Dark Horse Presents 100 2 (August 1995)

The opening Hellboy story has, just on the surface, one major problem. Hellboy wrote Abe a letter, the text of that letter is the story’s narration. Hellboy writes letters where he sounds like an expository narrator. How uninteresting. Then it turns out the story’s actually Hellboy’s secret origin (he’s the son of a demon and a nun). Should be interesting. Isn’t. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t have any dramatic oomph.

Campbell’s got a sort of creepy, sort of not Alec story. It’s well-done if somewhat pointless.

Apparently Dark Horse thought they needed some cartoonists in Presents so they get three. Pollock’s Devil Chef is stupid (being vulgar doesn’t make a comic strip good). Neither does ripping off Ed the Happy Clown like Musgrove does in Fat Dog Mendoza. Gregory’s Bitchy Bitch art isn’t good, but the writing works.

The issue ends on a sublime, lovely note with Pope.

CREDITS

Hellboy, The Chained Coffin; story and art by Mike Mignola; lettering by Pat Brosseau. Alec, The Snooter; story and art by Eddie Campbell. Devil Chef, The Shining; story and art by Jack Pollock. Fat Dog Mendoza, The Secret Life of Leftovers; story and art by Scott Musgrove. Bitchy Bitch, Dream On; story and art by Roberta Gregory. Yes; story and art by Paul Pope. Edited by Bob Schreck and Scott Allie.

Dark Horse Presents 100 0 (July 1995)

This teaser for Dark Horse Presents 100 has some great stuff in it… but it also has some unbearably long entries.

Chadwick’s Concrete—though it’s always fun to read Concrete assuming the worst about humanity—goes on forever and turns out to be a prologue. It’s a little lame, though Chadwick’s art is decent.

LaBan’s Emo and Plum is relatively painless. It’s short, anyway. However Musgrove’s Fat Dog Mendoza is awful.

Paul Pope’s got a couple pages and it’s lovely (kind of an interactive discussion of Picasso). Some great figure work.

Brubaker and McEown tease their entry in 100, as does French. The Brubaker and McEown one seems a lot more compelling, with Brubaker’s writing strong even in the one page.

Then Mignola has an endless three page preview for his Hellboy story. It’s got a lot of expositional dialogue.

Still, this teaser’s better than many of the regular issues.

CREDITS

Eno and Plum; story, art and lettering by Terry LaBan. Concrete, The Artistic Impulse (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Paul Chadwick. Fat Dog Mendoza, The Secret Life of Leftovers (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Scott Musgrove. Pistacho!!; story, art and lettering by Paul Pope. Bird Dog (excerpt); story by Ed Brubaker; art by Pat McEwon. The Ninth Gland (excerpt); story, art and lettering by Renée French. Hellboy, The Chained Coffin (excerpt); story and art by Mike Mignola. Edited by Scott Allie and Bob Schreck.

Dark Horse Presents 91 (November 1994)

You know, Mignola doing a fight scene isn’t particular impressive. In fact, Hellboy had a fairly boring finish. Mignola tries to maintain the minimalist tone for the fight and so the fight is lame. There isn’t even any resolution to the story itself. It’s just Hellboy versus a big werewolf, who may or may not turn into leaves when he dies. It’s a weak finish… somewhat harmless, but weak.

Baden has its conclusion too. It’s McCallum’s best art on the story, some really nice panels. Too bad Alexander’s script is confusing and dumb. I think it turns out the whole thing is meaningless, but maybe not. Unfortunately, the final panel threatens of a sequel.

Then there’s Blackheart. I knew Quitely had some art in this issue but I forgot and read the story thinking about the great art. It’s some lovely work. Morrison’s script’s mediocre at best–way too overdone.

CREDITS

Hellboy, The Wolves of Saint August, Part Four; story and art by Mike Mignola; lettering by Pat Brosseau; edited by Barbara Kesel. Baden, Part Three; story by Jim Alexander; art by Rob McCallum; lettering by Clem Robins. Blackheart, Part One; story by Robbie Morrison; art by Frank Quitely; lettering by Robbins. Edited by Bob Schreck and Edward Martin III.

Dark Horse Presents 90 (October 1994)

Mignola looks good in black and white. There are some very effective panels in Hellboy. The writing helps. He knows when to write and when to just let the art do its work. Up until the end of this issue, it’s almost like Hellboy is a passive force in the story. He’s an unknown quantity. Then he starts kicking butt at the end. Oh, and horrifying werewolf transformation sequence. It’s short, but amazing.

As for Paleolove, the only thing Davis is worse at writing than narration is apparently scenes between two men. It’s hard to believe these cavemen could even follow what the other is saying since Davis seems to think dialogue is better the more confusing it gets. I wonder what Paleolove would be like if Davis could write or draw well.

Finally, there’s another Baden. Lots of technobabble. McCallum’s art is still fine, Alexander’s writing is still bad.

CREDITS

Hellboy, The Wolves of Saint August, Part Three; story and art by Mike Mignola; lettering by Pat Brosseau; edited by Barbara Kesel. Paleolove, Part Three; story, art and lettering by Gary Davis. Baden, Part Two; story by Jim Alexander; art by Rob McCallum; lettering by Clem Robins. Edited by Bob Schreck and Edward Martin III.

