Hellboy Junior

Hellboy: Non-Canonical

by Mike Mignola, Bill Wray (Artist), Dave Cooper (Artist)

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Bill Wray (Ren and Stimpy) combine their talents to bring us the outrageous adventures of Hellboy, Jr. and his little friends. This volume includes stories of Wheezy the Sick Little Witch, the Ginger Beef Boy, Somnambo the Sleeping Giant, The Wolvertons, Sparky Bear and Huge Retarded Duck, plus a brand new Hellboy, Jr. story not in the original series. Mignola and Wray are joined by the diverse talents of Dave Cooper (Futurama), Stephen DeStefano (Ren and Stimpy), Pat McEown (Grendel), Hilary Barta, Glenn Barr, and Kevin Nowlan.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Humor, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2004

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

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly ridiculous to the point of so funny Nazi jokes and dirty jokes silly cartoon humour

[Marsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me ha gustada NADA!
Ni hace gracia ni tampoco las historias son interesantes. Para más inri, algunas ni son de Hellboy!
Lo mejor? Que me lo he leido en un plis y espero olvidarlo con la misma rapidez...
Una obra totalmente prescindible a mi entender!

[Jesse Bray · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been a really cool comic if they would of focused on Hell-boy. It's really just a perverted read filled with over the top disgusting stories that rarely even nod to the actual Hellboy universe. On the plus side it does have some really cool art work and the few stories that do contain Hellboy are totally worth a good read. My advice skim it at the book store and save your money.

[Angel Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was A LOT of fun. Great comic book.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in Hell is tough for a growing demon-spawn. Hellboy Junior spends his days watching over tortured souls and trying to find something to eat other than maggots. As he monitors Hitler and explores the land some his friends like Sparky Bear, Wheezy the Sick Little Witch, and Jasper the Dead Boy have their own adventures…reminding people that life on Earth isn’t always fun either.

Primarily written by Bill Wray, Hellboy Junior is a short story collection. The stories are based around Mike Mignola’s Hellboy (Mignola is also a contributor) and feature art by Wray, Mignola, and other artists.

I inherited most of my first comics from my older sisters. At the time, that generally meant a lot of Archie, Disney, and the occasional Harvey Comic like Casper the Friendly Ghost or Wendy the Good Little Witch. Here, Wray dives deep into those classic comics while providing a hellish fairytale setting.

Hellboy Junior pretty much takes the happy little stories of Harvey and boils them down to their dark essentials while still having all the characters wearing smiles. You have “Baby Huey” becoming “Huge Retarded Duck” (Baby Huey always did kind of irritate me) and “Casper the Friendly Ghost” becoming “Jasper the Dead Boy”. It is geared to those who read the comics and it is a fun riff on them.

The other part of the story is essentially the Hellboy aspect. Mignola’s stories are already pretty abstract and odd and it doesn’t take much to twist them into parodies of themselves. The stories fall into the other Harvey type stories but still have that Hellboy twist that doesn’t make them just copycats of Hot Stuff comics. Fans of Hellboy will still enjoy the twist on the character.

Visually, the book brings in a lot of artists in addition to Wray and Mingola. This gives different styles to the story. Ordinarily, I’d argue that a book like this needs more extreme artists to juggle up the art style (and avoid just being a weirdly written edition of a regular comic), but since Hellboy Junior is trying to parody Harvey comics, the art fits the stories.

I like books like Hellboy Junior when are part classic comic book storytelling and part post-modern comics. The book not only parodies old Harvey comics, but it also has a charm of its own that feels genuine and in the spirit of old comics that were often comic book reader’s first introduction to comic books. I have never been that big of a Hellboy fan (there is nothing wrong with it, but I just can’t get excited about it), but Hellboy Junior was a fun little escape.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ouf. I don't know. I had a hard time with some of the stuff in this book. I do understand that it mimics some of those Harvey comics in many places and that stuff always made me cringe too. There are hints of racism, misogyny, transphobia and all that stuff. With satire, it is often sometimes hard to identify the target. There was some funny stuff in here.

Taken out of the context of the book and out of this remembrance of Harvey comics, Huge Retarded Duck would be a bit of a thing for outrage. I remember reading the original from which these are crafted. This is a twisted little story and it does take me back to being a teenager and gross out contests, exploring the macabre and taboo subjects. So, is it a good thing or a bad thing?

I do think that censoring these thoughts and stating that they are the bad in the world is probably not the right thing to do.

Anyway, I did enjoy most of the book. Even the ones that bothered me gave rise to some thoughts. I enjoyed the art a lot. I would recommend to those that liked and got Ren and Stimpy, and other gross out adult comics. That is the spirit I took the book in and that is why I would recommend it to a select bunch of people.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well... It isn't for me. This is a non-canonical and frankly unfunny for me series of one-offs largely not written by Mike Mignola, so I stopped somewhere after the issue with the lumberjack and his alien wife and the terrible caricature of a first nations person. It wasn't the first or the worst unfunny thing in the book, but it is where I decided I'd truly had enough. I know it was made to evoke comics/cartoons from the time when racism and gross humor were the standard, but I didn't grow up on it and maybe because of that don't even get a nostalgia hit from it. If that's more your thing, maybe you'll like this one.

[Ai · Rating 4 out of 5]

📝 la creación de hellboy jr. !!!
🐛 ¡gusanos, gusanos por doquier!
🚬 el diablo no fuma.
🦆 el gran pato retardado
👲 el niño de ternera
🍄 el viaje flipante de hellboy jr.
🦑 el hombre calamar (the lighthouse meets frankenstein)
👽 los wolverton !
🏠 la casita de chocolate y dolor
🐻 sparky bear
🌋 somnambo, el gigante dormido
🧙‍♀️ wheezy, la brujita enferma
👨🏻 hitler
🗡 la lanza del destino
✝️ hellboy jr vs hitler
🚙 hellboy jr. tiene coche !

