Hellboy Backups

[Middenway]

Remember back when The Wild Hunt was coming out and there were those short stories in the back drawn by Guy Davis with the old monk narrator? (Baba Yaga's Feast and How Koshchei Became Deathless) I really liked those fun little stories, and I'd like to see more of them, whether it be in Dark Horse Presents or as a special online thing for the fans (like on the B.P.R.D. Facebook page or something) or as a backup feature in Hellboy in Hell. (Hellboy in Hell being my preference, since it would mean we could see a new issue of Hellboy slightly more frequently)

I don't own the single issues, so I keep waiting for news of more of these stories so that eventually they'll go to trade paperback. Scott Allie has said before in Hellmail: "The short backups from Wild Hunt will be homeless for a while, but there is a long-term plan." There's light at the end of the tunnel, I know, I just can't see it yet.

[thwhtGuardian]

I'd love to see those collected as well, I thought it was a shame they were not included in the back of the trades that collected the stories they were originally attached to.

A Myths of the Hellboy Universe trade would be cool, so I'd be down for more back features so they'd be able to compile such a book.

[Kees_L]

Well let's see:

there hardly seems much shortage to stuff running at the moment for hellboy-related titles.

Nor are there any downsides to keeping the quality and focus to a max.

And any stories that have actually made publication - in various appropriate formats - will ALL be very affordible and purchasible in this internet-age.

Even the shorter ones, although logically those might not arise as frequently if arcs are made to fit issues or trades without backups.

So all-in-all I don't really see much reason to complain or besing 'cravings toward illumination due to tunnels ending' or what not.


If you want any of it, simply buy it. Or wait, should you prefer to. Since that's what tradewaiting would be: voluntary.

[Middenway]

So all-in-all I don't really see much reason to complain or besing 'cravings toward illumination due to tunnels ending' or what not.
If you want any of it, simply buy it. Or wait, should you prefer to. Since that's what tradewaiting would be: voluntary.

Speculation isn't the same as complaining. Don't take the fun out of the conversation before it's begun.

I'd love to see those collected as well, I thought it was a shame they were not included in the back of the trades that collected the stories they were originally attached to.
A Myths of the Hellboy Universe trade would be cool, so I'd be down for more back features so they'd be able to compile such a book.

Yeah, I am curious what their plan for collecting these stories is. A Myths of the Hellboy Universe trade would be fun, each one beginning with that monk writing in away... (Of course, in my dream version of this trade, every single story is drawn by Guy Davis... Alas, it is not to be) It'd be cool if perhaps some of these stories the opportunity to explore the Hyperborean era and its fall, perhaps even explore Shonchin's past that was touched on in Gods. I know Mike Mignola's expressed an interest in stories like that. Whether or not they come to anything remains to be seen.

Any other theories as to what trade they may be collected in?

[Kees_L]

Speculation isn't the same as complaining. Don't take the fun out of the conversation before it's begun.

I agree I shouldn't be trying to take the fun out from anything.

But remembering rather recent stories or 'light at the end of tunnels' sounds sort of dramatic to me, so maybe that threw me a bit.

Yeah, I am curious what their plan for collecting these stories is.

Well, as yet it seems to me that I couldn't think of anyone more apt or dedicated to governing the overall narrative to any Hellboy-related stuff than mr Mike Mignola and Scott Allie, plus whomever would have aided to such as yet. I feel to having complete and utter faith in them, since I'd say the focus would be a major part to what sets Hellboy et al apart so much and so uniquely.
And in interviews or commentary I've always up to now had the feeling it was being conveyed to me how the aforementioned people and especially mr Mike would be involved in either knowing or becoming to know exactly how and in what form any of the narrative should be layed out both as made to be coming together.
Of which any of the bottomline(s) or greater schemes, the overall feel or either only some particulars would be known or expected by mr Mike on many occasions already years and years in advance, if not from the early beginnings.
So if mr Scott would say there'd be a plan then I feel confident there actually would be.

