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.