Rating: 
Summary: Cool book.
Review: I'm not very big on comics, but this was a good book. In 1940 something, Raputin( evil wizard guy), tried to open the gates to hell. But only this little baby demon came out. The demon was adopeted by some guy and was tought to be a follower of Jesus and an F.B.I agent. But the evil wizard is now back and is trying to get Hellboy to aid him on having Satan take over the world during the apocoleps. He kills his step father with this evil demon that can turn into a frog. Hellboy fights the demon and the wizard in the book alot. This is a cool book. Fans of sci-fi sould buy this book. It's more sci-fi demonic that geeky super hero comic bookish.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite Good, but Byrne's dialogue weakens it.
Review: If you're looking to get into the world of Hellboy, I would suggest any of the other better trade paperbacks as a starter--paticularly Right Hand of Doom, since it recaps Hellboy's origins. First off, the main problem with this book is John Byrne's dialogue--not that it's bad in and of itself, but it doesn't "read" like Hellboy. Byrne chose to give the character the typical tough guy talk--not bad, but much better done by Frank Miller. Another problem with this book is the colors--they're terribly green and dull, not evoking a mystical or scary look, just a ugly looking color job. Mignola's gorgeous art is the saviong grace of this book--his brilliant character design and sense of storytelling are fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Hell on earth with a snappy attitude
Review: In 1944, a team of specialized German Nazis gathered together with a powerful sorcerer on a strange mission to raise seven demons, while at the same time a group of rangers led by Sgt. George Whitman gather in an old church in East Bromwich, England with a team of paranormals, determined to discover what it is the Nazis are up to. The Sorcerer, wearing some odd apparatus on his arms, powered by an electrical generator, casts a spell from a rocky hilltop resembling Stonehenge. A bolt of lightening-type power issues from the rod he holds in his hand, and strikes the church where the rangers are gathered along with their special forces. When the smoke and debris clear, a small being is hunched down on the floors, looking as though he were part demon and part little boy. It is Trevor Bruttenholm who names him: Hellboy. Skipping many years into the future, Hellboy comes to visit Trevor, now an old man. Trevor, who had been like a father to Hellboy all these years, tells Hellboy of the failed "Cavendish Expedition" he has just recently returned from, way up in the Artic Mountains. He and the Cavendish "Boys" had found some ruins high up in the frozen cliffs, older than old, and inside beneath a mammoth carved pillar is a statue of a sitting man so perfect it seemed to be alive. But Trevor has no further memory of what happened, though the Cavendish brothers did not return with him. During Trevor's narration of the expedition, Hellboy notices that Trevor's house is infested with frogs. When Hellboy mentions the frogs, Trevor freaks out and backs away from the frogs, out onto his balcony, from where he is suddenly and unceremoniously tossed back into the room at Hellboy's feet; quite dead. His body seems to be covered in odd marks that were not there mere seconds ago. Hellboy brings in his friends to help him investigate the death of Trevor; Elizabeth Sherman and Dr. Abraham Sapien. Liz has highly advanced pyrotechnic abilities, and Abe...well, Abe is a really cool fish-man. Beginning their investigation at the old Cavendish mansion, which is slowing sinking back into the lake it was built over, the three friends are quickly separated and all hell breaks loose; pun intended. The nameless Sorcerer who originally summoned Hellboy is back to claim what he believes is his, but by now we know that Hellboy can't be forced to do anything he doesn't want to do. This first Hellboy book reveals Hellboy's origin, and shows us the loyalty between him and his friends, and the lengths they will go to for each other. This was actually a very difficult review for me to write because I liked it so much, it is hard to describe in a non-gushing way just how much I enjoyed this book. The storyline is very intense and fast-paced, even for a graphic novel; the illustrations are superb, the cells formed and drawn just right, so that the eye follows the flow of Mignola's inspired tale of this devilishly good guy without staggering or stopping to search for the correct sequence. I have only recently become immersed in the world of graphic novels, and Hellboy is the absolute crème de la crème of the lot. A brand new type of hero; ultra powerful, intelligent, witty humor and saucy quips, demonic appearance, and as icing on the cake, from Hell itself. As a bonus, there are some added chapters at the back of the book that illustrate the evolution of Hellboy as he was created and drawn to life, plus some enjoyable Hellboy artwork to examine and appreciate. Hellboy is a perfect graphic novel, and I am greedily looking forward to pouring over the rest of the series. Not to mention I'm dying to go see the movie now. Enjoy!!
Rating: 
Summary: The first and one of the best...
Review: In this, the first of the Hellboy graphic novel series, Mike Mignola introduces us to the BPRD, including Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien. Ancient gods, mad Russians, and frog demands provide the foils to our heroes.
As always, Mignola's visuals are stunning in their beauty and simplicity. The script was provided by John Bryne who's other work encompasses everything from Fantastic Four to Superman. These two factors combine to create an aesthetically delicious book.
Also, fans of the Hellboy movie will recognize many elements in this book, as it was one of the graphics that the movie was based on.
