Hellboy
The Hellboy comic books deal with investigating the paranormal and it is possible that they could have inspired the popular TV series, The X-Files. Arising from the pen of Mike Magnola, this comic book centers on Hellboy, an investigator, and the comic cleverly mixes comic book art and a passion for horror. There are also humorous scenes and superhero style action in the storylines.
In the story, Hellboy is an paranormal investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Although Hellboy was born a demon, humans raised him. The fact that he cannot remember the realm into which he was born shows the writer’s knowledge of nurture vs. nature. Even though he has super human strength and sawed off horns, Hellboy is just a regular person and the characters he encounters in his work are just as off-the- wall as he is. Within the comic book pages, for example, you meet such characters as Fish man and Abe Sapien.
The Hellboy comics have just as much superhero actions as they do scenes of horror. Many people who are not usually fans of horror material are fans of this series because the horror is almost hidden within the scenes. The scenes of the shadows on the buildings and the graveyards add to the atmosphere of the story line because they are so lifelike. You can almost hear the howling winds as you read the book.
The story is set in the English countryside and the stunning colored pictures give readers a delightful look at the European castles pictured in the scenes. The faces of the characters are almost expressionless, with the poker faces masked in shadows, but this creates a believable story.
Although Hellboy is essentially adult reading there are sections of it where readers sometimes think it was written for children with the wild ideas being portrayed. Hellboy will soon be coming out as a movie, the fastest comic ever to made into a big screen production.