If I were to speculate then I'd feel that there would still be a lot to come with Hellboy In Hell, both as outside from there.
For instance, if the Dagda and the Faeries would have retreated not merely to someplace 'underground' but more rather another realm, like T'Irr na'n Ogg or what's it, like as in Hellboy: Box Full of Evil. Maybe they'd have a magical well to be peeking into other realms or something? Like they might be to re-appear with following Hellboy in Hell? As if "Hell" might foremostly be meaning "past the mortal realm"?
Maybe the realm-traversing / mortal-life-transcending (as in 'dead'?) figures such as Eddie Grey or Mohlomi or the Baba Yaga and Koshchei could be too?
As if either the Baba or the old goat would not yet be done with making succinct but telling entries into it?
Hell, even Roger and Abe might be to reappear, if Hellboy: the Fury was any indication!

So you see, I really do think there would be something solid to what'd be planned, moreso than merely that they would have forgot about those stories or that they'd just want tradewaiters to be craving or such - not meant to sneer or attack, it's just that I myself would feel it more appropriate to be trusting and patiently longing instead of to be speculating - at least along the lines of dark tunnels or lighting at the end?
Like I'd be having my own speculations or thoughts to how stuff would seem to be developing - but I'm confident that the narrative will hold itself up on its own just perfectly.

[Middenway]

But remembering rather recent stories or 'light at the end of tunnels' sounds sort of dramatic to me, so maybe that threw me a bit.

I was being melodramatic for the sake of being melodramatic. Tongue firmly in my cheek. :P

So if mr Scott would say there'd be a plan then I feel confident there actually would be.

I don't doubt it, but I do enjoy trying to guess at where they may be going.

it's just that I myself would feel it more appropriate to be trusting and patiently longing instead of to be speculating - at least along the lines of dark tunnels or lighting at the end?
Like I'd be having my own speculations or thoughts to how stuff would seem to be developing - but I'm confident that the narrative will hold itself up on its own just perfectly.

As am I, but I enjoy the guessing game, so I'm never going to wait patiently in silence. That doesn't sound like much fun at all. And I like hearing other people's theories too. Don't think of it as a lack of trust (because it's not), but rather an enthusiasm for what may lie ahead.

[Kees_L]

As am I, but I enjoy the guessing game, so I'm never going to wait patiently in silence. That doesn't sound like much fun at all. And I like hearing other people's theories too. Don't think of it as a lack of trust (because it's not), but rather an enthusiasm for what may lie ahead.

I think I know what you mean quite well, but do you know how I'd be meaning things?
I never said "in silence". But just compare your last post to your first in this thread: it seems to be implying things or be to sound in quite a different way I would think.

And the guessing game will be a major thing in any reading or narratives - if any good, since the narrative aims to shape and set in motion such a thing. Since such would form to be the payoff moreso than even the payoff actually getting delivered within the stories? And for any solid hints or implications to where things might be going - or not - which will be abundant enough, will or might be giving readers a feeling of glowy saturation or satisfactory resolvement vs. compelling unresolvement intendedly too?

So again: I'm not telling any people to be quiet or such, but it's more that I'm responding, how potentially for any reader or enthusiast any certain 'keeping perspective' both as 'coming across a certain way' would be seeming important potentially?

Like I said and demonstrated earlier, I have and might vocalize my own speculations, but I'd NEVER want it to sound THE LEAST BIT like I'd wanna be urging or telling anyone else - like mr Mike or mr Scott for instance - how to be or go about things - as it's their gig completely, so they'll be knowing best and all the books would come out to the best of their own ability.
Which isn't trust so much, but how it is, because nobody but them are ever making these particular books, since they'll be made by them particularly.

[Middenway]

If I were to speculate then I'd feel that there would still be a lot to come with Hellboy In Hell, both as outside from there.
For instance, if the Dagda and the Faeries would have retreated not merely to someplace 'underground' but more rather another realm, like T'Irr na'n Ogg or what's it, like as in Hellboy: Box Full of Evil. Maybe they'd have a magical well to be peeking into other realms or something? Like they might be to re-appear with following Hellboy in Hell? As if "Hell" might foremostly be meaning "past the mortal realm"?
Maybe the realm-traversing / mortal-life-transcending (as in 'dead'?) figures such as Eddie Grey or Mohlomi or the Baba Yaga and Koshchei could be too?
As if either the Baba or the old goat would not yet be done with making succinct but telling entries into it?
Hell, even Roger and Abe might be to reappear, if Hellboy: the Fury was any indication!

