Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea

The World of Hellboy: Standalone Books

by Mike Mignola, Jesse Lonergan (Illustrator), Clem Robins (Illustrator)

One of the last followers of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, the unassuming Miss Truesdale is the recipient of Brotherhood leader Tefnut Trionus’s final vision.

From meek secretary in Victorian London to a mighty gladiator in ancient Hyperborea, Truesdale is thrust into the past to fight ancient evils and change the future forever.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola teams with artist Jesse Lonergan for an all-new time-bending horror tale from the Mignolaverse.

Collects Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea #1–#4 and bonus material.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Horror, Mythology, Graphic Novels Comics, Urban Fantasy

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2024

About the author

Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.

In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.

In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.

Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.

Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.

Reviews

[Jill]

Sometimes when I read Mignola I have no idea what I just read but I still love it.

[Bogdan]

Pfuuu! I think this was a big miss for Mignola!

Didn`t like it a bit!

A stinky bomb !! :))
!!
AVOID!!!

[John]

Some great moments, but why did this story need to be told?

[Aaron]

Ah, now the Hellboy Universe is entering its "setting the table for later events without making the table setting itself entertaining" phase. Real MCU shit over here. The main storyline has wrapped up, but we simply MUST milk this property for all its worth.

Pretty useless book we got here. The art and time jumping stuff is fine, but we already did this with a prolonged arc involving the Sword of Hyperborea, Gall Dennar and Agent Howards. Really feels wild to me to have TWO different warriors from Ancient Hyperborea whose consciousnesses travel through time allowing them to experience two distinct eras simultaneously on their journey to fulfilling their destiny to slay Important Beasts for Hellboy, but hey, I guess if you have an idea, why stop using it?

Big skip on this one IMO. Bonk.

[Ed]

Spectacular art. And the finale one of the best comics I’ve read in a while.

[Maciej]

"Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea" to jeden z najnowszych dodatków do uniwersum Hellboy’a, autorstwa Mike'a Mignoli, z grafiką Jesse Lonergana i literami Clema Robinsa. Historia łączy w sobie elementy horroru, fantastyki oraz narracji historycznej, prowadząc czytelnika przez niezwykłą podróż w czasie, która zmienia przyszłość poprzez walkę z pradawnym złem.

Tytułowa Miss Truesdale, skromna sekretarka w wiktoriańskim Londynie, staje się odbiorcą ostatniej wizji lidera Helioptycznego Bractwa Ra, Tefnuta Trionusa. Zostaje przeniesiona do starożytnej Hyperborei, gdzie wciela się w potężną gladiatorkę, która musi stawić czoła tajemniczym siłomciemności. Mignola, znany z umiejętności budowania złożonych światów, tym razem proponuje czytelnikom opowieść o zmieniających się tożsamościach, podróżach w czasie i walce o przetrwanie.

Historia rozwija się w dwóch równoległych liniach czasowych: wiktoriańskim Londynie oraz starożytnej Hyperborei. Mimo że koncepcja jest interesująca, nie wszystkie wątki zostały dostatecznie rozwinięte. Narracja, choć fascynująca, momentami wydaje się niejasna i trudna do śledzenia. Wątek Miss Truesdale jako gladiatorki, mimo potencjału, nie został w pełni wykorzystany, a jej prawdziwa tożsamość jest ograniczona do finału opowieści.

Grafika Lonergana wyróżnia się unikalnym stylem, który idealnie współgra z klimatem komiksu. Jego minimalistyczne podejście do detali twarzy bohaterów oraz umiejętne użycie kolorów nadaje opowieści wyjątkowego charakteru. Prostota i ekspresyjność rysunków Lonergana skutecznie oddają emocje postaci, nawet przy ograniczonym użyciu szczegółów i zgrywa się z klimatem umiwersum Mignoli. Kolory, choć skąpe, są zastosowane z dużą precyzją, podkreślając różnice między teraźniejszością a przeszłością.

Clem Robins, jako doświadczony liternik, skutecznie przekazuje emocje poprzez subtelne zmiany wielkości i kształtu liter. Jego praca dodaje narracji głębi i ułatwia czytelnikom zrozumienie wewnętrznych przeżyć bohaterów.

"Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea" to interesujący, choć momentami niejasny dodatek do uniwersum Hellboya. Mignola i Lonergan stworzyli opowieść, która przyciągnie zarówno wiernych fanów serii, jak i nowych czytelników. Historia o podróżach w czasie i walce ze złem, choć nie pozbawiona wad, zasługuje na uwagę ze względu na unikalny styl graficzny i klimat.

Przyjemność 3,1/5
Styl: 3,8/5
Historia: 3,2/5

Ocena: 3,35/5
goodreads - 3/5
thestorygraph - 3,25/5
lubimyczytac - 6/10

[Joseph R.]

Miss Truesdale is a typical Victorian-era secretary for the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, a secret society full of occult knowledge and practices. She is put upon in this male-dominated social group but has visions of a previous life millennia before. She was a gladiator in the realm of Hyperborea, the home of the first pre-historic humans who had a very advanced society. The gladiator brings about the eponymous fall of her civilization through a combination of grit, chance, and supernatural influences.

The story is okay. While the paralleling of the lives is interesting, there's isn't enough depth to the characters to make either version of her memorable. Too much is left out for the collapse of Hyperborea to be really convincing. Also, Truesdale's agency is lacking till the very end of the book. I wanted more than they deliver.

Not recommended.

