The Full Stop - Hellboy

I'd be the first to admit that I have no shortage of faults. 

But if I had to pick one, the one that's gotten me 

into the most trouble over the years...

...it would be that I sometimes get angry.

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, Mike Mignola

Welcome all to The Art of Caesura!

Hey Friends of the Caesura, I've got a new type of post for you today. Now, I wouldn't describe myself as having an obsessive personality (great way to start a post, I know) but every so often I get so excited about something that I just tumble into a rabbit hole of wanting to learn all about it! I don't think it's that uncommon really. Right? Right?!

So my most recent rabbit hole is HELLBOY!!
Today we're going to have a whistle-stop tour of Hellboy's resurgence into pop-culture!

Hellboy is half demon, half human (witch). His mum was a descendant of King Arthur and his dad was Azzael, a duke of Hell. Although he was conceived in 1617 (Shakespeare's day) he lived in Hell (the geographical locale, not psychological state) until World War II. Rasputin summoned Hellboy to Earth to help the Nazis win the war, but it all backfired and the Yankees got hold of Hellboy. 

He was raised by Prof Bruttenholm ("Broom") and trained into the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (BPRD) - kind of like the FBI meet the X-files. 

What I love about Hellboy is the style of his adventures. His stories are often slow-burners, involving as much investigation as punching peoples (monsters') faces in. I love that the villains are very Lovecraftian, and often pulled from real-world folk-lore and mythology. 

So what's the deal with his big hand? Oh yeah, when he was born his dad cut his right forearm off and "attached" the hand of like one of the original guardian's of the Earth - fating Hellboy to be prophecised to one day bring on Armageddon with his Right Hand of Doom! And how about those stumpy things on his head? As a half-demon, those are his horns that he files down to fit into human society better. 

At certain times (usually during visions) we see him in his full-on demon form (Anung Un Rama) and he looks amazing!

The guy who created Hellboy (Mike Mignola) is still working on him 25 years later, so there's a great sense of continuity of mythos and style. 

Many of you might know Big Red from the Guillermo del Toro films of the early 2000's. That's where I first met him. The first two films were fun romps by a brilliant director and Ron Pearlman was basically made for the role. Incidentally, the first film is on Netflix at the mo. I was really excited to hear that they're rebooting Hellboy in cinematic format next year and David Harbour (the Sheriff from Stranger Things) is filling the big shoes (hooves). 

So that's going to be wicked-cool!

I've read a handful of the comics over the years, but not in an organized fashion, so I was counting my lucky stars when I found that in just about a month, they're releasing new omnibuses (omnibi?) collecting all of Hellboy's stories over 4 big books! I've already ordered mine!

One of my favourite video games of last year, Injustice 2, even featured Hellboy as a playable character!! In my opinion they aced the art-style - just the right mix of fitting both Mignola and Netherrealm

So why am I doing this "Full Stop" look at Hellboy, because what first re-kindled my interest in Big Red a couple weeks ago was seeing that there's a Kickstarter for a Hellboy miniatures board game - and it just started 2 days ago (25/4/18)!!

The Kickstarter is going ridiculously well and at time of writing has already raised 820 000 Euro and unlocked 15 stretch goals! All of the minis are vetted by Mignola himself, and are looking fantastic! None of these images are mine, but take a peak at some of these minis!!

 If you're interested, I would definitely recommend jumping aboard!

The Kickstarter is here
The facebook page is here
The board game geek page is here
The Mantic (guys who made it) blog his here
The Needy Cat (guy who designed the rules (who also did the rules for Silver Tower, Bloodbowl and Necromunda) is here

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that look at Hellboy, I'll see you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Next Week:

Heavy footsteps in the Underhive...