The Visitor

[MajorHoy]

I was speaking more about American floppies in general. I didn't grow up with the format and it always feels... frustratingly confined, I guess. And I honestly believe not all stories are suited to the format. The Visitor is one of those stories. The pacing suffered as a result of the issue breaks, I felt. That said, I still loved the book.

I remember back in the ancient days when there weren't really comic book shops to go to buy your books; you had to rely on the newsstands / local drug stores / etc. to get in stock and put them out on the spinner racks or wherever they were displayed. And even when comic book shops were more the default place to go for most comic books, they weren't originally written specifically for trade paper back collections; only some stories achieved that distinction, not practically everything.
It's nice to have the option of later buying stuff in collected editions, but it has taken a toll on how many stories are written these days.

[Kees_L]

I remember back in the ancient days when there weren't really comic book shops to go to buy your books; you had to rely on the newsstands / local drug stores / etc. to get in stock and put them out on the spinner racks or wherever they were displayed. And even when comic book shops were more the default place to go for most comic books, they weren't originally written specifically for trade paper back collections; only some stories achieved that distinction, not practically everything.
It's nice to have the option of later buying stuff in collected editions, but it has taken a toll on how many stories are written these days.

Well strictly Mignolaverse speaking, I think The Visitor as a title needs making up a TPB as much or more than Frankenstein Underground did, or Witchfinder: Unland.
Because what currently running title could it be collected with if The Visitor had been a two- or three-part story?

Not Hellboy & the B.P.R.D 1955 or such, surely, because it isn't from that date. I don't know if there's ever gonna be another "And Other Stories" type of collection to fit it, and so it seems to me as a TPB option of its own The Visitor seems better off than just fitting no collection.

Also since the whole transition of *single issues to TPBs as a product-unit* will have been a thing for over a decade at least and even then Mignolaverse titles seemed to be holding up allright notwithstanding.
The only factor maybe proving different nowadays is that the point of finiteness to the main titles seems apparent onto the publishing roster moreso than not, like the different titles pan out differently.
Like to me it would seem possible that nowadays just any length of story or one-off thing wouldn't prove as functional these days compared to when the main titles would be just ongoing still? I could be wrong and haven't even gotten around reading The Visitor yet, but I will - if only as being something different. I don't think it's gonna have the same impact as Frankenstein Underground, but that to me seemed the kicker of it. Whereas The Visitor, well, I'll find out.

[Wahlers]

So, obviously there were the appearances during the Seed of Destruction prologue and Nature of the Beast, but do any of the other Hellboy and BPRD appearances in this story directly reference pre-existing stories? I've read them all but it's been a long time.

[Joker]

Conqueror Worm, obviously.

[Wahlers]

Conqueror Worm, obviously.

Forgot to mention that one as an easy one too. Thanks though. More wondering about the other missions shown in between issue 1 & 5.

[zerodemon]

Forgot to mention that one as an easy one too. Thanks though. More wondering about the other missions shown in between issue 1 & 5.

Beyond the Fences from 1953

[MajorHoy]

And what about the Hellboy Winter Specials . . . wasn't there a story (in 2016?) with a connection (of sorts)?

[zerodemon]

And what about the Hellboy Winter Specials . . . wasn't there a story (in 2016?) with a connection (of sorts)?

There is. That story is collected in the "The Visitor" trade at the back of the book.

[middenway]

I think it'll have connections to future issues of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.

[LobsterJohnson]

Read this in one sitting last night. It's an unusual one, and not at all what I was expecting. I agree that the pacing wasn't perfect - I really like Middenway's idea of The Visitor as an original graphic novel instead of a miniseries. It wasn't great, but I did enjoy it, and the story behind the aliens was pretty interesting.

My biggest issue was Hellboy's voice - it seemed a little off in most of his appearances, with the exception of the Conqueror Worm scene that quotes directly from that story.