Yesterday, the Internet was set ablaze when fans received their first look at actor David Harbour's take on the Hellboy for the upcoming R-rated reboot, which was first announced in May of this year by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. However, fans who prefer the comic books to the films are in luck as well! For the first time ever, Dark Horse will publish the entire collection of Hellboy stories in the order the stories took place rather than their publication order.
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“I’m very excited to finally have all the Hellboy stories collected in chronological order,” Mignola said in a statement. “I’m especially excited to have the three Duncan Fegredo books -- all the stuff with Alice and the Queen of Blood -- together in one collection for the first time.”
Created by Mike Mignola, Hellboy made his first full appearance in the pages of San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 in August 1993. The character is a half-demon who was summoned from Hell as a child by World War II-era Nazi occultists, which spawned his hatred for the fascist party. Eventually, he was discovered by the Allied Forces, and he would grow up to work for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.).
Featuring new cover art by Mignola and colorist Dave Stewart, the Hellboy Omnibus Collection will consist of four volumes containing every Mignola-written/drawn Hellboy story. Additionally, it will feature The Wild Hunt by Mignola and artist Duncan Fergardo, which is the inspiration behind the upcoming Neil Marshall-directed film. This massive collection is then bookended by two volumes of Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories, with art by Richard Corben, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon.
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Here is Dark Horse's synopses for the collected volumes:
Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction
Available in comic stores on May 23rd and in bookstores on June 5, 2018.
The story jumps from Hellboy's mysterious World War II origin to his 1994 confrontation with the man who summoned him to earth, and the earliest signs of the plague of frogs. Avoiding his supposed fate as the herald of the end of the world, Hellboy continues with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, fighting alongside Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and drafting Roger Homunculus into his own ill-fated service with the B.P.R.D. This 368-page volume covers Hellboy’s adventures from 1994 to 1997, reprinting Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, and “Wolves of St August,” “The Chained Coffin,” and “Almost Colossus,” from The Chained Coffin and The Right Hand of Doom.
Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories Vol. 1
Available Summer 2018.
The ultimate introduction to this supernatural hero features 16 standalone stories with Mignola’s greatest collaborators—stories that can be read in any order.
In 1994, Mike Mignola released the first Hellboy series, Seed of Destruction, as Hellboy faced his supposed destiny as Beast of the Apocalypse. Before that, he’d spent fifty years fighting monsters as a somewhat carefree member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The Complete Short Stories Volumes 1 & 2 present those early adventures. “The Crooked Man” and “Double Feature of Evil," both of which earned Mignola and his legendary collaborator Richard Corben Eisner Awards, are collected with the complete “Hellboy in Mexico" saga, featuring collaborations with Corben, Mick McMahon, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon, as well as one of Mignola’s early masterpiece, “The Corpse.” This 368-page volume covers Hellboy’s adventures from 1947 to 1961, reprinting stories from The Chained Coffin, The Right Hand of Doom, The Bride of Hell, The Crooked Man, The Troll Witch, and Hellboy's childhood adventure, The Midnight Circus, drawn by Duncan Fegredo.
Hellboy Omnibus Volume 2: Strange Places
Available Summer 2018.
Hellboy loses faith in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense when they strap a bomb to one of his fellow not-quite-human agents. He gets answers about his destiny, like it or not, in over 300 pages of comics mostly drawn by Mignola, featuring award-winning guests Gary Gianni and Richard Corben. This 416-page volume covers Hellboy’s adventures from 1998 to 2005, reprinting Conqueror Worm, Strange Places, Into the Silent Sea, and “The Right Hand of Doom," “Box Full of Evil,” and “Being Human” from The Right Hand of Doom and B.P.R.D. Being Human.
Hellboy Omnibus Volume 3: The Wild Hunt
Available Fall 2018.
The basis for the upcoming Hellboy feature film! Terrible powers determined to kill Hellboy force him strike a deal with the Russian witch, the Baba Yaga, and to confront the truth about his destiny. The human race hangs in the balance, as well as King Arthur's sword Excalibur, in a story that wipes England off the map and sets in motion the end of the world … Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo's complete trilogy is collected for the first time in this 512-page volume, reprinting Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm and the Fury, and the short story "The Mole."
Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories Vol. 2
Available Fall 2018.
Featuring “The Hydra and the Lion,” “The Troll Witch,” “The Baba Yaga,” “The Sleeping and the Dead,” “Heads,” “Goodbye Mister Tod,” “The Vârcolac,” “The Vampire of Prague,” “The Bride of Hell,” “The Whittier Legacy,” “Buster Oakley Gets His Wish,” “They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships,” “A Christmas Underground”, “Dr. Carp’s Experiment,” “The Ghoul,” “In the Chapel of Moloch,” and “Makoma.”
Hellboy Omnibus Volume 4: Hellboy in Hell
Available Winter 2019
Hellboy in Hell, The Exorcist of Vorsk, The Magician and the Snake
Priced at $24.99 each, the first omnibus goes on sale in comic stores on May 23, 2018 and bookstores on June 5, 2018, and both Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1 and Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories Volume 1 are currently available for pre-order.