a writer not an artist! Sorry-that was mean. I did teach high school and Jr. High English and Spanish for 2 years before going into advertising & marketing. I'm not a history buff and geography was one of my downfalls along with math & science. But I do a lot of research for the RPG that I co-GM with Lady Hellgirl that involves the history and geography of the game's location. I'm also developing 2 original comics concepts that require knowledge of real places and events.
So...what are your interests?
H

[Neil Hill]

Thanks Stygian!!
Maybe I seem more literate because I'm a writer not an artist! Sorry-that was mean. I did teach high school and Jr. High English and Spanish for 2 years before going into advertising & marketing. I'm not a history buff and geography was one of my downfalls along with math & science. But I do a lot of research for the RPG that I co-GM with Lady Hellgirl that involves the history and geography of the game's location. I'm also developing 2 original comics concepts that require knowledge of real places and events.
So...what are your interests?
H

OK, so you were a teacher at one point at least. That makes complete sense to me, given the types of things you've said, how you've said them, and the level of research sensed behind each post.

I currently work in a very boring and all too real world field- Process Goverance for the IT portion of my company. Basically what that means is my team is responsible for making sure each department is following Sarbanes/Oxley compliance guidelines for best business practices. My particular job involves auditing various business units who touch our ticketing and change management systems, to ensure that they are following processes and procedures correctly. Again, not the most mind intensive thing, which is why I also foster an interest in literature and reading of any kind.

I've often said I'll read a chewing gum wrapper if I don't have anything better around to read. I'm also a would-be artist and continually work on my artistic skills, even if that doesn't mean I'm seeing my work published just yet. :)

Well, your fortunate Mist-Gatherer to have your hands in so many pies- ultra creative in nature and otherwise. Good luck to you with your upcoming projects!