Drink and Draw
Our next D&D will be on November 14th at the same bat-time (8:00) same bat-channel (Goodsons on Beaver.) Pretty simple concept, grab a drink and then sit and draw. No, you don’t have to be an artist to attend. Everyone is welcome.
Get your Orders in for October
If there is anything from the October Previews catalogue you need to get it in this week. Understand this is how we order and we do get slight discounts on some books if we pre-order. So, please, if you can take a look through the catalogue and let us know if there is anything you want.
Come buy your damn comics
Pre-orders are one thing, but for the books that are already in the shop… wellllllll, If you haven’t been in recently, please get your ass into our store and buy your books! We have a metric ton of comics being held right now and you need to come get them.
Here is the thing though, those of you reading this, probably are not the problem. You appreciate what we do and WANT your comics, so, you come and get them. Over the last month we have had to stop a couple boxes from ungrateful customers (I’m sure they enjoyed the discount while they got it) who just stopped coming in or in the case of one customer who is no longer a neighbor (figure it out…) to our shop’s space (got it now…) told us repeatedly that they would come in and get them… and didn’t. Yeah, that was pricey.
Listen, if you need help, let us know. If you can’t get to us and need them delivered (we can easily ring them over the phone and deliver them for a small fee), let us know. If you are going to stick us with a hundred dollars (or more in some people’s cases) of merchandise you had us pull and are now not going to buy, let us know. See the theme… communication is a good. Well, that and buying your comics.
New York Comic Con
I guess there was a comic convention in New York this weekend. Whoopie. I’m sure DC tried to act like they still publish comics and I’m sure Marvel announced they will be starting another 400 books (presumably all either X or Avenger related) and all starting between next month and spring. Maybe this stuff just starts to blend together over the years, but it all looks like a fine gooey paste to me.
No, no… I did read some news, so, here are three things that caught my eye.
I heard that you suck… er, Bat-fans are in for a real “treat.” Since most of the 50-some odd in “continuity” books being published by the company formerly known as DC are in the Bat-family of books why not one more. (heck, if it sells lets add a cape and a pointy eared cowl to all the characters. – not actual thoughts of an executive at DC, though really would it surprise you if it was?) Yes, the new book will be a Batman title, but instead of monthly or even twice every month it will be….. a weekly year long Bat-event-book!! Have fun with that. Though someone told me that Frank Miller might do a part of it. I hadn’t heard that, so that might be totally rumor mill.
I do admit to wondering to The Outhouse and even the suck that is “News”arama/Comic-sell-out-sources just to see if anything of a small degree worth of quality was being talked about. …and I did find a few things.
I saw that The Silver Surfer will be getting a new book. It’ll be written by Dan Slott and drawn by Mike Allred. The cover of issue one is AWESOME enough for me to really want to read that!
The biggest news centered around Marvel FINALLY announcing Miracleman would be coming back. Neil Gaimen’s story from years ago, the one that had never been finished, will be reprinted and then he will finish it. If you are wondering, yes, this will include all of the Alan Moore story as well. Today, in a press release Marvel confirmed that the reprinting of the material would start at issue number one (the re-publishing will begin in January of 2014) which was written by Moore in the 1980’s. Strange part about the press release is that it never mentions Moore’s name. Lots of speculation surrounds the whats, whys and wherefores on that, but really who cares. We will eventually learn that.
For old schoolers who truly think there is nothing good left to read, this gives us something to look forward too. (Oh, did I just indicate that I’m one of those?) This is as close as it gets to Christmas in this industry. It was first announced that Marvel and Gaimen had acquired the rights to Miracleman in 2003 (!!!) and for whatever reason it has taken this long to get to this point. However, it will be here soon and I for one could not be happier.
Personal y, though the Miracleman stuff sounds like a dream come true, but I’m actually much more interested in the fact that the original Parker novels will be republished by IDW in hardcover and to make this even better, Darwyn Cooke will be doing spot illustrations in them. For those who love Cooke’s art as much as I do, this is fantastic. Anything from him is a true comic blessing. I have read or seen adaptations and have always wanted to read the originals.
Reviews
I was going to write up reviews of three new series that came out last week, however, it is late already, I am tired from a long weekend and I have all of the monthly order staring me in the face from across the table. So super short looks…
Shaolin Cowboy is Dark Horse’s revival of Geof Darrow’s one man bad ass kung fu and super art spectacular. Maybe the greatest artist ever in comics, Darrow – also a native Iowan – first published Shaolin under Burly Man comics around ten years ago. This continues the story, what little there is. By saying that, you might think “who cares if there is no story.” Yeah, well, the art is so damn good in this book who freak’n cares what story there is. I took longer to read this book (with its hand full of dialogue) then I did any other book last week. This is as close to perfect as you can get. Darrow is a true master of his craft having fun with the medium of comics and I for one am very happy to be along again for the ride.
