Hellboy Early Appearances

[Jelio]

hi guys maybe someone here can help clear up for me the early Hellboy appearance order (1993 and before) because Hellboy has had alot of "firsts"

here is what i have so far:

1991 August - Salt Lake City Comic Con Program (Hellboy in name only)

1993 May - Dime Press #4 - First Hellboy Cover - 2,000 copies
1993 - Freedonia Funnyworks Card - 1,200 copies - (No Jacket yet or Gun or Gun holster on belt)
1993 - Promotion Ad - Hellboy Print has Hellboy standing in front of a circle wearing a jacket - This is first Hellboy wearing his jacket
1993 August - San Diego Comic Con Comics 2 - First Hellboy Story (Black and White)
1993 December - John Byrne's Next Men #21 - First Nationally Available and also Color Story

i only placed them in the above order because of guessing ... my assumptions are that the very first true image of hellboy is Dime press 4 cover because Mike Mignola was quoted saying so, then Freedonia card, then Promotional ad because he has a jacket on for first time and the two before do not have a jacket, then San Diego Comic Con Comics #2

My hypothesis is that the Freedonia card possibly predates Dime Press #4
because hellboy has the BPRD logo on his chest in DimePress and not in Freedonia

so does anyone know the dates for the Freedonia or the Promotional Print ?
Also please feel free to correct me if i have any dates wrong in there, or if im missing some other early Hellboy first or appearance




-Jeremy

[Kees_L]

Hmmm. Aside from the '91 drawing as a first and the Dime Press as 'something like second' things seem to get difficult.
I would peg the Freedonia card art as something specifically made right around when the cards will have been made. But when was that? A week before publication. A month? I could not tell you.
And when will some of the first drawings for either the SDCC-story or SOD have come about. Prior to Freedonia or after? I wouldn't know. Although my gut says that some pages will have been in existence prior to the Freedonia card art. Same goes for the coat promo pin-up.

At the moment I'm nowhere near any Hellboy bookies, but doesn't the coat promo pinup get a mention in either the Art of or HB: SOD?! I seem to remember reading something on the need for a coat arising while making a sequential story. 'Though I wouldn't know which one.

It seems to me that in the Art of HB, the early art gets called like this: the '91 Con program illo may count as the first and the Dime Press cover may count as something like second. The rest you mention is "early stuff".
To me the SDCC-story seems like the first published Hellboy story but I couldn't tell you how far SOD may have come into existence already.

And people (on eBay) seem to wanna call the Next Men appearance the first (published) colored story-feature. Which seems likely, since the SDCC-story is in B&W. But the fact that the comic is just so damn good, matters to me far more. You know?:wink:.

[Jelio]

Kees_L

im 90% sure that the Freedonia card came out before SDCC#2 wich came out before JBNM#21 ... those 3 items (and DP#4 as well as the Jacket Print) all came out in 1993

its just i dont have any info on the months the Freedonia and the Jacket Print came out

now as for Seed of Destruction its my understanding that mini series began in 1994 so although its the first story in the TPB volumes and the Library editions it isnt the 1st time Hellboy has appeared

On another similar topic i was searching a place to find out how large the print runs of Hellboy comics have been over time, and i found a website that posts the comic shop orders for comics books from about 1997 and onwards

anyways so i went through the site and i started to compile a list of the various Hellboy comics print orders ... so far it seems that the most popular Hellboy comic was Batman Hellboy Starman with 45,000 orders and that on average theres about 25 thousand orders for a regular Hellboy comic


-Jeremy

[Kees_L]

now as for Seed of Destruction its my understanding that mini series began in 1994 so although its the first story in the TPB volumes and the Library editions it isnt the 1st time Hellboy has appeared

-Jeremy
Very true, Jeremy.
However, I meant to say: a publication date wouldn't necessarily say everything, I feel.
To me SOD feels somehow more akin to the Anubis/SDCC-story than for example the Next Men #21 appearance (which feels newer). Which got me thinking: some SOD-pages or even all, could have been readily lying on a shelf during 1993, before getting published in 1994. Could be, not?
Which would mean that the order of publication (between '93 and '94) would maybe not necessarily be the order of how exactly Hellboy would have evolved graphically or anything, like in such a narrow period. I mean, I do hope you get all the info available, but yeah, how significant will be knowing the exact month of publication? (How significant will such be, if some stuff might have been drawn earlier than other stuff? Or how some newer stuff might have got published sooner than older stuff?)
Which reminds me: according to my info SDCC Comics #2 got released in august, Next Men #21 in december. That is how far my information goes...:smile:

[alz]

Hmm (rummages around) ...I've got those durn Freedonia cards somewhere...!

AH: sez (c) 1993 ...hmm no other dates than that on the card. Jonell would be the one to know!

[Nick W]

Isn't all this in a sticky somewhere?

If memory serves me, the Freedonia cards were either freebies or sold at SDCC '93. So that would put the month either July or August.

And shouldn't "Hi, My Name is Hellboy" be on the early list too? I could swear Celebrate Diversity came out in '93.

N