The Hellboy II website is now live. I like the little intro by Doug Jones, a.k.a. Abe Sapien. Also, the “Big Baby” gun looks badass.
Troll Market
The more I read about Hellboy 2, the more it seems that there’s something of a Harry Potter-esque vibe to it. I think it’s the idea of the “Troll Market” more than anything else, but still.
I really can’t predict how well this film will do. The first one was a moderate success, but it was no Batman Begins or even X-Men. Maybe these Rowling-esque touches, while alienating some Hellboy fans (Hi, Scott!) will draw in the casual crowd.
Del Toro + Lovecraft = happy JFCC
Somewhat on-topic, here’s some fantastic news: it seems Guillermo Del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) has finally gotten the green light to make his big-budget adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. (I like to think it was partly my influence–see the last question.)
Finally, someone will take a crack at a true A-movie version of Lovecraft’s work. ATMOM is probably the best one to start with, though I think The Dunwich Horror would make a great film as well. With any luck (and skill), ATMOM will be the beginning of a run of big-budget Lovecraft films (like the Austen films of the nineties or the current epic fantasy boom).
Savage Dragon/Hellboy
In my question to own any and all comic appearances of Hellboy, I finally picked up a copy of Savage Dragon/Hellboy, which collects two issues of Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon comic featuring a guest appearance by the wielder of the Right Hand of Doom.
Quick history lesson: In 1992, when the post-Batman comic book boom was at its peak, a number of Marvel Comics’ most popular artists left to start a new company called Image Comics. While Image’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the years (they currently publish the bestselling Walking Dead), two original Image titles have continued ever since those early days: Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon.
The Dragon is a green-skinned, super-strong fellow with a big green fin on his head and an (until recently) unknown origin. He appeared in a blaze of fire with no memory of his past and was recruited to fight (supervillainous) crime by the US government.
Hellboy is a red-skinned, super-strong fellow with filed-down horns on his head and an (until recently) unknown origin. He appeared in a blaze of fire with no knowledge of his past and was recruited to fight (supernatural) crime by the US government.
Hellboy sweetness
Sometimes to get a comic shop to order a lot of copies of a particular comic, a publisher will offer a “retailer incentive.” This is often some sort of poster or super-rare variant cover or even a collectible like an action figure, and the comic shop gets one if it orders enough copies of the comic. Then the store can put the incentive on display, though often enough they’ll just sell it to a rabid fan, usually at an exorbitant price.
The current Hellboy miniseries is called Darkness Calls, and the retailer incentive was a beautiful 18×24 poster signed by artist and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. Since I’m known as the local Hellboy freak at New England Comics in Harvard Square, the manager, Matt, set aside the poster and sold it to me for an insanely reasonable price. I’m actually jealous of me.
I can’t thank Matt enough, so instead I’ll plug his rap/funk/rock band, Type 4. You can also check out his Myspace page here.
(Oh, and so far, Darkness Calls is really good. It’s written by Mignola but drawn but Duncan Fegredo, since Mignola is busy with Hellboy 2.)
Hellboy figure review
I wrote a review of a Hellboy action figure for Michael Crawford’s toy review site. Here’s the link. My main motivation was to raise awareness of the animated films, because if Blood & Iron doesn’t sell well, there won’t be any more.
Hellboy: Blood & Iron
Well, I’ve gone two weeks without writing a videogame-related post. There’s a reason for that—about two weeks ago, I sort of lost interest in gaming. Burned out, I guess, after four or five months of hardcore videogame obsession. It’s happened to me before; I well remember how obsessively I played Diablo in summer 1997, only to stop abruptly in late August and then I was never able to enjoy the game again.
I think a lot of people go through phases like this. And if the right game came along, I’d probably get into it. As of right now, though, the only games I’ve been interested in have been Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Konami’s Hellboy.
Speaking of Hellboy, I finally watched the second animated flick, Blood & Iron, last week. While I enjoyed the first film, Sword of Storms, Iron is a definite improvement. Where Storms had Hellboy wandering around the world of Japanese folklore, the new film brings the big red lug back to his roots, having him battle vampires and werewolves in a haunted house. The story is loosely based on the legend of Elizabeth Bathory.
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Hellboy game preview
Hellboy’s getting a videogame later this year. It looks like it’s basically a God of War clone, which is fine with me, since I don’t own a PS2 and never got to play GoW. It also seems to me that many of the most enjoyable licensed videogames have borrowed another game’s gameplay (such as Simpsons Road Rage [Crazy Taxi] and Simpsons: Hit & Run [GTA3], the only two good Simpsons games).
Anyway, you can watch a preview of Hellboy: God of W—I mean, Hellboy: The Science of Evil here (QT) or here (WMV). And yes, that’s Ron Perlman as the voice of Hellboy.
Hellboy 2 lives
Even the most casual reader of this blog probably knows I’m a big fan of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. The comic is one of the best out there, and the film, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is my favorite comic book film.
So it was with great pleasure that I read that Hellboy 2, whose future had been in doubt after Revolution Studios announced it would be closing its doors in October 2007, has been picked up by Universal Studios—the company that passed on the first film years ago.
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