[Ed · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's no wonder why this has gone out of print. It's racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and, worst of all, not funny at all!

There's some Mignola art in there that's okay, but it's nothing you haven't seen him do better elsewhere.

[Vishualee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unapologetically funny. Dont go by the cuteness of their size and looks, they don't hold back. Definitely keep away from kids.

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of various Hellboy Junior stories, most coming from the Halloween special, which has better stories than the other Hellboy Junior books.

[Jason]

I guess I was expecting something along the lines of the Itty Bitty comics and not this juvenile stuff. Filled with dated slurs and racist stereotypes, I can't even give it a single star

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A departure from the typical Hellboy offerings, "Hellboy Junior" is a humor compilation largely organized and written by Bill Wray. It's a demented brew of old "Hot Stuff"/Harvey comics references, mixed with actual Hell and torment.

I found it sharply created, with a lot of skill in the art, but not to my tastes. The stories here seem edgy to the point of being mean-spirited. I didn't need a Idi Amin/virginal nun gag, nor did I appreciate the gross visual gags and uncomfortable rape/incest humor of "Huge Retarded Duck" (a spin-off of Baby Huey).

A lot of the humor here hasn't aged well in the nearly 20 years since this compilation was collected. There's a big setpiece about a transvestite he-witch who's main trait is being freaky and weird. There are also some uncomfortable Asian visual stereotypes in "The Ginger Beef Boy" that I think are supposed to be a parody on old comics but don't quite seem to earn the claim.

I did find the last Hitler in Hell story to be pretty funny, but that was the extent of my enjoyment here. If you're a Hellboy fan that likes "wrong" humor, this may be the collection for you, but it wasn't for me.

[Yael · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the tribulations of baby Hellboy as he tries to get something, anything better to eat than maggot gruel, to the tragic story of the Wolvertons, and the happy ending of the story of Wheezy, the sick little witch and her paramour, Jasper the Ghost (after Wheezy is ralfed out by a giant, hitting her head on a rock, which kills her, she and Jasper declare eternal love and run off to get married. 18 years, two bratty kids, and an indifferent husband later, however . . .), this is one of the greatest comic presentations of all time. Done in that wonderful old Harvey Comics style, it lampoons, parodizes, and just plain beats over the head every convention of the comics of our more innocent days in a manner guaranteed to make even the sourest adult roar with laughter. Containing all the stories in the Halloween issue of the comic as well as numerous Hellboy Junior stories, this book is worth every effort to track it down and acquire it for your private library, because you'll want to savor it again and again and again and . . .

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of odd little stories about Hellboy from the days before he found his way into our world, mainly written by Bill Wray, of Ren and Stimpy fame. Maybe it's the geek in me, but I couldn't help wondering whether these were supposed to be in continuity or not: the hell in these stories is awfully prosaic compared to the place I imagined Hellboy coming from - basically it's a Christian hell rather than a Lovecraftian one. (Though I haven't read much Hellboy, so maybe that's the Hell you see in the other books too.) Like I said in a review of Stone Island from 2000AD, the world beyond the portal is nearly always best left to the imagination.

None of this made me laugh out loud, and parts made me feel positively queasy, but it was an amusing read. Kind of like how the Beano and Dandy would never make me laugh, but I always enjoyed them.

[Kelly Lynn Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is a collection of shorts. The only problem is that not all of the shorts have anything to do with Hellboy. The ones that are actually about Hellboy are kind of funny. The ones that aren't are pretty dumb, in my opinion. I started skipping the non-Hellboy ones after the first few. The humor in this book is on par with 12-year-old humor, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but I don't think it's applied very well.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sort of book that will appeal to your “Ren & Stimpy”-“Cracked magazine” side. Don’t read it if you’re easily offended, because there will no doubt be something here to offend you. The demon storyline rears its head here, but at least it involves real demons.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

It sucked. I don't love crude slapstick humor and this is full of it. I know Hellboy has many connections to WWII but I quickly tired of the Hitler in Hell parts. The only redeeming quality is the two stories written by Mignola.

[Paul Harmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was nothing like and in no way felt like Hellboy and Yes I was warned it was offensive but still hated it, not only that but Hellboy JR only was in about half the book the rest was just random vulgar and offensive bits (generally speaking, I personally dont really care).

[Treebeer'd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually I love all the Hellboy books. There is just way to many to rate. So Hellboy gets an overall thumbs up from me.

[Alicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crude, crass, violent, vile, and not even funny. What a disappointment.

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Hellboy and Mike Mignola, but this is mostly gross-out humor.

[Collin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crude. The stories weren't particularly engaging or funny. I think the only one I liked was the one Mignola did.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately I had read Pancakes before this and did not expect these kinds of stories.

[Kalysto]

a ne pas acheter, en feuilletant j'ai vu les dessins pas beau assez classique des "histoires bizarres", j'ai pas trop réfléchi, mais ça ne mériterait même pas d'être estampillé Hellboy

[Quinlan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty offensive.
Has a Ren and Stimpy feel to it. Not my taste.

[La Revistería Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

El blasfemo, iconoclasta y -sobre todo- divertidísimo Bill Wray homenajea en su particular y perturbador estillo al Pibe Infierno con Pibe Infierno Hijo.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raunchy, revolting, authorized parody. A nice change of pace.

[Sam McCanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

comics,horror

[Zane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Ren & Stimpy, you'll love this.