Whats next?

[Vakanai]

Well, lets see, we got the comics, movie, novels, and now a cartoon. What medium do you want Hellboy to tackle next? I'm hoping for the Hellboy anime or Hellboy boardgame. Can also include merchandise, like magnets. Actually, does merchandise count as media? Anyways, you get the picture.

[Mike Cross]

Yuck anime...please whosoever reads this, do not do Hellboy Anime..yuck yuck yuck..

Hellboy boardgame would be cool though, but in the tradition of games like Mousetrap...it's be funny to have Hellboy Operation though

[Ken O]

Pez dispensers.


Please.

[Vakanai]

I was thinking Clue. Rasputin did it in the crypt with the Mayan head statue.

[Neil Hill]

Personally, I'd rather the property not be stretched so far so fast that he/it begins to dilute the original image. Thankfully Mike is at least aware of nearly every aspect of his character being translated to other mediums, which maintains a certain purity of vision, but a further spread into other mediums may not necessarily be a good thing. In fact, it might be time to take a break, not spread things further for now, and just re-assess.

This is of course just my opinion, so please understand that I'm not saying this must happen or I won't be a Hellboy fan anymore. I'm first and foremost a Mignola fan, so where he goes I go, but this is also his beloved character and I want to be there to support that enterprise. I just don't want the image diluted so much that the true soul of the character disappears behind some commercial machine (like many of the DC and Marvel superhero characters).

[Otto66]

Hellboy ice cream on a stick by Ben&Jerry.
Right Hand 0f Doom - frozen cherry
Liz Sherman - Very Berry Strawberry
Abe Sapien - Mint Chocolate Chip
Roger - Rocky Road
...and so on...

[ZombieHound]

Don't forget the trading cards from all three viewed versions (comic, movie, animated). Those were/are going to be nice, as are the recent comic line of action figures. I want to see a third series of those more than any other type of media along those lines right now. As for what else I'd like to see, I've been really hoping for [a] BPRD novel[s] at some point in life.

[THE REAL kirk]

The Hellboy Comedy Hour. You know you want it!

[absenter]

This isnt exactly a new kind of media, but could we please have the dark horse "Book of..." hellboy stories collected into a GN and, um, what else...isn't there another one or two uncollected. This needs to happen. Soon. Like now.

[Vakanai]

Personally, I'd rather the property not be stretched so far so fast that he/it begins to dilute the original image. Thankfully Mike is at least aware of nearly every aspect of his character being translated to other mediums, which maintains a certain purity of vision, but a further spread into other mediums may not necessarily be a good thing. In fact, it might be time to take a break, not spread things further for now, and just re-assess.

This is of course just my opinion, so please understand that I'm not saying this must happen or I won't be a Hellboy fan anymore. I'm first and foremost a Mignola fan, so where he goes I go, but this is also his beloved character and I want to be there to support that enterprise. I just don't want the image diluted so much that the true soul of the character disappears behind some commercial machine (like many of the DC and Marvel superhero characters).

Good point. That is perhaps the best course of action. But as this is one of those 'What if...' type of thread, what would you like to see if there was no danger of overexposure?

[6are54]

Yuck anime...please whosoever reads this, do not do Hellboy Anime..yuck yuck yuck..

Hellboy boardgame would be cool though, but in the tradition of games like Mousetrap...it's be funny to have Hellboy Operation though


Yeah, forget the anime. i mean, I like HB because it's the furthest from anime in the comic medium.

And yes to board games! BPRD CLUE would rule!

[6are54]

Personally, I'd rather the property not be stretched so far so fast that he/it begins to dilute the original image. Thankfully Mike is at least aware of nearly every aspect of his character being translated to other mediums, which maintains a certain purity of vision, but a further spread into other mediums may not necessarily be a good thing. In fact, it might be time to take a break, not spread things further for now, and just re-assess.

This is of course just my opinion, so please understand that I'm not saying this must happen or I won't be a Hellboy fan anymore. I'm first and foremost a Mignola fan, so where he goes I go, but this is also his beloved character and I want to be there to support that enterprise. I just don't want the image diluted so much that the true soul of the character disappears behind some commercial machine (like many of the DC and Marvel superhero characters).


amen to that!

