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brutally Kamphausened
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I just stumbled across this wiki site for the various HELLBOY series:

http://hellboy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hellboy_Universe_Comics



I love the HELLBOY stories by Mignola. But it does get a bit difficult to keep track of all the limited series and one-shots. And which ones are Mignola work, and which are apocryphal works by other artists.

This site allows you to navigate through all these, and see everything that was published at a glance, and in what order.

I was lucky, I first got into HELLBOY in 2002-2003 and got all 5 collected editions up to that point:
1. SEED OF DESTRUCTION,
2. WAKE THE DEVIL,
3. THE CHAINED COFFIN AND OTHER STORIES,
4. THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM
5. CONQUEROR WORM

At that point they didn't even number them, and I numbered them on the bags I keep them in. I completed reading them and was all pumped up for the first 2004 movie right before it came out. That delightfully, wasn't a disappointment, and in fact was quite good and consistent with the comics series.

It used to be all Mignola story and art. Now two thirds of the new material, at least, is by other artists.

Mignola's HELLBOY is among the last series that is consistent and that I still enjoy as one of the best things published in comics.


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brutally Kamphausened
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Here's a link to all the collected editions:

http://hellboy.wikia.com/wiki/TPB#HB_Hell2


With links on the story titles of each, to see who did the art and where it's sourced from.

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I was looking recently at a checklist I made of Scott Hampton's work, spanning close to 40 years. And I thought to myself, much as I love his work, though roughly a peer of Mignola's, who both began their comics careers in the early/mid 1980's, Mignola has a lot more star power than Scott Hampton.

I think the reason for that is because Hampton has done random work on other titles like SWAMP THING, ALIEN WORLDS, EPIC ILLUSTRATED, LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, where he's done one-shot anthology stories or contract stories on other peoples' characters, particularly Batman.
Scott Hampton has done virtually none that could be considered signature work that he created entirely himself, that are uniquely identified with him.
SILVERHEELS is the only one that springs to mind, and that was probably created entirely by Bruce Jones, who selected Hampton to draw it.
THE UPTURNED STONE, another one-shot graphic novel, is one Hampton did completely on his own. But again, not a sustained ongoing work. Likewise several other very good one-shot anthology stories, like the PIGEONS FROM HELL Robert E. Howard adaptation, or "The Ravenant" story in TALES OF TERROR. And the stories Hampton both wrote and drew in CLIVE BARKER'S HELLRAISER 2 and 4.

Whereas in contrast, Mignola created HELLBOY which is entirely his own, and has been expanding on his creator-owned property for over 25 years. And has expanded that somewhat into a universe of titles that he is kind of the Stan Lee of. Likewise people like Robert Crumb, Jaxon, Richard Corben, and Dave Sim. Each has created a body of work that stands out as entirely their own, in a way that those who do contract work on titles arguably don't have the same visibility and distinctive identity.


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.

I was just looking at Mike Mignola's listing on Wikipedia, and regarding the acclaim for Mignola's HELLBOY series...


Quote
AWARDS

1995: Won "Best Writer/Artist" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
Won "Best Graphic Album: Reprint" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
Won "Best Artist" Harvey Awards[21]
Won "Best Achievement by an Inker" Don Thompson Award

1996: Won "Best Artist" Harvey Awards[22]
Won "Best Graphic Album of Previously Released Material" Harvey Awards, for Hellboy: The Wolves of Saint August

1997: Won "Best Writer/Artist" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Wake the Devil

1998: Won "Best Writer/Artist" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Almost Colossus, Hellboy Christmas Special and Hellboy Jr. Halloween Special

2000: Won "Best Artist" Harvey Award, for Hellboy: Box Full of Evil

2002: Won "Best Finite Series/Limited Series" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Conqueror Worm

2003: Won "Best Humor Publication" Eisner Award, for The Amazing Screw-On Head
Won "Best Short Story" Eisner Award, for "The Magician and the Snake"

2004: Won "Favourite Comics Writer/Artist" Eagle Award
Won "Best Comics-Related Book" Eisner Award, for The Art of Hellboy
Received "Inkpot Award"[23]

2006: Won "Favourite Comics Writer/Artist" Eagle Award

2007: Won "Roll of Honour" Eagle Award
Won "Favourite Colour Comicbook – American" Eagle Award, for Hellboy: Darkness Calls

2008 Won "Best Cover Artist" Harvey Awards[24]
Won "Award for Favourite Colour Comicbook – American" Eagle Award
Won "Roll of Honor" Eagle Awards
Won "Best Horror Comic Book" Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, for Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch[25]

2009 Won "Best Finite Series/Limited Series" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: The Crooked Man
Won "Best Graphic Album: Reprint" Eisner Award, for Hellboy Library Edition, vols. 1 and 2
Won "Best Publication Design" Eisner Award, for Hellboy Library Edition, vols. 1 and 2
Won "All-in-One Award" Inkwell Awards

2010 Won "Best Cover Artist" Harvey Awards, for Hellboy: Bride of Hell[26]

2011 Won "Favorite Writer/Artist" Eagle Award
Won "Favorite Artist:Inks" Eagle Award
Won "Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)" Eisner Award, for Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil

2019 Harvey Awards Hall of Fame inductee.[27]


While I enjoy the HELLBOY series, and Mignola's work in general, I really had no idea.

I understand that even acclaimed work by the likes of Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Don McGregor, Jim Starlin, Craig Russell, Alan Moore, or Dave Sim, for all their talent, is not always everyone's cup of tea.

But certainly, there are elements of quality, sophistication, a splicing of genres from ghost stories to pulp heroes to H P Lovecraft, semi-historical characters like Raputin and Nazis, maybe a little Ghostbusters, and just pure fun, that makes HELLBOY an irresistible mix for many of us.

My only advice to those seeking out HELLBOY material is to start at the beginning with HELLBOY:SEED OF DESTRUCTION and follow the collected books in order. And beyond the 5th book (HELLBOY: CONQUEROR WORM), there's an increasing amount of material scripted by Mignola, but with art by others, such as Duncan Fegredo, Scott Hampton, and Richard Corben, and if you're a purist like me, you'll prefer with few exceptions only the stories written and illustrated by Mignola, rather than by other artists. Last I looked, it was up to 13 collected volumes. I have the first five volumes, and after that have bought the stories as they were released in comic form as one-shots or miniseries, so haven't bothered with the collections.

Here's HELLBOY SEED OF DESTRUCTION (1993) that you can read in its entirety online:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Hellboy-Seed-of-Destruction

And then:
HELLBOY: WAKE THE DEVIL (volume 2)
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Hellboy-Wake-the-Devil

HELLBOY: THE CHAINED COFFIN and other stories (volume 3)
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Hellboy-The-Chained-Coffin-and-Others/Full?id=63663

HELLBOY: THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (volume 4)
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Hellboy-The-Right-Hand-of-Doom

HELLBOY: CONQUEROR WORM (volume 5)
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Hellboy-Conqueror-Worm


And that alone takes you from 1993-2002.

While I think you can mostly understand them in any order independently of each other, certainly the first volume is essential to establish the basic premise and characters of the series.

And beyond that... see the link in my opening post. I've never seen a better index to help you navigate through the series. Of the original stories and when published, the creative teams for each, and in what volumes they are collected.


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