[Linda]

I enjoyed the art but the story was too confusing. It started off well with Miss Truesdale in an alternate Victorian England where she finds out that she's the reincarnation of a slave warrior who becomes a hero. But the "alternate" part wasn't really fleshed out before the story jumps to the past where she's remembering her past life. It jumps back to the present but the past life flashback is still going. Something is happening to Miss Truesdale in the present but it never really explains what.

[James]

Enjoyable late-period Hellboy that doesn't really add much to the mythos.

The titular Miss Truesdale finds herself sent back to a past life in Hyperborea, where she inhabits a fierce, axe-wielding warrior in the fallen city's gladiatorial arena. The ancient evils and sinister sorcerers would be at home in a classic Conan tale (a compliment). But the arc of the story is pretty straightforward, even if the art by Jesse Lonergan is a highlight.

If you're a fan, you likely won't find your time wasted, but there isn't much to draw in the uninitiated.

[Amy]

Usually these kinds of books are right up my alley. Seemed like a historical London-like setting with Ancient civilization type ties and secret societies... but it was confusing. Like time travel body hopping? Or maybe past lives' memories interspersed with a goddess who may or may not be terribly nice... whatever it is, it was hard for me to follow and maybe in a way that I won't continue this graphic novel.

[Matt Maielli]

Further proof that “The Island” is the weirdest keystone to the Mignolaverse, meaning that Mignola truly has like 1,000 ideas running at any one time. Rad. It unfortunately makes this probably unapproachable to the average reader, but the shorthand is: he found a way to make Lady Hellboy (that’s also, uh, prehistoric?). Rad! Don’t even know what Part 2 would look like but I’m sure it would be bizarre.

[Dylan]

3.5 Stars

I'm somewhat new to graphic novels and have bearly dipped my toe in the Hellboy universe as a whole, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I enjoyed my time with this book. The art was fun and the story was interesting, but certainly short and confusing. Perhaps some gaps would be filled for someone really familiar with Hellboy, but even so, I think some things could have been explained a bit more and not so rushed.

[Chad]

It's starting to be diminishing returns with the Hellboy universe now that they've mined pretty much every story. This was terrible. It wasn't at all helped by the rudimentary art and coloring. It's a flashback story with Miss Truesdale of the Helioptic Order of Ra who is told a vision of past lives during the Hyperborean age. It felt like a complete waste of time.

[Fraser Sherman]

I love the Hellboyverse but like the saying goes, they can't all be gems.
Miss Truesdale is an occultist with the Heliotropic Brotherhood, frustrated by sexism. She gets a vision of her past life as a gladiator in ancient Hyperborea and her adventures. This would have worked condensed down to one issue as the springboard for more adventures. As is, very meh.

[Jordi Martinez]

A story which belongs to the world of Hellboy created by Mike Mignola so many years ago, and I believe it might be of some interest for Hellboy fans. To me, that I am not part of this gang myself, this 4-episode mini-series is quite intrascendent. The plot is decent, as is the art. Overall, though, it feels so shallow that 5 minutes after finished reading it, I Don’t remember it.

[Villain E]

I'm not up on my Hellboy mythology. The setup for this could have stood alone, but by the end, not so much.

In the 1880's Miss Truesdale has visions of a past life as a female gladiator in Hyperborea. The story of the gladiator is interesting. The story of Miss Truesdale is nearly non-existent.

The art is interesting.

[Lucas]

I read the first three issues of this series before I read any other Mignolaverse books. I've since dipped my toes into the main Hellboy series, but it hasn't really helped me make sense of the greater mythology of it yet. Having a somewhat better grasp of the expansiveness of it though, this story kind of feels like Mignola want to write more but doesn't really know where to add it, so it feels grand an important but somehow also inconsequential. It works perfectly well as a quick standalone story though, it's a fairly standard but well written hero's journey. And it's absolutely worth it just for Lonergan's killer art

[Philhatch]

Nice little story, though I'm probably missing a bit of context as this is my first foray into the printed world of Hellboy. Could have a little more flesh on the bones, but at the same time it's the sort of story that would suffer from too much explanation.

[Grg]

I'm not familiar enough with the Hellboy universe to understand all the intricacies and references, so at some point I started thinking of it as Mignola's version of Wonder Woman and just went along for the ride.

[Andres Pasten]

Hace tiempo que no leía un Mignolaverse interesante, se ganó las 4 estrellas

[Jorge Williams]

Agent Howards again? But a woman and not quite as good.
I'm not a fan of the art style but it is good to see more of Hyperborea.

[Bill]

The usual Mignola stuff. Esoteric and monstrous and religious mumbo-jumbo. I didn’t find it interesting in any kind of new or unique way.

[Samantha S.]

Great stand alone female driven story in the Hellboy universe. Stunning artwork as expected.

[Monte]

Lovely art and delightful story.

[Robert]

It hints at more than it reveals, but it moves quickly and leaves one wanting more.

[uzhuj]

This went from terrible on issue 1 to quite okay by the end. Again this whole series feels a bit unnecessary, but we have seen way worse in this franchise.

[Marcus]

2.5/5 - I think the "Bowling With Corpses" collection was a big improvement from this, cutting the Hellboy ties helps a lot

[Nicholas J]

Not much to it. It took about ten minutes to read through. Nothing complicated or gripping, but it’s got great art.

[Elias Grubb]

3.5

[Bradley]

Maybe this made no sense because I haven't read Hellboy in a long time. Fantastic art. I picked it up because the artist's graphic novel, Drome, was incredible.