Hellboy

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Hellboy comic series logo

Hellboy is a cartoon character created by Mike Mignola . First published in 1993 in the comic book San Diego Comic Con Comics # 2 , published for the US comic fair of the same name .

description

Hellboy is not a classic superhero in the strict sense, like Superman , for example , as his stories are more associated with the fantasy horror genre. He is actually a red-skinned devil , conjured up by the Russian mystic Rasputin on behalf of the Nazis, but he was raised on earth by his foster father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, and now fights evil. The name Hellboy was given to him by the American soldiers who found him. In the films, however, he is often only called Red , a reference to his skin color. Its actual name is Anung Un Rama , which translates to mean: The beast of the apocalypse . This implies that Hellboy was sent into the world as the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible . But he rejects this role. With his superhuman abilities, which primarily include superhuman physical strength, endurance, regeneration and physical resistance, he instead fights other demons and occult creatures. In the films it is also, unlike in the comic, fireproof.

Mignola told the experiences of Hellboy in several short stories but also in mini-series. The draftsman describes the figure as a “plumber among superheroes”. He doesn't see him as a classic hero, but as someone who just does his job. Except that this consists of fighting monsters, vampires and Nazis. In 2012 Mignola Hellboy died fighting an apocalyptic dragon in the volume The Storm and the Fury (German: Hellboy: Der Sturm ).

development

Logo of the BPRD - Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense

Over time, Mignola created an increasingly complex universe of other characters. For a long time Hellboy was a member of the authority for the investigation and defense of paranormal phenomena , briefly BUAP (in the original BPRD - Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense ). Other members are Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien. Recurring opponents like his summoner Rasputin and his mother Baba Jaga expanded the cosmos. In the volume The Wild Hunt (2010, German: Die wilde Jagd ), Hellboy learns that he is the last living descendant of King Arthur on his mother 's side and can therefore legitimately claim the throne of England, which he refuses. In the volume The Storm and the Fury (2011, German: Der Sturm ) he stops the end of the world by killing a dragon into which Nimue , the "Lady of the Lake" from the Arthurian legend , has turned . In doing so, he also loses his life. In the volume Hellboy in Hell 1: The Descent (2014, German: Descent to Hell ), he continues his adventures in Hell . There, his arrival triggers a panic in the capital, Pandaemonium, which leads to all of the lords of hell being murdered by their diabolical slaves. Hellboy kills Satan , whereupon the hellfire goes out. The series ends with his retreat to a quiet house on the edge of hell.

In 2004 the comics with Ron Perlman in the role of Hellboy were filmed by Guillermo del Toro . The film is largely based on the first miniseries Seed of Destruction .

As usual in the US comics scene, Hellboy had crossovers with other well-known characters, such as Batman , Starman , Painkiller Jane and Ghost , Savage Dragon and Madman .

On June 24, 2008, the action game Hellboy: The Science of Evil appeared on the North American market for the Xbox 360 , the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable . It was developed by Krome Studios and is distributed by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.

Comicography (excerpt)

(unless otherwise stated, text and drawings by Mike Mignola)

  • 1993 San Diego Comic Con Comics # 2 (text by John Byrne )
  • 1994 Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (text by John Byrne, German: Saat der Destruction )
  • 1995 Hellboy: The Chained Coffin (German: Sarg in Ketten )
  • 1996 Hellboy: Wake the Devil (German: The Devil Awakens )
  • 2001 Hellboy: Conqueror Worm (German: Sieger Wurm )
  • 2001 BPRD: Hollow Earth Teaser (text by Mignola, Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski; drawings by Ryan Snook and Curtis Arnold)
  • 2006 Hellboy: Strange Places (German: Strange Places )
  • 2008 Hellboy: Darkness Calls (drawings by Duncan Fegredo, German: Ruf der Finsternis )
  • 2010 Hellboy: The Wild Hunt (drawings by Duncan Fegredo, German: Die wilde Jagd )
  • 2010 Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others (drawings by Richard Corben and Duncan Fegredo, German: Der Krumme )
  • 2011 Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury (drawings by Duncan Fegredo, German: Der Sturm )
  • 2011 Hellboy in Hell: The Descent (German: Descent to Hell )
  • 2016: Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card (German: The Death Card )

Publication in Germany

Comic

The first attempt at a German-language publication started the Carlsen Verlag , later Dirk Felsenheimers Verlag Extrem Successful Enterprises . However, both editions met with little success.

In mid-2002, the small publisher Cross Cult started a new attempt, this time a black and white hardcover edition. Due to the filming , the edition sold relatively well. T. be reprinted several times. In addition, the publisher published a large-format magazine on the film, which did not contain any comics, only film images and accompanying texts. To date, Cross Cult has published 13 volumes of Hellboy comic strips, plus 10 volumes from the related series BUAP (in the original English BPRD) and several volumes of around 600 pages with the title "Stories from the Hellboy Universe".

The small publishing house JNK also published an extensive special issue ( Hit Comics Spezial ) in 2004 on the occasion of the filming , in which the crossover Savage Dragon / Hellboy was published, as well as a number of short stories and the like. a. by Mike Mignola.

radio play

From October 2008 to May 2010 the Hamburg label LAUSCH published a total of eight radio plays on the comics by Mike Mignola. Lausch hired Tilo Schmitz , the German voice actor for Hellboy film actor Ron Perlman, for the lead role . In 2011 the publisher gave up developing its own radio play productions and the series was discontinued.

Sequence index
  • Seeds of Destruction 1 (released October 10, 2008)
  • Seeds of Destruction 2 (October 10, 2008)
  • The devil awakens 1 (October 10, 2008)
  • The devil awakens 2 (October 10, 2008)
  • Almost a giant (April 30, 2009)
  • Ghost (April 30, 2009)
  • King Vold / Christmas in the Underworld (May 28, 2010)
  • Baba Jaga, heads, coffin in chains (May 28, 2010)

Texts

  • Christopher Golden (ed.): Hellboy tidbits. Translated by Verena Hacker, Aimée de Bruyn. Golkonda, Munich 2019

Movies

Real films

Cartoons

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LAUSCH : Hellboy series ( Memento from November 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Official company website. Last accessed on March 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ financial newspaper editors: EAVESDROPPING are on adult radio plays . In: Börsenblatt . MVB marketing and publishing service for the book trade. May 2, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2011.