Coffin Hill is a new Vertigo book centering around a character who has presumably dabbled in black magic. We start in present day and see Eve as a cop in Boston after breaking a serial killer career case. The book then travels back ten years to an event that will undoubtedly have lasting impacts on our main character past and present. The book’s first issue has an awful lot of set up, this is not a bad thing, but I do think it could probably have been having been even more extra sized than it was. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but will probably need a few more issues to really make my mind up on it. This is not a criticism of it in any way. I’m just not sure where it is going.
Atmospheric as hell, there is a lot of promise in what Caitlin Kittredge and Inaki Miranda have offered.
Rocket Girl is new from Image and will tell us the story of Dayoung Johansson, a fifteen year old cop from the future, 2013! She is traveling back in time to the year 1986 in an attempt to stop the corporation that has taken over her time period. Part odd cop drama, part sci-fi, the book has a slightly light humored feel to it in the vein of a very Americanized Manga comic. Written by Brandon Montclare and superbly drawn by Amy Reeder, this is another good first issue that I’m very willing to keep going with.
And finally, Afterlife with Archie. If you were lucky enough to buy this, congratulations. It is sold out and right now I can’t get any more. I hope for a second printing as you should too. This is the best book I read last week… and by a long shot (Yes, and even Chew came out!!)
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (who wrote the adaptation of The Stand) and drawn by Eisner award winner Francesco Francavilla, this is the best Zombie comic on the market by a country mile and is easily the best debut of a comic this year. Moody and atmospheric, the book builds the horror from beginning - with a single page with blood splattered wording saying “This is how the end of the world begins” – on throughout and explodes at the end. It is downright scary stuff. The writing is good, but the mood is set and built through Francavilla’s art. If you got a copy, hopefully you noticed the very subtle blood splatters as something bad was about to happen. It is the first time – I think ever – I have seen such a breaking of the fourth wall. The blood isn’t part of the story, it is one the comic!!
This is Archie Comics first ever direct market only book and was listed as Teen Plus (PG-13.)
If you have read Archie at any point in your life, you have the characters down and they are most certainly woven into the narrative… for how long, well, we’ll have to see.
I ordered fairly heavy on this and, granted, I pushed the hell out of it on Wednesday. If you want a second print IF it ever comes to pass, please let me know. I can’t believe they won’t do one, but you never know.
For those of you still mistakenly reading The Meandering Dead, please, do yourself a favor and read a book with actual fear inducing scares. You will thank me.
Kyle’s Retro Review – Hellboy, Chained Coffin
With it being October and Halloween rapidly approaching, I figured it was only fitting that I look at one of my favorite series, and one of the greatest horror comics of all time, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. This series is unique, in that unlike most of the series that I’ve reviewed, this character has not undergone massive ret cons and multiple reboots that change the core of the character was or wipe out years of continuity.
No, Hellboy still exists today almost the same character he was when he was first introduced. Sure he’s undergone a some mild changes over the last 20 years, including being dead for the past two, but that has all been as a product of character enhancement and plot development, with plotlines paying off years later, as opposed to being rebooted with a new costume and ambiguous back story. It really is a lesson in how to handle a beloved character the right way and with multiple spin-off series now, such as B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Sledgehammer ’44, and even Baltimore; it proves you can create a tight knit universe, with loads of continuity, that functions extremely well, without a line wide reboot every couple of years.
Now for some people looking to get into Hellboy or the Mignola-verse, they may look at those 20 years of continuity and say “Whoa! Where do I even start?!” and may choose to deprive themselves of some of the greatest comics being published currently just because they’re intimidated by the vast scope of pre-existing reading material. Fear not noble reader, for it’s much easier than that.
While Hellboy has been a continuing narrative over the past two decades, that story has been broken up into one-shots, mini-series, and short stories, all of which are conveniently collected in a number of reader friendly formats, which are perfect for jumping into the series at any point.
Over the years Hellboy has been drawn by a number of artists who are masters in the horror genre, including the likes of Richard Corben, Duncan Fegredo, and of course series creator Mike Mignola himself. There are so many great stories to choose from, and all can be enjoyed with very limited background knowledge on the character.
This series is very user friendly, in that you can grab any one of the trades off the shelf and jump in feet first. This week I’m going to briefly review the first couple of arcs that really established Hellboy’s world, and then take a more in depth look at my all time favorite Hellboy collection, and the downright creepiest comic I’ve ever read, “The Chained Coffin.”
