Duncan Fegredo

In the dreamland of Baba Yaga, the immortal Russian Forest, Hellboy faces a ton of cool foes right from real mythology and legend.

I can't say I completely recognize all the legend references here but that doesn't matter for the sake of sheer enjoyment. Indeed, the pacing on this one is pretty much nonstop action and twist with a really huge bite of Hellboy's old foes. We've got witches, Hood of the hanging fame, Hecate and an army of skeletons, the spirit of the forest, Baba Yaga... but show more honestly, I was most thrilled by Koshchei the Deathless.

The only other time I read about Koshchei the Deathless was in a Cat Valente novel and now I'm pretty stoked to learn a lot more, and not just because of how he was portrayed here. What a tragic piece! show less

This was an interesting book.

Hellboy, kid, teen, lives surrounded by adults at all times (various agents and scientists from BPRD). Living in such surroundings it is no surprise he considers himself to be one of the team so when he gets put to his place he takes it very hard. Since he is in a very sensitive teen years (when almost anything will annoy the teen :) ) this results in his rebellious escape one night when he comes across the mysterious circus advertising marvels and show from show more midnight to the crack of dawn.

Puzzled he decides to see the circus show but very soon he will find himself in company of monsters that will tease him to [by reacting to their actions] do what he was meant to do on Earth from the beginning - open the gates of Hell.

Excellent story, I especially liked parallels with the Pinocchio, both aspiring to become true boys but making errors on the way to achieving their goal - errors that scare them and sometimes scar them but errors that are nevertheless part of the growing up.

Art as always is very beautiful, Duncan Fegredo is truly an excellent artist.

Highly recommended to all fans of Hellboy and/or eerie stories. show less

Have I ever told you that I like horror comics?

David is a top-class plastic surgeon. He's also got a problem or two. Both of these factors make him the perfect person to operate on Andrew Sphinx, a reclusive, eccentric painter who was one of the most famous artists on the planet several decades ago. He's ready for a new face, but when David and his wife, Rebecca (Beccy), arrive on the picturesque, private island, things get increasingly more dangerous and bizarre. The more we learn about show more David, the more we worry about his decision-making abilities. The more we learn about Beccy, the more we worry about her coming with. The more we learn about Andrew, the more we fear for everyone.

The art is perfect for the story. It looks like many of the Vertigo greats of the 90s. The generally muted color palette makes the few moments of vibrant fear and violence hit that much harder. Fegredo captures the unsettling and melancholic mood, but he also captures the tense and crazed moments of terror. The emotion of each scene feels distinct, and turning to the next page was often impactful before I even read a single word. There are some

I love how Milligan writes each character. David and Andrew are layered in a way that's never contrived; they reveal bits of their pasts in different ways that makes them fun to learn about. David's pseudo-catchphrase for the book is "Have I ever told you that ____?" These revelations are always told so nonchalantly, but they're often bombshells. Beccy is the only normal one there, and she grounds many of the conversations, but she's not perfect. There's also the butler, but he's more complicated than I'd like to delve into without spoilers. I will say that he's surprisingly excellent. I enjoyed how the book starts to slowly creep into madness, but it never stops once it gets going. You can tell things aren't going to end well, but it's not at all cliche despite the meta-narrative falling into place like a puzzle. It falls into place so flawlessly that even the characters involved push it in that direct exactly because it's so narratively sound. show less

This was a re-read, as I am now sure that I read 'Enigma' as a teenager, during my phase of reading every single graphic novel the library either had or could order. (This was before I had internet access, and therefore read during most of my waking hours.) I forgot it for years, but was reminded by Grant Morrison's wonderful book 'Supergods'. In this, he discusses 'Enigma' in detail, which piqued my interest. This graphic novel is now quite hard to get hold of, but I finally found a copy on show more eBay and read it last night at 3am.

'Enigma' is the tale of Michael Smith, a young guy with a very regimented, predictable life and a sad family background. His father died in an earthquake and his mother subsequently abandoned him while he was still a child. Michael's life is upended when weird supervillains like The Truth, The Head, and The Envelope Girl start terrorising the population, apparently having emerged from the pages of a short-lived comic series called 'The Enigma'. Then it all gets very postmodern. I'll say no more as I don't want to spoil it for you! Suffice it to say, I like how open to interpretation the final twist and ending are.

I remember enjoying this graphic novel the first time round, and definitely loved re-reading it. It's wonderfully weird and meta, but also genuinely sweet and moving. The fourth-wall-denying narration is a highlight, especially once you realise who is actually narrating. I like the art without adoring it, but truly love the evocative and beautiful colouring.

Grant Morrison says in his book that 'Enigma' was ground-breaking when first published in 1995, and I trust his word on this. It takes an angle on the superhero mythos that I haven't found anywhere else. I wish I'd written down my reaction to it as a teenager, as I think that's a very good point in life to read it. 'Enigma' is about identity (including sexual identity), about trying to understand who you are and what you want from life. As a teenager (and later, just less so!), this is all a huge ocean of mystery and confusion. It has much more interesting things to say than most graphic novels about superheroes that I've read. show less