Someone asked about McWhirter in today's AMA:
Q: Is McWhirter from the Oannes Society going to show up again in BPRD or Abe? He was just sort of left hanging when Hell on Earth started
ScottAllie: Yes.
I asked about the winged demon guy on the 6th abe trade cover and scott had this to say:
"Regarding the creepy guy on that Abe cover ... Man, we are reaping great benefits from working with Random House on distribution, but their work flow is so much different from the direct market that it takes a lot of getting used to, how early they need covers. You know in the book world the whole book is often complete like a year before it comes out? Very different from how comics are done. So that Abe trade cover hints at things in the next arc, but I sure as shit ain't gonna explain it yet! The on thing I'll say—that creepy dude is sort of connected to my answer to someone else below ..."
He was of course referring to the Mcwhirter question.
Can't wait
First: What creepy guy? Second: I didn't find your qestion (sorry)!
Last edited by Markus; 10-14-2014 at 12:17 PM.
Here's a link with the image. It's the beast behind abe with sword/dagger in hand.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/10/...-tpb-fc-fnl-2/
To me, 'not getting it' is synonymous with not finding the tone of the book is for you. It's not what you want, so you don't read it. Sorry you misunderstood my meaning there. I wasn't trying to say you couldn't understand it, just that it doesn't gel with you personally.
Last edited by cantide; 10-15-2014 at 03:31 PM.
For the Hellboy and related comics I would think that 'not getting' or 'not understanding all of it all the time' would seem part of the deal as well? If only as for the characters themsèlves?
I mean, Hellboy as well as Abe and the whole demon-Apocalypse-stuff seems supposed to be paradoxical and ambiguous and so difficult to understand that even Hellboy both as Abe themselves often seem totally puzzled by things. Or as if they hardly even WANT to know.
I don't get how for stories any things seeming dire or bafflingly mysterious would neededly be bad.
It seems logical to me that anything as horrific and as "unknown" as (what mr Mike refers to as) "the Secret History of the World" and the Apocalypse would prove both hard-to-get as well as ultimately (or at least potentially) *devoid of hope*.
As if that would be the point? The unknown as being what stuff not or hardly being known. And the Apocalypse as being the end of the world for all things living. Neededly.
Hellboy has been associated with being the intended Bringer of Doom from the start although with a major twist, with Abe getting presented as an unnatural forbidden lab-experiment as most likely performed by some rich-man white-privileged idle cult from the get-go, so again a twist.
With plenty of cooty or bloated folk to enter into it, all keen at spinning their own wild or powerhungry prophecies or theories, from Bromhead to Rasputin and from Hecate to Astaroth. From weird underground goblins to the Black Flame.
And things do seem to be getting dire, although neither Hellboy nor Abe can be made out as being either just *good* or *bad*, at all or only hardly. Even now, as if such painting things into binaries wouldn't seem the point in the slightest? As if the possibilities and the not knowing would be to matter, story-wise?
Would a story like about Captain Ahab or a Lovecraftian tale - a horror story - be needing only hope? Or mystery and some imminent disasterous potential more rather? I'd definitely say the latter.
I like Abe being away from the Bureau. I like how he seems still an ever-evolving enigma much, I like how he seems different from any man he might once have been, both as potentially different even from that, on account of his change. I even like him seeming ambivalent or taken aback about it.
I like mystery. And I personally don't think direness or hopelessness at whatever level would be taking away from storytelling but the opposite more rather.
Last edited by Kees_L; 10-16-2014 at 02:43 PM.
SLINT / Mike Mignola / Walt Whitman / Arthur Lourié / Dr. Pepper
I really found this issue to be bland. I feel as though it's time to change up the book from it's vagabond scenario. Time to return to the BPRD? Maybe. It just seems to be moving slow the last 2-3 issues.