Hell Boy

[Leigh S]

I see that the Meg is reprinting this - finally a reprint I don't have and am actually interested in, though this is mainly because I love what I've seen of Mignola's artwork.  Can anyone tell me anymore about the strip?

[paulvonscott]

Wow.  I've heard this strip is fantastic!  

But er.. no, I don't know much about it.

[The Amstor Computer]

Excellent! Where did you hear this?

[fraston]

hellboy: great first story (seed of destruction) scripted by john byrne and art by mignola. yay.
from then on it gets a little less and less original, as the artist starts writing his ownj dialogue and the plots get a bit miore hackneyed. i just bouight the latest collection tho (conqueror worm) and it apparently is a step up the ladder of quality again.

all in all, great art, fun and disposable stories.

[JamieB]

Its announced in the latest Meg.

'Hellboy' is the story of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, an X-files type investigative agency, and their employees. Hellboy himself is pretty much their main field agent, as he is practically indestructible and has a bloody big stone right hand. His past and purpose are shrouded in mystery.

There's also Kate (surname I forget) who is pyrokinetic, and Abe Sapien, a man/fish hybrid. And, lest we forget, Roger the Homunculus, although he shows up later.

The artwork is astonishingly good, the stories not-always; but Mignola does his homework, and so the things they investigate tend to be a bit more interesting than your standard X-files episode.

*J*

[The Amstor Computer]

Ah, that would explain why I hadn't heard - my local newsagent is shite at getting the Meg in on time :-(

[Wood]

John Byrne?

The John Byrne who writes all those hideously over rated superhero comics?

I remember reading a strip in the back of the old Secret Wars comic called Alpha Flight, which was by him. I liked it as a kid, but I reread some of my old comics recently, and those strips were well pompous. I was not impressed.

I have to say, I'm not terribly excited. It had better be bloody good to go in the Meg.

[JamieB]

I'm not a massive Byrne fan either, if that helps. Hellboy is very good indeed - if you like the art. If you don't like the art, its pretty hard to get into.

'Seed of Destruction' is the only Hellboy book with Byrne involvement, however, and IIRC, he only wrote one story in it.

*J*

[fraston]

what my original point WAS, was that Byrne scripted the dialogue in the seed of destruction, working to mignolas plot. the reason i mentioned it is because despite anything byrne has done since he is way better at dialogue than mignola is which makes the first book better than the other IMHO.