Books: Hellboy

Comic books can be an expensive hobby, and that's the primary reason I never read the "Hellboy" series by Mike Mignola. It's a shame, too, that the high price tag (nearly $20 for a slim, albeit attractive color volume) deters people from what is now a classic comic, but it's the truth. Fortunately, the local library had nearly the entire run of Hellboy, so I checked them out for free.

The opening volume, including Hellboy's origin, is heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, complete with the requisite monstrous apocalyptic tentacled monstrosity. The art and writing is excellent, and even the competent 2004 film starring Ron Perlman has a hard time keeping up with the artistry on display here. Most surpisingly, Hellboy himself seems less gruff and more human in the comics, less of an anti-hero and more of a butt-kicking adventurer.

Further volumes feel diluted - it's weird how so many occult happenings have some kind of connection with Nazi Germany. And the writing never quite reaches the upper echelons of modern comic story plotting. But, this isn't a modern story - it's superhero fiction mixed with "Weird Tales" and other horror pulp, which is fine in and of itself. Still, though, the various books, taken as a whole, definitely cry out for some kind of reduced-price, anthology version.