Over all this will probe a valuable addition to your collection. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Hellboy saved comics, too.
Review: It's a mistake to divorce writing and art from each other in comics. Flip through 90% of comics for the writing alone and you'll cry for weeks on end. A good comic needs to be a total package. It's more than art and writing. It's ideas, it's message, and it's the gestalt. Comics with great art but bad writing are failures, and vice versa. Hellboy is a strong gestalt of what makes comics good. Comics fell straight into the toilet once the Batman movies hit. People were buying #1's just because they were #1's, hoping, lemming-like, to be able to fund their retirement some day. So the comics industry just started churning out new titles like some evil, money eating, out-of-control vomit machine. A lot of titles didn't make it past six issues, because they had no story, no depth, no long-term vision, just a gimmick. There were a number of comics worth reading, of course, there were a few that were great, but, oh, it was sad. Page after page after issue after issue of the same hackneyed superhero crap. And then Dark Horse Comics started the Legend imprint, with creators like Mignola, Frank Miller (Sin City), etc. The Legend imprint was for creativity in comics what Image comics was for the business end. And the sun rose again. In Hellboy, Mignola amalgamated some stuff in comics in a way that hadn't been done before, and brought back some stuff that hadn't been seen in the main stream in decades. In my view, Hellboy (and Sin City, and a few others) is responsible for saving comics from a slow, poison death at the hands of Big Business bean-counters who would rather license stories and knock off established work than stretch their mind out to the horizon, or into the inner darkness. Daredevil movie, anyone? And Mignola has some of the strongest single and two page compositions you will ever see in comics. Look for his black and white stuff, like Wolves of August, if you can find it.
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: Okay, I just read picked this up because the movie was coming out, and I'm one of those people who does that (as probably are many of you reading these reviews). But I found myself thoroughly enjoying Mike Mignola's HELLBOY.
This first HELLBOY book is a little on the short side, and at times, Mignola probably gives too much attention to the mythology rather than the characters, but all in all it's a fun read.
It's not my favorite comic I've read (definitely not in the Alan Moore category) but it's fun and well worth your time.
The artwork is definitely top notch. Even if the story were no good (but it is good) it would be worth getting to look at.
Now that the movie's out (which was also very entertaining and worthy of your time) I'm sure I'll keep reading the rest of the series.
Happy reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly Eh
Review: Okay, yes the art is very good, if you're into that style. But if I went out of my way to envision a more deliberately unremarkable, completely cliche and predictable story, I'd have a hard time of it. Gee, who's really evil? That's it, Nazis. They had no sense of morality. Who's not just evil, but creepy? Rasputin. The religious overtones are so hopelessly garbled, I can't begin to make sense of what's trying to be said (if anything.) Not only are the characterizations as flat and undeveloped as they can be, the dialogue is painfully bad. Ex: Rasputin gives his interminable "I am evil, resistance is futile" speech. What does Hellboy say? "I...don't...think...so." Hellboy then shoots Rasputin in the face yelling "Get stuffed!", but Rasputin heals. What does Hellboy say? "Nice trick, putting your head back together." If you're looking for a rollicking fun time without regard to horrible writing, you might enjoy this. If "Get stuffed!" isn't your idea of witty repartee, stay far, far away.
Rating:
Summary: Its more than Seeds of Destruction!
Review: Seeds of Destruction is a nice place to begin because it deals with where Hellboy hails from, no pun intended, plus its actually one of Mignola's more heavily Lovecraftian tales. The coloration is also darker in graphic novel form, giving it more of more horror appeal than the pervious comic releases did. There are more than enough Nazis, plots leading into the next Graphic Novel (Wake the Devil) to want you to go on without stranding you in a half-read story, not to mention the fact that its so wonderfully dark.
Something that all other reviews seem to be leaving out, something that affected my purchase of this particular graphic novel for a while, is the fact that it isn't simply the Seeds of Destruction story. Included within it are also two other stories, earlier works of Mignola, that are oftentimes overlooked and are quite the pain to find in their original formats.
1) This is a story from San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, a little tale involving squibs of storyline and drying up towns in the desert, not to mention Anubis.
2) There's another story from Comic's Buyer's Guide dealing with Herman Von Klempt, everyone's favorite Nazi "Nazi head in a bottle" and his Brutus, his super gorilla.
Also included is a little section entitled "Where did Hellboy come from?," a section delving into the early promotional art showing Hellboy off, plus some nice pictures by artists including Art Adams and Gary Gianni.
Tentacled things = Happiness!