I'd love to see a short story about Mohlomi. That'd be a short I could really get excited about. But any of the ones you've suggested would be well worth exploring. I did love the way those The Wild Hunt stories had a fable/storyteller-like quality to them. They're fun reads.

[meorsomeone]

I agree I shouldn't be trying to take the fun out from anything.








If I were to speculate then I'd feel that there would still be a lot to come with Hellboy In Hell, both as outside from there.
For instance, if the Dagda and the Faeries would have retreated not merely to someplace 'underground' but more rather another realm, like T'Irr na'n Ogg or what's it, like as in Hellboy: Box Full of Evil. Maybe they'd have a magical well to be peeking into other realms or something? Like they might be to re-appear with following Hellboy in Hell? As if "Hell" might foremostly be meaning "past the mortal realm"?
Maybe the realm-traversing / mortal-life-transcending (as in 'dead'?) figures such as Eddie Grey or Mohlomi or the Baba Yaga and Koshchei could be too?
As if either the Baba or the old goat would not yet be done with making succinct but telling entries into it?
Hell, even Roger and Abe might be to reappear, if Hellboy: the Fury was any indication!

.

speaking of this, and I forget what book it's in but someone is having a talk with Edward Grey and telling him how it will be upto him to find Hellboy and that in doing so he will learn how to do evil to accomplish good. I dont know if that will turn into nothing or not, Grey did appear in the Fury kind of helpfully hovering in the background but it seems there is more here to be played out (will Grey follow him into hell? will they be a kind of Virgil/Dante tour team?). On the other hand it may go nowhere like Hecate, promised to be with Hellboy on the last day and never is mentioned or makes an appearance anywhere in the Storm or the Fury. I love this series dearly but they do seem to forget previous set-ups regularly. It all appears to be in flux so who knows.

[meorsomeone]

oh, forgot to say: Monster Men was a Hellboy backup and was recently collected and published. Pretty great too!

[Kees_L]

speaking of this, and I forget what book it's in but someone is having a talk with Edward Grey and telling him how it will be upto him to find Hellboy and that in doing so he will learn how to do evil to accomplish good. I dont know if that will turn into nothing or not, Grey did appear in the Fury kind of helpfully hovering in the background but it seems there is more here to be played out (will Grey follow him into hell? will they be a kind of Virgil/Dante tour team?). On the other hand it may go nowhere like Hecate, promised to be with Hellboy on the last day and never is mentioned or makes an appearance anywhere in the Storm or the Fury. I love this series dearly but they do seem to forget previous set-ups regularly. It all appears to be in flux so who knows.

Hiya and welcome, Me!

You might think that (the bolded bits) but I feel to disagree. I feel what's being conveyed is that even pretty girls who declare themselves godesses on account of having snakes for hair, a serpent-style body from the waist down, or just due to thinking to be knowing it all, could turn out to not actually be knowing it all, like when they'd get beaten in a one-on-one, becoming but soggy carcasses with horrible teeth, not riding the backs of dragons on their last day, but more rather just biting the dust.
For a turn of events amid any narrative, I would be thinking such a powerful plot-point IMHO.

So for storylines, things wouldn't have to be appearing "in flux" too much here. But more rather any apparent fluxy aptitudes could well be intended and part of it, for all I'd know.
A destiny or purpose or promise of story just fulfilled to the letter would likely become to being as dull as dry dust, wouldn't it?
Because eventhough reason or payoff or mystery-unveilment might seem to need being straightforward, but in actuality it wouldn't have to be very straightforward at all.
Since depending on what perspectives to take, any stuff could seem to be very different or even paradoxical, both realistically as well as in any imaginable reality. And any narratives will work by the grace of enticing readers into being to imagine along, onto any or some of such perspectives to take?

