Hellboy Reminds Me Why I Love Comics

[DWEarhart]

Seriously, I've been on a slump with comics these past couple or trinity of years. I've hated them and the direction the business has gone, but B.P.R.D. I love - every month.

I recently re-read Wake the Devil - it rekindled the flame I had for comics these past twenty-plus years. That and the Hellboy/Batman/Starman crossover. And B.P.R.D. - yes.

[Neil Hill]

"Trinity of years"...interesting. :)

Yeah, Mike's artwork and stories have a way of doing that. This is no slam on Mike's current spate of writing only (as that topic's been done and done), but I've always found his artwork alone very 'therapeutic', much in the manner you describe.

[DWEarhart]

Yup. From writing to artistry - the majority of the books, while being hard work, reaks of enjoyment. It just flows from the pages.

I dig Mignola writing and drawing. I dig Hellboy and B.P.R.D. They're one of the few comics I still read.

[jimm]

Have to agree, was a big reader mid 70s to mid 80s as a youth, and just recently discovered hellboy and Mignola and WOW. Takes me back to finding stuff like the green lantern neil adams run as a kid and what that art meant to me. Mikes style has me trying to dig up early kirby thors as their style both hit the same note for me now.

[DWEarhart]

Have to agree, was a big reader mid 70s to mid 80s as a youth, and just recently discovered hellboy and Mignola and WOW. Takes me back to finding stuff like the green lantern neil adams run as a kid and what that art meant to me. Mikes style has me trying to dig up early kirby thors as their style both hit the same note for me now.

BAM! You nailed it.

I was reading Wake the Devil after reading Kirby's New Gods omnibus, and I just said DAMN. Similar in heart, and a little bit of look, but the love for comics is there. I can't get that from most other books these days.

[Arlecchino]

The thing about the Hellboy/BPRD world is that the focus is on telling the story. Not on Civil-Crisis-House of Sales-Secret War-Countdown. Im fatigued by all the major world changing events that are going on in the big two (DC/Marvel). They have been going on for almost 4 years now. I can turn to Hellboy/BPRD to just give me a decent story that is sans all the hype that is smothering the big two.
Thanks Dark Horse and Mignola.

[DWEarhart]

Oh yeah. I've been disgusted with that recent trend, though 52 is probably one of the better books to come out in a long time, but the whole mainstream business feels forceful to commiting to their product, and I just won't even if it means leaving behind characters I've grown up with and loved for over two decades.

Hellboy and B.P.R.D. are great for the comfort and simple pleasures of loving comics.

[kidfromhell]

Amen! :) :) :) :)

[Kees_L]

Seconded totally.
Didn't HB start out as an excuse for mr. Mignola to create cool stuff in between jobs? And from that - trying to not step on toes here - having evolved and evolving still into 'Mike Mignola's re-defining super-hero stuff'? Or to put it more positively: 'Mignola's take on super-hero stuff'. Essentially deriving out of utter commitment to continuate Mike's own enjoyment to the full.
Comic-wise HB & BPRD keep me interested because they lack the Omni-Multi-Whatnot-verse thing, with the inter-cameo-ing befriended or befoed heroes and all that: 'Dull day I'm having, but hey I got paged by both Unsettling Man ánd Margerine...!'
HB is set in the real world, by means of folklore. He fights evil - by which he is sought out continuously to have him lead them - fights to prove himself as being more human than demon-King. No alter ego, but a longish coat and or tilted hat at times. I mean, that'll work. Big time.