Just getting into hellboy

[mtop2036]

So the other day I read the first two issues in the hellboy library edition vol 1 at my local library and fell in love with it. This was my first timing with hellboy besides the movies which I liked. I just ordered the first library edition and had some questions. Is all of the hellboy issues collected within the 6 volumes? And do the stories have the same quality through out?

Whats B.R.P.D? I see hardcovers but are they oversized? And is there any omnibuses?

What else is there to read with HB?

[Skinkie]

The Library editions contain most of Hellboy so far (and eventually should have all). They consistently get better as it goes with some of the finest works currently coming out.

BPRD is the organization Hellboy works for. After the story Conquerer Worm (In Library Edition #3) the side characters who also work there (you'll have already met Liz and Abe) spin off into their own book. The Omnibuses are the best way to read the first story cycle (the second will eventually be released in that format as well). They are not oversized, but sized the same as a standard TPB, but with 3 times the material for a fraction of the price.

Other series are:
Lobster Johnson - about a 1930s pulp action hero who Hellboy loved reading adventures about as a child
Witchfinder - about a Victorian era cult detective
Abe Sapien - Abe's solo series that's has the early volumes set I the 80s while later ones run concurrent with BPRD.
Sledgehammer 44 - about an Iron Man style suit that was used in WWII
Hellboy and the BPRD - about Hellboys earliest missions

And there's some other stuff too. Some of these are longer series. Some are only 1 or 2 books. But the best way to go into read the first 3 Library editions then start BPRD. The other series make more sense read later generally. All also function on their own, but the overall sense of universe is grown with each additional title.

Don't let the scope be intimidating. It is well worth it

[Joker]

Hellboy just gets better as it goes. Vol.1 is actually, probably the weakest of them all. It's still great, but it gets so much better, and a large part of that is all the building that happens over the series.

BPRD is great, but you don't need to read it. You can just read Hellboy, and later read BPRD.

[middenway]

So the other day I read the first two issues in the hellboy library edition vol 1 at my local library and fell in love with it. This was my first timing with hellboy besides the movies which I liked. I just ordered the first library edition and had some questions. Is all of the hellboy issues collected within the 6 volumes? And do the stories have the same quality through out?

Whats B.R.P.D? I see hardcovers but are they oversized? And is there any omnibuses?

What else is there to read with HB?

Here's the info about:

• the Hellboy Library Editions
• the BPRD Omnibus Editions
• all the other trades.

In the Hellboy Universe, all in continuity will be collected.

[zevious zoquis]

Hellboy just gets better as it goes. Vol.1 is actually, probably the weakest of them all. It's still great, but it gets so much better, and a large part of that is all the building that happens over the series.

BPRD is great, but you don't need to read it. You can just read Hellboy, and later read BPRD.

I'm not so sure. I think there's a pretty high standard maintained throughout. I really like the first volume a lot - I love Nazi occultism stuff and I really like the origin story and Mignola's art. It certainly ramps up the mythology as it progresses for sure though...

[Joker]

I think Mignola finds his voice as it goes on and the work is stronger for it. Obviously none of it's bad, I just think it gets better as it goes. That's just me.

[mtop2036]

Awesome thanks for all the replies!! Any chance the BRPD "omnis" will get a HC version? I prefer HC but have no problems getting TPB. Hows the build on the BRPD tpbs?

Man I havnt been this excited to read something in a long time. Im always looking for supernatual, ghosts, monsters, horror, etc comics and this is exactly what I need. Just reading those 2 first issues I could allready tell this is gonna be something special. Blows the movies out of the water!!

One thing that worries me about the library editions is the cloth covers. Do they collect dust and dirt easy? should I maybe try to find a larger slip bag for it? like the ones used on single comics issues. The copy they had at the library was atrocious, so much dust and dirt in the fabric but then again noone takes care of books that they rent from the library.

Either way so excited!!

[Joker]

They get a bit of dust, like anything else, it's just easier to see. I don't have any problems with mine.

[Kees_L]

I'm not so sure. I think there's a pretty high standard maintained throughout. I really like the first volume a lot - I love Nazi occultism stuff and I really like the origin story and Mignola's art. It certainly ramps up the mythology as it progresses for sure though...

I think Mignola finds his voice as it goes on and the work is stronger for it. Obviously none of it's bad, I just think it gets better as it goes. That's just me.

I agree with both of you about the high standard. For me a high standard in the sense that as a reader and art-gawker I feel I can come to have a sense of how come a story reads and looks as how it does.
Like by reading in publication chronology, the reader can witness the creator finding their voice, which with each story or book may come to be changing.

As how the visual storytelling or graphics may seem either fought for, or seemingly as coming natural more rather.
The moods and moodswings may appear deep and intricately conscrewed, or just astute and inspiredly fluent more rather.
The storytelling itself may seem about lighthearted humor or about change moreso than anything else, right up until this changes or starts chasing its own tail again.

For Mignola interiors or storytelling I always keep on wanting to be rereading things, in order to keep it all fresh inside my head, even after having done this already dozens of times in the past twentysome years.

I also want to keep on my toes as far as in-story-continuity, with collecting both as reading everything within the Hellboy / B.P.R.D. world, but. Maybe since I've been reading Mignola eversince Hellboy started both as any stuff already before that, me and my reading habits have been about keeping perspective on that as closely as I can.
With loving it and loving it still. Hellboy, Hell, Corum, Screw-On Head And Other Stories, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Gotham By Gaslight, all of it..

[Skinkie]

Awesome thanks for all the replies!! Any chance the BRPD "omnis" will get a HC version? I prefer HC but have no problems getting TPB. Hows the build on the BRPD tpbs?
!

The BPRD Omnibuses each collect 3 of the previously released TPBs. They are actually released in hardcore first, then paperback later

[LobsterJohnson]

I think Mignola finds his voice as it goes on and the work is stronger for it. Obviously none of it's bad, I just think it gets better as it goes. That's just me.

I'd agree with that. All of the series is great, but in my opinion Mignola's writing and art both improve as the story goes on.

[seusilva]

Well, I really like the short stories from the first LE!
But I think the moment that the story really gets epic is in The Conqueror Worm. After that, everything gets big and really complex (thanks Hell Notes for helping with the details)
And Hellboy In Hell give us every issue a masterpiece...

[middenway]

Awesome thanks for all the replies!! Any chance the BRPD "omnis" will get a HC version? I prefer HC but have no problems getting TPB. Hows the build on the BRPD tpbs?

The B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs omnibuses were available in hardcover for years, but they stopped reprinting them when the paperback versions came out. I believe Volume 3 is really hard to find now, and Volume 4 is getting harder. 1 and 2 seem to still be relatively easy to find in hardcover though.

I have the hardcovers myself, so I can't comment on the build of the paperbacks.

[mtop2036]

The B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs omnibuses were available in hardcover for years, but they stopped reprinting them when the paperback versions came out. I believe Volume 3 is really hard to find now, and Volume 4 is getting harder. 1 and 2 seem to still be relatively easy to find in hardcover though.

I have the hardcovers myself, so I can't comment on the build of the paperbacks.

Thanks! Ill probably get all of the LBE of hellboy first and then get BPRD, hate to have 2 versions of a set but ill probably get 1 and 2 in HC then If I cant track down 3 and 4 then tpb it is for those