Product Description: Mike Mignola returns with his first new Hellboy collection since 2002's Conqueror Worm. After leaving the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Hellboy's travels take him briefly to Africa, then for a two-year stint at the bottom of the ocean. An ancient witch doctor, a giant fish woman and keeper of the secret history of the universe force Hellboy to either accept his role in the coming apocalypse, or have that role stolen from him. Weird undersea creatures and talking lions populate this turning-point adventure, which reveals secrets buried since Hellboy's very creation. This volume collects Harvey-and-Eisner-award winner Mike Mignola's Hellboy series The Third Wish and The Island with over a dozen unused pages and a new epilogue.
Mignola Hits Another Homer. The sixth collection of Mike Mignola's incredible HELLBOY series, STRANGE PLACES collects two separate two-issue mini-series, THE THIRD WISH and THE ISLAND, along with a brand-new epilogue, the never-before-seen pages from an aborted version of THE ISLAND, and a sketchbook section, along with Mignola's notes about the creation of the issues.
After quitting the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), Hellboy gets kidnapped by a trio of mermaids and taken "Unda de sea!", to meet his fate at the hands of The Bog Roosh, a very fishy, VERY angry Mer-thing. Creepy sea-life abounds, insults and fists are hurled, and much ado is made of Hellboy's destiny as "Anung Un-Rama", the harbinger of the apocalypse. Many fishy butts are kicked, let me tell you!
After a whopping TWO YEARS sleeping with the fishes, Hellboy washes ashore, drinks with skeletons, meets some old fiends, and learns all he never wanted to know about the secret history of life, the universe, good, evil, and giant Lovecraftian Gods. Secrets are revealed. Futures foretold. Battles foreshadowed. And, as always, Mignola manages not only to entertain, but also to creep the hell outta me. Leave the nightlight on.....
Well crafted, in word & deed Mike Mignola has done it again with an excellent addition to the series. The mythos of Hellboy grows deeper and Mignola reveals some of his frustrations and sidetracks in creating the seminal character. Included are the failed rough drafts for the second story-an entire narrative scuttled because it wasn't quite right. Attention to detail like this make the noir adventures of Hellboy that much more enjoyable.
Vol 5: Pure Genius ... vol 6? Eh... I don't know anything about the background of this book nor anything about the author's other projects as the other reviewers. I'm just judging this at face value based on my own entertainment value. Personally, this one lost me. Maybe my impressions of this volume will change after reading 7 and 8 (the latest volume available at the time of this review.) Volume 5 hit a crescendo ... and I somewhat enjoyed the first half of this book. But then the story telling and the artwork got sloppy. I'm still not sure what's going on, quite honestly ... and then the last few pages were unfinished? What the heck is that? Still, I think that the series (?) as a whole is the best that I've read since I started buying these "graphic novels".
Read all of them, then read them again I love the drawings, the characters and the storyline. And even more the questions it brings. Soul, evil, love, destiny, God, "Why am I here?"
It isn't a distraction from the most important things in my life, its a chance to see them through another lens.
Mignola's Hellboy at his very best Hellboy is one of the stalwarts of comics today - since its creation in the early 1990s, Mignola's work on the book, from his witty, well-researched writing to his deceptively simplistic, blocky artwork, has never dipped in quality. Indeed, in this sixth volume of Hellboy, Strange Places, we find Mignola at the very height of his narrative and artistic powers.
Having left the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense), Hellboy travels to Africa, where he eventually ends up in the depths of the sea and runs afoul of the Bog Roosh, a dreaded sea monster, and three mermaids, and is made prisoner. After achieving his freedom (I won't tell you how), Hellboy washes ashore on an island that has become a ship's graveyard and holds a castle harboring dark secrets - secrets related not only to the occult origins of the earth, but also something very close to Hellboy.
While Hellboy is, without question, a sort of postmodern horror comic, Strange Places is especially powerful in its ability to merge and re-interpret fairytale and folk motifs (mermaids, etc.) as well as literary influences (Mignola notes that the latter parts of the volume were inspired by famed horror author William Hope Hodgson). It is by turns moody and jovial, light and heavy, violent and spirited. Not to be missed.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