[Hellcow]

It comes as no suprise that I just want Mignola Hellboy comics. Seems that's too much to ask, these days....

[hellboyone]

Yuck anime...please whosoever reads this, do not do Hellboy Anime..yuck yuck yuck..


Do you know how many more people around the world would discover Hellboy if an anime version came out? (Not that I condone it.)

[THE REAL kirk]

Do you know how many more people around the world would discover Hellboy if an anime version came out? (Not that I condone it.)

Do we need those people?
As Stygian pointed out, it's not about getting Hellboy into every home in the world, it's about maintaining the delicate balance of fan desires and character integrity. If it takes squishing Hellboy into some kind of anime frame work to get some people's attention then perhaps they aren't the people Hellboy is intended for. Plus, your don't get Anime Hellboy, you get another in a countless stream of bland anime junk that seems like it might have been derived from Hellboy.

I don't think we need anything next. I am happy with what we have.

[gdeo]

The Hellboy Comedy Hour. You know you want it!

so,a corpse and a harpy walk into a bar....:p

[Otto66]

so,a corpse and a harpy walk into a bar....:p
...and order 2 Apple teenies. The bartender brings the drinks and a bill
for $24.00. The bartender says, "Ya know we don't get many corpses and
harpies in here." And the the corpse says, "At these prices, I'm not surprised.":D :D

[Mike Cross]

ba dum bum..thank you folks, he's here all week.

[Neil Hill]

It's not about getting Hellboy into every home in the world, it's about maintaining the delicate balance of fan desires and character integrity.

Very good point. As to the whole should they or shouldn't they go Anime, I think the real question to ask is does the property lend itself to that type of interpretation or would it be a complete stretch that (like a rubber band stretched to its limits) might be going a little too far. For instance, I don't see an Anime version of Freddy Krueger or Big Blown Baby being very viable or wise enterprises. That being said, I think Hellboy is a property that is "friendly" to translations into many mediums across many cultures. I just don't want to see the purity of Mike's original vision tarnished by turning Hellboy into this mass market Wal-Mart mentality watered down mess.

I think what I'd like to see at this point honestly, and for those that will immediately cry fowl please hear me out, is a really nice well put together 11x17 artwork portfolio of Mignola painted Hellboy pieces. I absolutely adore that Wildstorm Fine Arts print that Mike did going on many years ago now. The one that made the cover of the hardcover Art of Hellboy. I don't know if Mike has any desire to do such a portfolio, but I'd love to have pieces that I could frame if so desired or just hang in my office at home or work and admire indefinitely. Mike's proven his talent as a storyteller in multiple mediums, but the one place I would like to see him do more is painting. He's and incredibly gifted painter with a sensibility that rivals many of the greats, so why not?

[Vakanai]

Me and my big mouth. For the record, I do like anime, but not all anime. I would never want the character himself to change much, I just have a wide range of tastes when it comes to art(one reason why I like Mignola's work so much). Also, Hellboy Animated is as far away from Mignola's work as you can get artistically, and I find it stays very true to the character we know and love. And yes, BPRD Clue would rock...

[6are54]

yeah well, everytime I've seen something turned into an anime, it sucked.

look at WitchBalde... YUK!

but if it had to be done, it should be none other than Tutsomu Nihei illustrating it all.

[Vakanai]

This is still a what would you like to see thread right? I get, I'm lame for likeing anime, can we discuss how I'd whup you at BPRD CLUE?

[Vakanai]

Oh and the TNT Witchblade show was awesome, shame I didn't get to see more of it. I saw preveiws for the anime and they did bucther it. The TNT version on DVD anywhere?

[Mike Cross]

No, never said you were lame for liking anime, it's personally not my cup of tea..everything looks exactly the same to me, from Akira to Astroboy. If anything, an old school Hanna Barbera hellboy would be hilarious, but i think the cartoon hellboy had been properly put forth by Darkwing Stones

[Otto66]

ba dum bum..thank you folks, he's here all week.
Thank you, thank you. The chicken noodle is the soup of the day
and don't forget to tip your watress.

