Nutt's Nuggets - Book Review by Bill Nutt, July 1, 2008
THE DEVIL YOU SAY- The Hellboy and B.P.R.D. graphic novels, with their melding of folklore, Lovecraftian fantasy and superheroics, are among the most consistently engaging and entertaining books on the market.
Hellboy and B.P.R.D.
Hellboy Written By Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo
B.P.R.D. Written By Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis
By their nature, comics - like film or television - is a medium based on collaboration. At the largest companies, the chores of writing, drawing, lettering, and coloring typically are divided among multiple hands. Even those independent books created by a single writer/artist inevitably require or publisher.
Yet like film, comics can also reflect the singular vision of an individual creator. Like the director of a movie or the executive producer of a TV series, this person oversees enough steps in the creative process to call the finished product his or her own.
Case in point: Mike Mignola and the world of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.
For nearly 15 years, Mignola has been chronicling the ongoing story of Hellboy, a creature from another dimension who arrived on Earth at the end of World War II. Working first as a member of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) and later as a nomadic traveler, Hellboy deals with mystical threats, supernatural occurrences, and outright oddities of nature. (If you've seen the wonderful movie version of Hellboy, you probably get the idea, though a few details and aspects of the character were changed for the film.)
Hellboy's first adventure, a miniseries called "Seed of Destruction," was plotted and drawn by Mignola with dialogue by veteran comic book writer/artist John Byrne. Almost immediately, Mignola took over the scripting of the book while continuing to produce the artwork. Eventually, Mignola ceded the art chores to other people, while taking on writing partners (notably John Arcudi).
Several purists screamed - and continue to scream - bloody murder that anyone but Mignola should have anything to do with Hellboy's world. But virtually all of his artistic collaborators have turned in splendid work, particularly Guy Davis (no relation to the blues singer, though he did illustrate one of his CD covers) whose frenetic drawings grace many of the B.P.R.D. graphic novels.
In addition, as a result of subcontracting the writing and art, Mignola's output has dramatically increased. The past couple of years have seen a plethora of new projects, including more Hellboy stories and several graphic novels about the B.P.R.D. and its other unusual operatives, including the amphibian Abe Sapien.
More crucially, the involvement of many co-conspirators has not diluted the impact of Mignola's vision, His original sense of the characters and the situations remain intact.
Mignola may not be a wordsmith on the caliber of such writers as Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman, but he does display a knack for deft characterization and deadpan humor.
The key to this believability is the central character. Hellboy may look (and occasionally act) like a demon, and there are hints that he has a dark destiny. But thanks to the tutelage of his late mentor, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, he has a strong sense of morality; Hellboy even quit the B.P.R.D. because he objected to agency tactics that he felt were unethical.
Many of the stories draw on folk tales, legends, and mythology. The character of Hellboy himself owes quite a bit to the work of the influential horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, whose stories depict other-dimensional demons and god-like beings who seek to extend their powers to the earth. Edgar Allan Poe has also served as a point of reference; one of the Hellboy graphic novels is called The Conqueror Worm.
However, though he may allude to other writers, Mignola does not mimic them. Instead, he's developed a world all his own, a tapestry in which all the stories fit together to form a larger picture of good versus evil.
That originality of vision even extended to the 2004 Hellboy film, for which Mignola served as executive producer. Though a few characters from the comics were deleted (or added) for the movie, it retained the sensibility that has made the comic so engaging. One only hopes that director Guillermo del Toro and his team will work similar magic in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which opens later this month.
(Aside: The fact that Mignola is able to have such creative input into the film is a sign of how times have changed. Seventy years ago, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster signed away the rights to Superman for a pittance, and had to wait 40 years to see anything like an annuity on a character that made millions for the publisher. Today's creators are savvier and smarter. More power to them.)
Even if the film flops, however, readers can still discover the comics. Whether focusing on Hellboy himself or showcasing the other members of the B.P.R.D. team, these graphic novels are among the most consistently entertaining and engaging works being published today.
Hellboy and B.P.R.D. graphic novels and miniseries are published by Dark Horse Entertainment. Because of what is euphemistically called "fantasy violence," they are recommended for readers in their teens or older.
