After reading Lobster Johnson, which is a weird, little subdivision of the Hellboy-verse, I decided to go back and read the first few Hellboy collections.
And, oh my, it is tasty stuff. People have been saying Mile Mignolia is a genius for years and there is not much I can add to that. (Man, I hope there’s nothing scandalous in his personal life and I’m not praising a real jerk)
What I feel I can bring to the table is a probably delusional sense of historic perspective. I remember Hellboy’s early appearances, mostly due to friends saying ‘Hey! You got to check this out!’ I’m not going to claim my younger self (or possibly current self) had the taste or wisdom to find Hellboy on my own.
One thing I had forgotten was how much of early Hellboy were short stories, scattered among issues of Dark Horse Presents. As someone who didn’t find the stories in order, it wasn’t always easy to figure out what was going on.
But the art was always fascinating, so different from so much of what was out there. We are talking about the era before that particular comic book bubble burst, a world of massive splash pages and gimmick covers. Yes, Mignolia owes a lot to Jack Kirby. Yes, he makes use of light and shadow in a way that would make Robert Wiene nod approvingly. However, the art is also very stylized and distinct when it felt like everyone wanted to be Rob Liefield or Todd McFarlane.
Looking at Hellboy now, it feels like the harbinger of things to come. Comic books have never been only superheroes. Archie Comics and Disney have been making serious bank since the 40s. But in the decades since Hellboy first showed up, horror and crime and urban fantasy and so many other genres have become more acknowledged in comic books. I’m not saying The Walking Dead wouldn’t exist without Hellboy. I’m just saying Mignolia was ahead of his time.
And the old stories hold up surprisingly well. Mignolia establishes when the stories take place, as opposed to a nebulous present, which helps keep things from feeling unintentionally dated. He mines folklore and older creaters so there’s a foundation to the work. And it’s also just good.
Lobster Johnson was fun but his biggest impact on me was taking me back to Mignolia’s other works.
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