Sunday, January 04, 2009

Twelve Days of Christmas Special Review Series, Part Six, By Johnathan

I don't touch on Hellboy a lot on this blog, because I mostly like writing about things that I like but that are also demonstrably flawed in some way (not a bad thing, I swear) and to me at least Mike Mignola's extended Hellboy family of books is just pure fun. But it's the Twelve Days of Christmas Special, for heaven's sake! So here's something from "A Christmas Underground", collected in The Chained Coffin and Others:


Hellboy's on a case to help an old lady - No more details for you! Buy the book! - at Christmastime. But who does she think he is, other than a giant red detective?

That's a super panel-to-panel change. I really should have left them side by side but it would have spoiled the suspense (the incredible suspense!).

There's some stuff in the middle (still not going to tell you, nyah) and then Hellboy offers up some Christmas sentiment:

Man, I love that - the guy has great dialogue out the wazoo. This is one of my favourite short Hellboy yarns, not the least because of that little postscript. In a very weird way, this is one of the more heartwarming Christmas comics I know.

JOHN APPROVED

"seven boys a-bouncing,"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hellboy is awesome.
You don't lack awesomeness yourself, mister.
Happy new year!

Skeleton Munroe said...

If only I could aspire to be as awesome as Hellboy...

Happy New Year to you!

erebus said...

A short note on the serendipity of a comic collector. I got the first run of Hellboy, not because I wanted Hellboy, but instead my real desire was for the back up stories: Art Adams' Monkeyman & O'Brien.

I still prefer Monkeyman & O'Brien but the Hellboy makes it more collectible.
A rare bit of good luck for me.

I hope it is not too late to wish you a happy new year.

Skeleton Munroe said...

It's never too late to wish folks a happy new year. I do it year-round.

I wasn't really in a position to buy comics until about ten years ago, so I own alla Hellboy up to Conqueror Worm in trade only. My only exposure to Monkeyman and O'Brien has been the little inset pictures in the cover galleries, but I have always been intrigued. Apes plus dames are generally a great concept.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION! Read those comics, Johnathan!