It might be that for a heroic lore, Hellboy or the B.P.R.D. would be proposing stuff along a similar vein, as other nifty comics or works, yet also a new one potentially - like how in some folktales or scary stories any good versus evil would not ever be proving but black-and-white. Hellboy doesn't look like much of a good guy - intentionally I'd think. Plus he doesn't do what he's told.
In Ilyas's Oddyssey (by Homer, but not Simpson) or either Gilgamesj, or actual indigeanous folktales, lots of stuff would similarly seem mysterious or unexpected, or downright shocking-seeming, or at least nothing all-too-black-and-white, in many respects.
I'd go so far as to say that particularly traditional popular(-ized) superhero comics or Hollywoodified popular entertainment, both as the commercial child-friendly "faery-tales" of for instance the brothers Grimm or Walt Disney, would excell in aspiring to be seeming straightforward instead of mysterious or unexpected. Potentially pointing out the difference between "popularized" and "popular". Whereas for stories of any time or format, unexpectedness or mystery and wonderment would be seeming a strength more rather than a weakness.

[meorsomeone]

Hiya and welcome, Me!

You might think that (the bolded bits) but I feel to disagree. I feel what's being conveyed is that even pretty girls who declare themselves godesses on account of having snakes for hair, a serpent-style body from the waist down, or just due to thinking to be knowing it all, could turn out to not actually be knowing it all, like when they'd get beaten in a one-on-one, becoming but soggy carcasses with horrible teeth, not riding the backs of dragons on their last day, but more rather just biting the dust.
For a turn of events amid any narrative, I would be thinking such a powerful plot-point IMHO.

So for storylines, things wouldn't have to be appearing "in flux" too much here. But more rather any apparent fluxy aptitudes could well be intended and part of it, for all I'd know.
A destiny or purpose or promise of story just fulfilled to the letter would likely become to being as dull as dry dust, wouldn't it?
Because eventhough reason or payoff or mystery-unveilment might seem to need being straightforward, but in actuality it wouldn't have to be very straightforward at all.
Since depending on what perspectives to take, any stuff could seem to be very different or even paradoxical, both realistically as well as in any imaginable reality. And any narratives will work by the grace of enticing readers into being to imagine along, onto any or some of such perspectives to take?

It might be that for a heroic lore, Hellboy or the B.P.R.D. would be proposing stuff along a similar vein, as other nifty comics or works, yet also a new one potentially - like how in some folktales or scary stories any good versus evil would not ever be proving but black-and-white. Hellboy doesn't look like much of a good guy - intentionally I'd think. Plus he doesn't do what he's told.
In Ilyas's Oddyssey (by Homer, but not Simpson) or either Gilgamesj, or actual indigeanous folktales, lots of stuff would similarly seem mysterious or unexpected, or downright shocking-seeming, or at least nothing all-too-black-and-white, in many respects.
I'd go so far as to say that particularly traditional popular(-ized) superhero comics or Hollywoodified popular entertainment, both as the commercial child-friendly "faery-tales" of for instance the brothers Grimm or Walt Disney, would excell in aspiring to be seeming straightforward instead of mysterious or unexpected. Potentially pointing out the difference between "popularized" and "popular". Whereas for stories of any time or format, unexpectedness or mystery and wonderment would be seeming a strength more rather than a weakness.

You make good points here.
Actually after I posted it I walked away thinking about it only to come to the thought that Hellboy is always being told what his fate is and he usually has little interest in what another character has got planned for him. It's like what Grey says while standing under the world tree in i forget what book, he's talking about how if Hellboy does indeed have fate it wont play out that way because Hellboy is carving his own path.
I dont really see anything in the HB universe as black and white, but I liked reading what you wrote anyway.
With all this stuff it's a case of "we shall see".

[Middenway]

Moved my post to this thread. It seemed more appropriate there.

[Storey74]

As for the back-ups, I really enjoyed them both in the form of short comics and as prose. There are so many opportunities to highlight members of the BPRD world. I would love to see more about some of the old BPRD villains, members of the Lobster's crews and info on the secret societies that pop up now and then like Thules and Oannes. Back-ups might be a good way to shed some more light on these things, especially if they don't warrant a whole series or figure into the "big" picture.

[Middenway]

That's an interesting idea. I'd love to read a backup about the Lobster's crew. That'd be cool.