Richard Corben (1940–2020)

Drinking heavily in Mexico after losing his good friend (and local masked wrestler/luchador) to vampire infection Hellboy gets forced to fight the mysterious challenger. I say forced because Hellboy is clearly told that his rejection of the offer will have consequences.

And so the story begins. What I liked the most is dream-like quality of the story. Art is done by Richard Corben and when it comes to this part you either like Corben's art or you don't.
For me his style was exact match with the story atmosphere but some may be put off by his caricature-like drawings (I know I had issues while reading Corben's comic Den).

Being a homage to Universal's monster movie universe, story contains them all - vampires, Frankenstein-like scientist and his creation together with werewolf. Some have greater, some minor roles (vampire scene made me laugh out loud :)) but in overall all the villains have that B-horror movie feeling (and this is why Corben's art style is excellent here) and you just feel good when they get what they deserve (although for vampire I was expecting Leslie Nielsen to show up :)).

As for Hellboy, his path is not one of peace or tranquility no matter how hard he tries to blend in the human world.

In summary very interesting setup with different art approach than what you might be accustomed to. Recommended to all fans of Hellboy universe.… (more)

Very interesting collection of half a dozen H.P. Lovecraft's short stories and poems in graphic novel format.

Richard Corben's art is very good and manages to show the horror element of Lovecraft's stories with ease. Some of the stories are rather short but again they are based of Lovecraft's poems (very short ones). R. Corben did very good job with given material and created something very interesting.

Additional plus to collection is that after every graphic novel chapter reader is given original story or poem by Lovecraft to compare with the graphic novel chapter.

Very good collection, highly recommended to all Lovecraft's fans and twilight-zone-like-stories aficionados.… (more)

Story of Hellboy's origin. Magnificent omnibus edition containing story of Hellboy's conjuring and follow up stories in which Hellboy tries to find more about himself while constantly tripping over Rasputin and his machinations.

My first contact with Hellboy was a little bit weird - art was pretty much reduced, at some points it seemed like you had to look at it from a distance to figure out what happens on the page. It was interesting approach and tone and pacing of events was excellent. But then it always seemed bit off - when it comes to art I prefer golden-age comics, for newer art I enjoy Frank Miller for example (not that far from Mignola's black&white-shadow-plays), but for Hellboy it seemed like drawings and paintings lost basic definitions and were just shapes that up close made no sense.

But I enjoyed the story a lot. So after reading omnibus vol #4 (I know, I know but it was a gift and I like to read :) ) I finally got opportunity to read omnibus vol #1. Art is beautiful, much more structured but story-telling and page flow are as always flawless.

After reading omnibus vol #1 it is visible that author was always experimenting with his drawings and coloring and it is clear that later stories show artists skill evolution (albeit little bit radical for my taste).

Excellent story, beautiful art - treat yourself and read it :)

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