Dark Horse Presents 89 (September 1994)

This issue features something I never wanted to see… a Paleolove pin-up from Davis. You can tear it out and put bad art up on your wall.

His artwork is really weak for the first half, maybe his worst ever. It gets a little better for the second half of the boring installment. The writing is absolutely awful (Davis goes on and on about the “manly arts” here—basically hunting). He brings in another old character, but at least gives this one something to do.

The Hellboy story is good. It’s amazing how Mignola can make them spooky but generally mainstream. Hellboy’s barely in this installment, most of it has to do with the mystery, but his sidekick gets more page time it seems.

Alexander and McCallum’s Baden is some stupid sci-fi story about a riot cyborg or something. McCallum’s art isn’t bad but Alexander’s script is atrocious.

CREDITS

Hellboy, The Wolves of Saint August, Part Two; story and art by Mike Mignola; lettering by Pat Brosseau; edited by Barbara Kesel. Paleolove, Part Two; story, art and lettering by Gary Davis. Baden, Part One; story by Jim Alexander; art by Rob McCallum; lettering by Clem Robins. Edited by Bob Schreck and Edward Martin III.

Dark Horse Presents 88 (August 1994)

Is this issue the first appearance of Hellboy? I think it might be my first full Hellboy (not B.P.R.D.) story. It’s good, but Mignola does something weird with the conclusion. He sets the whole thing up, then has Hellboy come in and reveal it all before the first installment’s done. Makes all the setup a little unnecessary.

Then Lang and Lieber have another of their charming Nanny Katie stories. In this one, she’s revealed to be—at least I assume—an immortal storytelling nanny. It’s a gentle story about an old man waiting for his sons to arrive at his deathbed. Nice art from Lieber—there’s a lot of work on some of these panels, lots of mood.

So after two strong stories, how does it end? Paleolove.

Davis is inexplicably tying together some of his Paleolove storylines here. It’s pointless and trying—even weaker art than usual here too.

CREDITS

Hellboy, The Wolves of Saint August, Part One; story and art by Mike Mignola; lettering by Pat Brosseau; edited by Barbara Kesel. Nanny Katie, Sir John’s Passing; story by Jeffrey Lang; art by Steve Lieber. Paleolove, Part One; story, art and lettering by Gary Davis. Edited by Bob Schreck and Edward Martin III.

Hellboy (2004, Guillermo del Toro)

If I recall correctly, Mike Mignola never had Hellboy and Selma Blair’s firestarter get together (romantically) in the comics, even though Hellboy is flame resistant. That filmic development was all Guillermo del Toro’s. del Toro is responsible for everything successful in Hellboy and, subsequently, everything unsuccessful. Hellboy works, which is probably the film’s greatest achievement–it’s about a goofy, beer-drinking demon who hunts monsters. It’s got lots of humor–from David Hyde Pierce’s Niles-like observations to Hellboy liking cats–not to mention Jeffrey Tambor’s entire role is solely for humor.

Ron Perlman’s Hellboy performance is so unassuming, it’s hard to think of him standing there wearing fifty pounds of make-up or whatever. del Toro and his make-up team don’t just make Hellboy real, but also Doug Jones’s fish-man (who Hyde Pierce voices). These accomplishments are noteworthy, since no one’s really tried doing talking “alien” leads like Hellboy since the proliferation of CG in the mid-1990s. Fantastic characters suddenly became glossy synthetics, instead of tangible figures.

So it’s kind of too bad del Toro doesn’t set Perlman up as the lead until the very end. The rest of the movie is run first by John Hurt as his adoptive father and then Rupert Evans as his assigned caretaker. Hurt does a fine job, even if it’s just stunt casting (Hurt has almost nothing to do, never having a significant scene with Perlman). Evans, on the other hand, is fantastic. Without Evans, Hellboy would not have worked. While everything might happen to Perlman or hinge on the character, it’s Evans who leads the viewer through the film. I understand the narrative reason for this perspective, but it’s a Hollywood cop-out. Having it just be Perlman, in his forty pounds of make-up, doesn’t sell well as a mainstream narrative. Evans’s character is superfluous, but his performance makes him the most important element in the film.

del Toro saturates the viewer in the milieu–the creepy, the exciting–and it works. When Tambor’s stunned at the bad guys, it’s a shock–it’s hard to remember not everyone in the film is used to the oddities, since the viewer has to accept them from the first scene. The Prague shooting doesn’t help the atmosphere. While it all looks great, there’s an unreality to it. It’s clearly not Manhattan or New Jersey… it’s artificial. del Toro’s color schemes work great–director of photography Guillermo Navarro does a wonderful job (except one really jarring, apparently shot on video and cut in, moment)–and, for the first half, Hellboy looks so good, it’s hard to think about anything else. The narrative works, it just doesn’t pay off in the end.

One big problem is the villain–Karel Roden is no good. It’s like he’s out of a TV movie.

But for what del Toro’s going for, Hellboy pretty much does it all.