Anime? Oh, yes. I can just see Hellboy with those big saucer eyes,
jumping up and down with those strange lines flashing out of his
head when ever he yells at Abe.:rolleyes:

[Ivar_L]

But I think Hellboy anime could be pretty cool. To say anime sucks is the same as to say books or movies comics suck - most of them suck but not all. Anime is so much better for horror, mood or creepyness than any American (TV) animation I've seen. Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent, Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy etc etc. And of course Myiazaki. It all depends from writers, artists and directors. If someone doesn't like anime, I'd recommend to watch Millennium Actress and My Neighbor Totoro. MA is very realisticly drawn, it could be done in live action drama, Totoro is just the best animated movie ever. Animation doesn't get much better then those.

But I think best animated medium for Hellboy could be stop motion. Or fake computer animated stop motion...

Back to the topic: I'd like to see Mignola prints too.

[THE REAL kirk]

I didn't mean to imply that ALL anime was stupid or worthless. I happen to really like some of it. It is just that I have seen various popular characters get "animeized" just because it is such a popular medium. And those that got the treatment rarely offered anything new or exciting other than to see them now rendered with that style.
Of course the same could be said for the live action and animated Hellboy worlds. I know there are some fans that still feel those weren't that great and Hellboy could just as easily stayed in the comics alone.
So each has his or her own taste.

But I will third the call for prints or portfolio by Mike.

[Angilas-Man]

Hey Vakanai, is your avatar a pic of the GodzillaxMechagodzilla/Tokyo G-suit? I can't quite tell.

Anway, just here to chime in. Anime is like any other medium, a lot of crap and some really good ones (like Hayao Miyazaki movies and Cowboy Bebop for instance). Hell, if Studio Ghibli decided to do an animated Hellboy movie my head would explode from sheer awesomeness. But just anime-izing because of the popularity of the genre is bad.


I'd like another Hellboy novel by Brian Hodge. "On Earth as it is in Hell" was fantastic.

[Vakanai]

I'm not sure which one it(my avatar) is from, it was just one of the CBR ones. But I couldn't possibly say no to Godzilla.

[Vakanai]

Now to change the anime topic were all stuck on, who wants to play CLUE?...Er I mean, what game types would Hellboy translate well into? TCG, Videogame, paper-pen thing, boardgame, or a choose your own adventure book? Ok, the last one's not technically a game, but I like those too.

[parrish]

I think Hellboy clue or a Hellboy chess set would be awesome.

[Rachel Edidin]

Now to change the anime topic were all stuck on, who wants to play CLUE?...Er I mean, what game types would Hellboy translate well into? TCG, Videogame, paper-pen thing, boardgame, or a choose your own adventure book? Ok, the last one's not technically a game, but I like those too.

Well, there's this (http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-248), and there's gonna be this (http://http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_article.asp?cid=41078)...

And Tequilawyrm, I now really, really want a Baba Yaga pez dispenser. How awesome would that be?!

[Sparky]

Hell, if Studio Ghibli decided...
Apologies to Mr. Miyazaki for the crap Photoshop:

http://www.phobe.com/crap/hell_totoro.gif

[6are54]

I believe HB animated is enough.
Do we really need a constant flow of spin-offs, remakes, new non-Mignola stories, art and collaborations and blah blah blah...which in the end, just means more things to purchase. And it deviates quite a bit from the Graphic novel format. There's already Mignola's initial work, Weird Tales, Movies, an animation and tones of fun and useless merchandise. Ouija boards!!!


And plenty of stuff still to come.


------------------------------------


Sorry to come back to the subject of anime...just wanted to add a few things.
Hellboy has a spooky victo-horror feel to it so I don't think it would translate well into anime, even with talented animators.
BTW-
As previously stated by most of you, not all anime is created equal.
But, for those anime skeptics out there...you know who you are... you should know there are some artists who's work is very different and substantial in comparison to that pop-sparkle-shine style that is too commonly used.

Check out:
Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/6are54/03_princess_mononoke.jpg

& Spirited Away

Mamoru Oshii's Ghost In The Shell 2 Innocence (although you should see the first one too..)

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/6are54/gitsi0.jpg

& read Tsutomu Nihei's Blame!

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/6are54/Blame302.jpg


And this is bad candy-moon-cherry tits-love-jelly monkey anime:

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/6are54/sailor-moon-wallpaper-06.jpg

If you can't see the difference...you should look harder.

[Vakanai]

I think some ogdru-jahad themed poker cards would be lovely.