Rating:
Summary: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
Review: Summary:
This is the first Hellboy story, a 98-page (or so) comic book depicting an adventure based upon the designs of a supernatural being and the demonic superhero who combats it. The story begins with Hellboy's origin and the later events are consequences of it. Abe and Liz, two popular recurring characters that serve with Hellboy in the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense), also make their first appearance, here. Historical figures are used, such as Rasputin and Nazis, as are Lovecraftian nemeses. The Great Bad Guy is right out of 20's Hyperborean pulp fiction. The plot is heavy on action with the feel of a detective novel during the exposition, which effectively builds suspense between battle scenes. Two four-page advertisements for the original, four-part serialization of the main story appear at the back, which are mostly just quick battles with the local Giant Egyptian Nazi-God and the Headless Scientist and his Intelligent Gorilla. There are also developmental sketches of Hellboy by Mike Mignola and a pin-up gallery by five other artists.
Writing:
The writing chores for Hellboy: Seed of Destruction were broken up into two parts, the plot by Mike Mignola and the script by John Byrne. The plot has very good pacing, and although there are slower and faster pages, it never drags. There are no obvious holes, and every character except Rasputin and the Great Bad Guy has a believable rationale for his actions. When reading, it's obvious why this is a horror story and why it is a Hellboy story, the supernatural elements being integral to the plot and Hellboy's origin being tied in with the plans of his foes. The plot gets its star. The script is one of Byrne's best. Sometimes John Byrne's characters can tend toward an unwarranted silliness, but here his dialogue matches the tone of the story perfectly. What humor there is, is either the superhero retort (as practiced by Hellboy) or is quite dry, "it now seems unlikely I will discover anything of Liz's whereabouts from the transformed butler." Best of all, Byrne knows when it is appropriate to leave a panel or a page free of dialogue. The script, too, gets its star.
Art:
The most noticeable facet of Mike Mignola's cartooning in Hellboy: Seed of Destruction is the heavy inking. Deep jackets of India ink clothe his characters and litter his backgrounds, creating a mysterious mood for the story. The stylized backgrounds give the story a gothic appearance. Many times the human faces are stiff, but Hellboy himself is very expressive as are the figure drawings, especially the simpler ones. More than enough emotion is carried there to keep the story alive. Two stars are also awarded for the art.
Conclusion:
Along with the first star for effort, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction earns all five stars as one of the best comic book stories available, with very little excess or pretense. You may as well buy all five volumes of pure Hellboy stories by Mike Mignola right now, because you're going to read the rest after reading this.
Rating:
Summary: And I only am escaped Alone to tell Thee
Review: Talk about rough adolescence.
Imagine if undead necro-liche and uber-mystic Russian mad Monk Grigori Rasputin had taken occultic things in hand, gotten bankrolled by Nazi Gold and backed by Nazi guns, and found a way to tear a portal open to Hell.
Your birthplace.
Mike Mignola (with writing by John Byrne) burst on the scene with "Seed of Destruction", the first in the chronciles of the orphan Demon named Anung Un Rama ("Beast of the Apocalypse"), christened by his BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense) adoptive 'Dad'---HELLBOY.
Hellboy was raised up from the bowels of Hell by a vile alliance forged by Mad Monk Rasputin and Hitler's Thule Society---but the plot to unleash the Minions of Hell on the Allies was foiled by a plucky squad of US troops, and Hellboy joined up as the BPRD's secret weapon in the war against the Forces of Tentacled Darkness everywhere.
So: Hellboy hooks up with mentor Trevor Bruttenholm, only to find the poor old boy rambling about a failed, fatal expedition to the Arctic with the doomed Cavendish boys, from the House of Elihu Cavendish, wealthy industrialist, doomed to distraction with the Occult, so much so that he would sacrifice his entire family, his patrimony, and his sinking Victorian house, to the plumbing of dark depths no man was meant to fathom.
And so one Reptilian turn leads to another, and Hellboy is drawn into the bowels of Cavendish Manor, along with fellow monstrous spelunker of the bizarre Abraham Sapien, a sentient, telepathic fish-man fond of rotten eggs and useful in the extreme, particularly in this outting. And, oh, a firestarter named Liz Sherman.
Frankly, I don't find the plot here all that interesting. It's very elementary, lots of nasty mutated frog-hemoths, Grigori Rasputin, opening up of Doors that were not meant to be opened, that sort of thing. Very basic.
But here, basic is good. First off, Mignola's chiaroscuro artwork is amazingly engrossing. It's intense. It's brutal. For all its minimalism, and it *is* minimalist, it manages to express a maximum degree, and arc, of emotion.
Now: it is also amazing beautiful, proving that the pulpiest of pulp fiction can be artistic. The art here, by Mignola, is gorgeous, making up for the starvation-diet writing, which is competent but scanty.
Now: "Seed of Destruction" is an origin story. To that end, it moves in fast, hits the beach rough, does its job, and leaves you wanting more. It does it with high style and good humor. Byrne has been critiqued for not having the roll and pitch and wave of the Cthulhu mythos, but folks---that's not the point here. Anyone reading "Frog" knows that Byrne has a crawling kingsnake notion of just exactly what creeps and crawls in this classic.
Buy it. Savor it. Dig deep into it. Conjure something up that will leave you terrified, digging under your sweaty bedsheets in the middle of the night. Enjoy.
JSG
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