Monday, March 23, 2015

The MIGNOLAVERSE


For the uninitiated, this is the home, the place,the creative deposit for the characters and stories of MIKE MIGNOLA, artist/writer/creator of HELLBOY.
The big red guy with the stone hand and his pals in The B.P.R.D. are familiar the most, from either books or film but it certainly doesn't stop there.





The adventures of LOBSTER JOHNSON and the massive SLEDGEHAMMER '44 take you down dark corridors filled with Nazi Frog monsters, cyborg apes and otherworldly serpent gods.
It's a dark mistfilled world, forever in shadows, full of mythology, folklore, dark science, and the most menacing of arts and architecture.
BALTIMORE and SIR EDWARD GREY: WITCHFINDER also wander thru the murk and mire of this gloomy existence.
Sprinkle in a few Golems and Homunculi and even Dr. Frankenstein's own monster, who is starring in his own series, FRANKENSTEIN UNDERGROUND.

Occassional visits from Edgar Allan Poe, BATMAN,  Rasputin even Hitler stopped in for pancakes once or twice.

Mignola's own art has been genre defining, his take on the chiaroscuro art style and love of intricate buildings and arcane symbols draws you in, never fully explaining itself.
His knowledge of occultism and esoteric religions and history in general is seemingly a bottomless pit of weird, strange and phantasmal menaces. Unleashing horrors and half remembered folklore with enough left unshown to let your imagination roam into the most chilling possibilities.
Plenty of comics' finest artists have also lent their talents to the many series:
Guy Davis illustrated the B.P.R.D.'s title for the better part of a  hundred issues.
 Duncan Fregredo has skillfully adapted Mignola's aesthetic but added his own considerable figure drawing to the stew,



 Jason Latour, Ryan Sook, Troy Nixey have leant their pens and pencils to the books.

The legendary Richard Corben who has illustrated some of the most outright grotesque of all the offerings.


Hellboy has been to Europe, survived WWII, gone to Africa and Mexico, down to the bottom of the oceans and into hell itself. Countless fights with demons and 25 years into his publishing history HELLBOY is still going strong. Most recently in the current series HELLBOY and The B.P.R.D.: 1952 , which details Red's first forays into the field of paranormal investigating and monster fighting.
Each story adds a bit to the big picture, filling in bits of Hellboy's past and future and the surrounding stories paint a vivid world that keeps growing and getting better and odder with age.

So get your best flashlight or candleabra, a dark corner in an old house or underneath the covers and fall into one of the many books the Mignolaverse has to offer.
And if a cool slimy tentacle reaches over your shoulder and turns the page, leaving mucous across your cheek, don't say you weren't warned.






Monday, March 9, 2015

DARK CIRCLE COMICS

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY is coming upon May 2nd. just under two months.

Amongst the many great books you can sample from, one of the highlights for me will be the
 DARK CIRCLE COMICS issue that is being released.

DARK CIRCLE is ARCHIE COMICS superhero imprint. Known once upon a time as RED CIRCLE. Publishing a host of titles such as THE SHIELD, THE FOX, BLACK HOOD, JAGUAR and The FLY. the imprint also released a number of mystery and occult themed titles like FORBIDDEN WORLDS and CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY.(which was narrated by everyone`s favorite teenaged witch Sabrina.)

These titles and characters have seen various revisions and reimaginings but none more impressive that the current incarnations.
BLACK HOOD by Duane Swierczynski and Michael Gaydos is already out and it was top notch grimy pulp fare. The first issue was like a slug to the head and finds the titular character gunned down within the first few pages. Makes for a good start.

 THE FOX has been previously treated to a mini-series by MARK WAID and DEAN HASPIEL which was both action packed and full of fun. The new series which is out April 8th  figures to offer the same.


And on April 15th THE SHIELD returns in another wholly reinvisioned take that looks be able to take all the other Flag waving ans Star-Spangled do-gooders to task.  
Written by Adam Christopher and Chuck Wendig with art by David Williams, Gary Martin, Rachel Deering andKelly Fitzpatrick

Prepare to be amazed by these vibrant new series.