Hellboy: Christmas Special #1

Hellboy (Ongoing Order) #14

by Mike Mignola, Gary Gianni, Steve Purcell

Hellboy spends Christmas underground with dead guys in a full-length story kicking off this 48-page special full of weird yuletide cheer. Along with the regular backup feature, Gary Gianni's Corpus Monstrum, Mignola is joined by Steve Purcell (Sam and Max) and his seldom-seen Toy Box characters, as well as Geof Darrow (Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot) with a special holiday surprise.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Fantasy, Comic Book, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellboy , a very much lesser known hero whom the popularity is almost nonexisting compared to the big names, but he remain one of the better written ever in his own genre.

Hellboy is a hero cursed by his apparence and his origin and who alternate between deep melancholy and despair and sometimes a mask of cold hard stoicism in front of his fate and the horrors he willingly chose to fight against despite going against his very nature. For the lovers of mysticism, mythology and dark-foltales/horror with a lot of brutal and violent fights with diverses monsters and creatures all while keeping a very good writting and touching deep philosophical and morals terms , Hellboy is for you. The art is a thing of beauty in his own right.


This story goes perfectly in line with the Hellboy we love and have the beautifuly “depressing” and bittersweet writting which is so common in his tales.

[Andrew Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Hellboy. I love the art I love the mythologies that are brought in. I love the snark, and the action, and the characters.

I hadn’t read a Hellboy in probably nearly a year before I found some.

This one is short, but fun. I had read “A Christmas Underground” but I enjoyed reading it for a second time. I also thought “Toybox” was very cute and fun.

“A Gift For The Wicked” was my favorite and made me want to read more Corpus Monstrum.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am addicted to the Hellboy verse. It's official.

Christmas is my favorite holidays, and I love how Mignola gave this story the Christmas touch without it seeming cheesy.

[Elmari Kruger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spidey clause

[J.M. Giovine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how Mignola writes and draws this comic books. What he does in this Christmas Special is no exception of how he masters the storytelling power of his comics. Hellboy is such a fantastic character!

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Tomo corto español que traduce diversas historias de Hellboy: Hellboy Christmas Special (1997), Hellboy Junior Halloween Special (1997) y las historias cortas incluidas en el volumen recopilatorio Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (1994).

[Jason Platt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet, well told, and even touching for the time it had to tell it. And, just like a Hellboy story we expect, it had plenty of supernatural and action too. A perfect quick read for a Christmas ghost story.

[Patrick Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this was one of Mignola's more striking stories, artistically, and the literary allusions throughout are a nice touch.