Hellboy first appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2, which debuted at the San Diego Comic Con in August of 1993. The story was plotted and drawn by Mike Mignola, with scripting done by John Byrne. It was a black and white 4 page story and only about 1500 copies were made for distribution at SDCC. The character’s next appearance, and first appearance in a widely distributed comic issue, came in John Byrne’s Next Men #21. Obviously you can see that John Byrne played a role in helping Mike Mignola bring this character to life early on and get the series rolling. Byrne and Mignola first collaborated at DC Comics in the late 80’s when Byrne was working on the Superman’s books post Crisis on Infinite Earths and Mignola was tapped for the art duties on some of the Byrne penned scripts, such as the World of Krypton mini-series as well as a story in Action Comics #600. They obviously made a personal connection during their collaboration, which would lead to Byrne’s help launching Mignola’s creator owned creation at Dark Horse. Mignola, who was almost solely an artist at this point in his career, enlisted Byrne’s help in scripting the first few issues (in fact he’s credited as “Script and Emotional Support” in that first SDCC Comics #2 debut) in the “Seeds of Destruction” four part mini-series. With a few issues in the can, and the support and encouragement of Byrne, Mignola tackled the sole duties of writing and drawing the book with his next story, “The Wolves of Saint August.”
Hellboy’s origin as present in “Seed of Destruction,” is more or less the same as it was presented in the Hellboy movie; Hellboy is brought to this dimension by Rasputin and group of Nazi Occultists looking for a supernatural advantage to winning World War II. This arc is action packed, as we see Hellboy tackle demons and monsters as his world begins being mapped out and taking form. The next collection, titled Wake the Devil (and collecting the five issue mini of the same name) really starts to ramp up the mytho-building that each arc would continue, as whole new levels of depth and mystery are built around Hellboy.
It’s this arc where Mignola really starts to find himself as a storyteller and character builder. Not only do we see Hellboy grow, but we also see his supporting cast, with fan favorites like Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman, take root as characters and begin their own character development. We also meet the Baba Yaga (Russian Folk Witch) and begin to get a taste for what twisted role she has in the Mignola-verse, as we really start to see that what terrible implications Rasputin’s summoning of Hellboy to our realm on December 23rd, 1944 have for this world.
Finally we get to my favorite arc of the entire series, “The Chained Coffin.” This is collected in the third Hellboy Trade Paperback, The Chained Coffin and Others. This collection is different than the previous two volumes, as it collects 7 stories, instead of one 4-5 issue mini-series. Some of these are shorter than others, but I assure you that every single one of these pages is action packed and downright entrancing. Mignola really hits on all cylinders in each one of these stories. He really peaks as a story teller, weaving bible passages, pagan myths, European folktales together around Hellboy and into his world. The first story is titled “The Corpse,” and is based on an old Irish legend called “Tieg O’Kane and the Corpse.” In this story, Hellboy journeys through Ireland in 1959, to retrieve a stolen baby, who has been replaced by an evil little fairy (leprechaun), who taunts its unassuming mother whenever the father leaves home. Hellboy wastes no time torturing the little creature with iron to find the whereabouts of the missing child. Hellboy is directed to a midnight meeting with three more creepy little fellas, who agree to return the missing baby if Hellboy will aid them in burying the Corpse of their deceased friend in a Christian cemetery, since they themselves being unholy little buggers, are unable to enter such ground. So Hellboy agrees, having to complete his labor before sun-up and journeys around to three cemeteries before finally finding one with room for the body, all the while bashing monsters and bantering back and forth with the corpse. This is a very nice little stand-alone story and honestly it probably ranks as my third favorite Hellboy story of all time.
The next story “The Iron Shoes,” takes place again in Ireland, this time in 1961, and is an entertaining yarn where we essentially get to see Hellboy trash-talk a little unholy creeper and obliterate him by tossing him onto holy ground, with the demon crumbling into nothing upon impact.
The third chapter in this collection is the “Baba Yaga.” In this tale we see Hellboy and Baba Yoga’s interactions mentioned in “Wake the Devil,” expanded upon, as we see Hellboy shoot her eye out in a dynamic showdown in a Russian cemetery. This story is one of the best examples of how dynamic and masterful of a story teller Mignola is, with his amazing inking, he sets a creepy tone in all of his art as Hellboy stalks Baba Yaga through the dark cemetery. The end of the story then has animals gathering around the next day discussing the fate of Baba Yaga following the battle, and her role in Russia’s vitality. This exchange adds a lot of creepiness to her legacy that will be touched upon later in the series.
