Hellboy comic news...

[The Amstor Computer]

This brief editorial from Hellboy editor Scott Allie was posted at the Dark Horse website. It's got some interesting info on plans for HB comics coming this year:

"2004: The year of Hellboy

As attention and anticipation grows around the upcoming Hellboy movie, let?s take a second to review what?s coming up in the comics. With three issues of Weird Tales yet to come, we?re working on stories with Jill Thompson, Evan Dorkin, Gene Colan, Craig Russell, Tommy Lee Edwards, Kia Asimiya, Craig Thompson, and many more. Collections of Weird Tales and the four B.P.R.D. oneshots will be coming out over the course of 2004.

News is starting to break about the next big thing on the horizon?considering how much the studio is promoting the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense as part of the movie, Mike and I figured now was the time to do something we?d wanted to do for a long time, and launch a (practically) monthly series. Mike?s writing, with B.P.R.D.: Dark Waters artist Guy Davis as his immediate choice to flesh out the weirdness of this world. While Hellboy lies at the bottom of the sea in the wake of The Third Wish, the team goes on without him. A bizarre fungus which goes out of control in a laboratory leads the B.P.R.D. into a twisted mystery involving the frog men from Seed of Destruction, and the most disastrous B.P.R.D. mission since Wake the Devil.

As for pure, unadulterated, Mignola-drawn Hellboy stories, he has two on the boards. The first, based on a Malaysian vampire myth, will see print in a special Wizard promotional comic, which also features a B.P.R.D. story introducing John Arcudi, who?ll be joining Mike in writing the second wave of the new series. Another Mignola story combines witches with trolls, and questions Hellboy?s role as a monster who fights things pretty much just like himself. This one appears in The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft, the follow-up to last year?s Hauntings, with contributions by many of the same creators, plus Scott Morse and Clark Ashton Smith.

As Mike wraps up his work on these projects, and braces himself for the flood of P.R. missionary work he?ll be doing for the movie, he?s just now starting to work on The Island, the much anticipated sequel to last year?s The Third Wish, and part two of the arc we refer to as Strange Places. The Island has had a couple false starts already, with about twenty pages of pencils lying at the bottom of his art files, so everyone should hope that it goes a little smoother in the months to come."

The new BPRD series sounds interesting, and with Mike Mignola writing it should be a cut above the recent BPRD issues. I'm a little disappointed that Ryan Sook isn't on board for this, but Guy Davis has turned out some lovely work on BPRD/Hellboy, and with Mignola's involvement, this could be a worthy successor to Hollow Earth.

The new Hellboy short stories will go some way toward filling the gap between longer tales, but they're going to be a pain to obtain for the casual fan - it may be better to wait for the (inevitable) collection.

The most mixed news is on The Island. While it does seem to be finally moving, it sounds like this is going to be appearing in late 2004 at the earliest, meaning it's going to be at least a year between it and the cliffhanger ending of The Third Wish. Hellboy has always had fairly big gaps between new stories, but Mignola's involvement in the film has really slowed it down.