Hellboy, pulp influenced?

[Bslythegamerguy]

After talking with a friend yesterday about pulp related comics he mentioned that Hellboy and Abe Sapien were both pulp influenced and read similar to other pulp comics published today. Is this true? While Lobster Johnson is certainly pulp I never saw Hellboy to be pulp influenced or ever mentioned in the same breath as the word pulp before.

[zevious zoquis]

Absolutely pulp sci-f/horror. The early Hellboy stories include such pulpy things as Nazi occultism, witchcraft, "brain in a jar" technology type stuff...Hellboy himself is sort of a variation on a pulp noir private eye kind of a character. There's a lot of Lovecraft in there as well...

[Bslythegamerguy]

Absolutely pulp sci-f/horror. The early Hellboy stories include such pulpy things as Nazi occultism, witchcraft, "brain in a jar" technology type stuff...Hellboy himself is sort of a variation on a pulp noir private eye kind of a character. There's a lot of Lovecraft in there as well...

I'm thinking of giving Hellboy in Hell a shot to see if I like it, if so than I would probably go back and read some older Hellboy stories. I've always been hesitant to give Hellboy a fair shot, for whatever reason.

[zevious zoquis]

Hellboy in Hell is great, but I'm not sure it's a great entry point to the series. It relies pretty heavily on connections to things that have happened in the past with Hellboy. I'd suggest just picking up a copy of the first tpb and starting at the beginning. One of the things that's great about Hellboy is how Mignola builds a really awesome mythology as the story progresses...

[thwhtGuardian]

Hellboy in Hell is great, but I'm not sure it's a great entry point to the series. It relies pretty heavily on connections to things that have happened in the past with Hellboy. I'd suggest just picking up a copy of the first tpb and starting at the beginning. One of the things that's great about Hellboy is how Mignola builds a really awesome mythology as the story progresses...

Starting at the beginning is certainly the way to go, but my suggested route is always this: http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/An...Chained-Coffin

It's essentially Hellboy's origin story...and it's free!

[Bslythegamerguy]

I don't do TPB's and prefer to own the actual comics, but I'm willing to jump on Hellboy in Hell simply to see if I like it enough to go back and grab some older issues.

[zevious zoquis]

ah...hmmm, OK. That may get a little costly...

[thwhtGuardian]

I don't do TPB's and prefer to own the actual comics, but I'm willing to jump on Hellboy in Hell simply to see if I like it enough to go back and grab some older issues.

You're going to have a pretty hard time procuring these issues, their fairly rare and very pricey. I got my issue Seed of Destruction #1 for about 30 bucks and it was fairly dogeared from reading by its previous owner so if you want anything better than that grade you're going to be looking anywhere from 50 to 120 bucks which is a lot if you're just looking for a good story to read.

[middenway]

In the tenth Hellboy trade, Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others, there's an article about Manly Wade Wellman, a major pulp influence on Hellboy.

[zevious zoquis]

I'm curious about the whole notion of not "doing" tpbs. Why not? I mean I understand the appeal of monthlies in that you get to look forward to that next bit of the story and there's sort of a nice monthly little "pay-off" but for a series that has been running for a long time that you want to catch up on? Just seems to me like you really gain nothing by going the floppy route in that case other than the act of collecting the issues. I guess if that's your primary thing then I get it...but if its more a matter of just wanting to read the story trades just have a ton of advantages to me.

[Bslythegamerguy]

I would just rather own the comics, being a collector and all. TPB's are just not an option for me.

So, would you guys say that Abe Sapien has pulp overtones as well?

[Dark-Flux]

Pulps were just comic strips from the early 1900s printed on cheap "pulp" paper, so... no?

[mladja48]

No Bslythegamerguy Abe Sapien doesn't have pulp overtones or any elements at all. It's more of a horror story. All the issues that deal with his missions while he was in BPRD are kind of like The X-Files where he goes to investigate something and the current story is more of him walking the earth and encountering scary ****.

[zevious zoquis]

Pulps were just comic strips from the early 1900s printed on cheap "pulp" paper, so... no?

not really.

"pulps" weren't originally comic books at all. They were periodicals containing short stories or short novels/serials - Weird Tales being one of the big titles. They were published on low quality "cheap" paper and were considered to be "trashy" and low-grade work but they have come to be recognized as having fostered some really good writing in genres such as Horror, Adventure, fantasy, Science Fiction etc. And yes, I'd say Abe Sapien definitely has pulp overtones.

[zevious zoquis]

No Bslythegamerguy Abe Sapien doesn't have pulp overtones or any elements at all. It's more of a horror story. All the issues that deal with his missions while he was in BPRD are kind of like The X-Files where he goes to investigate something and the current story is more of him walking the earth and encountering scary ****.

I disagree. Lots of pulp overtones in Abe...and really in the whole Mignolaverse.