“A Christmas Underground,” the fourth story in this collection, Hellboy helps an old priest free a frail old woman from losing her soul on her deathbed. The woman is the last of her family alive, all who died one by one following the disappearance of her daughter Annie who vanished five years ago while playing in the garden. The woman in her delirium confuses Hellboy with Father Christmas, and asks Hellboy to deliver something to her missing daughter, who she claims, visits her nightly. Hellboy takes the gift and plunges through a hollow grave in the garden to find an underground kingdom ruled by a demon. Annie invites Hellboy in, not realizing that her soul is trapped in this place as the queen of its ruler. Hellboy delivers her mother’s present, a crucifix, which when opened, burns the kingdom to the ground, releasing Annie’s soul. Hellboy then defeats the demon with the aid of some church bells proclaiming the Christmas midnight mass. I remember when I first read this story, and could feel all of the hair on my neck stand up as I read further along. There is something (that for me at least) has always been psychologically creepy about kids being fooled by evil entities, (I think that’s one of the reasons the original Poltergeist movie is still revered today) and this little tale by Mignola capitalizes on that fear perfectly.
Next is the feature presentation, “The Chained Coffin,” which was originally featured in Dark Horse Presents vol. 1 #100. In this story, Hellboy travels to East Bromwich, England, to clear his head after a tough case. For the first time he visits the remains of the old church where he was first summoned to earth by the Nazis 50 years ago, and is shaken with a startling revelation. Mignola takes this opportunity to weave Hellboy’s origin in with one of his favorite old folk tales. Hellboy recalls his meeting with a medium back in 1962 who pleaded with him that he visit the church where he first appeared, and asked him to save the souls of a nun and priest trapped there. While sleeping at the sight, he has a dream of a repentant old witch on her deathbed, begging for forgiveness from God for her previous sins. These sins range from changing herself into animals and engaged in lewd acts, to consorting with the devil himself.
She asks that her two children (the nun and priest) aid her in saving her soul, and asks them that upon her death they secure her in a chained coffin and keep watch over her for three nights. Hellboy awakes from the dream, to see the ghosts of the nun and priest before him, reliving the fateful night they tried to save their mother’s soul. He watches as an invisible bystander, as the devil comes storming in, and slays the nun and priest, then releases their mother’s soul from the coffin, demanding she forsake this quest for salvation and join him again to rule in hell. He reveals to the woman that she still holds his evil power inside her, and will be forever young, due to that evil that is now alive in her and fated to become a son…his favorite son, he says as he turns and stares at Hellboy. He then carries her off on a black horse covered in hooks, as Hellboy is left standing alone in the ruins of the church once again, with the centuries old scenery now gone, and his true origin revealed. Wow, rereading it for the hundredth time and it still gives me chills, as the ghostly flashback unfolds in front of Hellboy’s eyes, with the devil turning to Hellboy and calling him his favorite son.
To this day the creepy and impactfulness of this revelation is still there every time you read it. That’s what makes this my favorite story of the Hellboy mythos, and it’s something that is still referenced today 20 years later (the recent Hellboy in Hell series had an issue touch again upon this). The final story collected in the Chained Coffin and Other Stories, is “The Wolves of Saint August,” another folktale Mignola adapted and spun Hellboy into and also illustrates exactly why Mignola is such a master storyteller. The story arc originally ran through Dark Horse Presents #88-91, and was chronologically Mignola’s first story on his own after Byrne’s assistance with “Seed of Destruction.” In this tale, Hellboy journeys to the ruins of an old village to investigate the legend of werewolves dwelling there. This is based on the old folktale of the same name, where a travelling monk comes across the town in the 13th century, and upon hearing the gorgeous bells chiming, goes to commend the noble family on the beauty of their bells. However, upon entering their chapel, he found the family was worshipping a pagan god, and in his fit, the monk cursed and damned the entire family to turn to wolves every 7th year. Hellboy goes to investigate, and we see him sneak through the dark shadows and ruins of the old village as he and the werewolves stalk each other.
This one is really a blast to read. The final story collected herein, is “Almost Colossus.” This story serves as nice little sequel to the “Wake the Devil,” mini-series, but also stands alone on its own very well. You see Mignola really draw on a number influences for this tale, with him citing its basis on “The Colossus of Ylourgne,” a short story by Clark Ashton Smith, published in Weird Tales years earlier. There are also some very obvious Frankenstein references throughout this tale.
This collection is not a chronological collection of the stories as they were published, but you could never tell by reading it. A huge hats off needs to go to Mignola and Cary Grazzini, who together did an amazing job in collecting these stories in the order that they’re presented in. The first two stories use some humor as you’re engaged in Hellboy’s adventures, while Mignola is subtly building the suspense, creepiness and intensity, until all of sudden you get to “The Chained Coffin,” and are slapped with a giant dose of terrifying when it all hits the fan!
I can’t recommend this book enough! It’s available in trade paperback as Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and other Stories, the third trade paperback volume in the series. Otherwise all of these stories are also collected in volume 2 of the oversized hardcover Hellboy Library Editions, which also contains the contents of the Hellboy volume 4: Right Hand of Doom trade paperback.