inlibrisveritas
Written on Sep 11, 2017
Full review to come!
Dark Horse presents new editions of the entire Hellboy line with new covers, beginning with Seed of Destruction, the basis of director Guillermo del Toro's blockbuster films. Hellboy is one of the most celebrated comics series in recent years. The ultimate artists' artist and a great storyteller whose work is in turns haunting, hilarious, and spellbinding. Mike Mignola has won numerous awards in the comics industry and beyond. When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of his own origins, and his link to the Nazi occultists who promised Hitler a final solution in the form of a demonic avatar.
" ... Hellboy is a brilliant example of how to elevate the comic of the future to a higher literary level while achieving a higher pitch of excitement."
—Robert Bloch, from his introduction
- ISBN10 1593070942
- ISBN13 9781593070946
- Publish Date 30 March 2004
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Dark Horse Comics,U.S.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 128
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781593070946
Reviews
Full review to come!
celinenyx
Written on Feb 20, 2014
Summary: During the Second World War a Nazi project involves some kind of dark magic. At the same time of the ritual, Hellboy is summoned. Now, years later, Hellboy helps a bureau of paranormal investigators.
What I liked:
- The art is beautiful in Seed of Destruction. It feels as if the artist draws in surfaces, instead of lines (if that makes any sense). The drawings are clean and shadow-heavy, and seem so modern to me even though this graphic novel celebrates its 20th anniversary this year
- Mignola uses a lot of interesting angles and techniques that made reading such a pleasure
- Hellboy looks adorably awesome
- Seed of Destruction is a good combination of a self-contained mystery and the start of an over-arching plot
- I can't wait to learn more about Hellboy's origins, and what will happen to him in the next few books.
- Mignola deserves a cookie for at least trying to introduce some useful females, even though he doesn't accomplish it very well
- The use of Nazi symbols was very clever, and the threatening air gripped me
What I didn't like
- The main monsters Hellboy fights are frog-like or have long green tentacles. I found that kind of dull
- Hellboy tends to go into long inner monologues while fighting which slows the action down
- I feel kind of conflicted about the use of Nazi's in the story. Somehow that's a bit iffy for me
Verdict: Good start of a series, dives right into it instead of only setting up the overarching story. Beautiful shadowy art, can't wait to read the next one.