Curious about Hellboy...

[cyberghostface]

So I really liked the Hellboy movies, the second one moreso than the first one. I think a lot if it has to do with Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth being one of my favorite movies of all time) but I am interested in the characters of Hellboy and friends. At the same time there seem to be numerous titles, miniseries, spin-offs, even novels, so it's a bit daunting. Where should I start and in what order? What stories are essential and which ones are not? I'll probably be reading them in trade from the library as opposed to scrounging for back issues.

For legality, a two-page story by Mignola that was apparently in the trade for Right Hand of Doom (found it on the internet).

Comments

[baihu]

I personally think of Hellboy as sort of Neil Gaiman's Sandman meets Batman. It's sorta gothic, sorta serious take on the supernatural of mythology. Yet you still get a big red guy whose final solution is usually to punch and/or shoot the hell out of the big evil thingie.

It's a lot different from the tone of the Hellboy movies, cept maybe the second one was actually a lot closer now to how the books are, though it was more of del Toro's touch than anything from Mignola IMO. Ron Perlman also kinda channels himself through movie!Hellboy. Original Hellboy acts more his age and I don't know if it's a spoiler but to just dispel the notion, he does not get with Liz Sherman in the books since he acts more his age. Frankly, I always thought that development was downright creepy in the movie.