Now I haven’t been keeping up with interviews or news stories about what may or may not be happening with the “Mignolaverse” in which Hellboy, Abe Sapien, the B.P.R.D. and whathaveyou from this point forward, now that the “present day” stories in that milieu seem to have come to their conclusion in this week’s B.P.R.D. #147, with Hellboy and Abe’s own current storylines having come to a stop within the last few months. Of course, we’ll continue having the flashback Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. series, and surely more Witchfinder and Lobster Johnson stories, and then there’s this series about the aliens that appeared very early on in the Hellboy comics.
Anyway, I’m hoping there will be more stories at some point continuing the story after the B.P.R.D., but for now I’m glad things have reached some kind of conclusion. The current short-run Hellboy projects are probably a lot more accessible for casual readers, as even for someone who’s been reading comics in this particular universe since the get-go, I got a little lost sometime with who was doing what and did or did not like whom and even who was a mummy (which, I mentioned before, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten). I suspect, however, once the palate has been cleared a bit, we’ll get some kind of new B.P.R.D. relaunch picking up where the old series left off. Unless someone’s mentioned that, yes, this is exactly what they’re doing, in which case I’ll really suspect that’s their plans.
I’m also hoping for some kind of all-Mignola Return of Hellboy comic book series in the future. Hey, there’s a tiny possibility it could happen, and there ain’t no law against wishin’.
I’m trying to like Infamous Iron Man, which is essentially a solo Doctor Doom comic where he seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf as a superhero. I admit, it’s the bashful blue-eyed Thing’s appearances in the comic that got me to pick it up, though watching Ben act like an ass in the Latverian embassy was equal parts amusing and feeling maybe just a little out of character, maybe? I mean, just straight up destroying historically and artistically significant items was a wee bit jerkier than I’m accustomed to from him. But, you know, I can manage. And I know this certain style of talky dialogue throughout the book is Bendis’s trademark, but for someone like me who hasn’t read much of his work, it takes some getting used to. I’m all for reading a Doctor Doom series, however, so I’ll stick around and see where it goes.
When I opened my store, I gave up a lot of my personal collection for in-store stock, including all my Thanos-related comics. All those Infinity Gauntlets and Silver Surfers and so on, and had I realized a lot of these same books were going to turn up over and over again in collections people would try to sell to me at the shop, maybe I would have held onto them. What’s done is done, however, and by giving up those comics, that sort of dissuaded me from reading new installments of the character’s saga in, for example, those recent Jim Starlin graphic novels. I figured, eh, I’d read enough over the decades, I’m done with that big purple guy.
And then this new first issue shows up, and it’s written by Jeff Lemire, and I like the cover, so I end up reading a new Thanos comic again. It’s all set-up, reestablishing Thanos as a Bad Dude and prepping a couple of other folks for a confrontation with him, and it feels kinda Starlin-y, sorta maybe, if perhaps a little less weird, a little more somber. I mean, not that Starlin’s Thanos couldn’t be dark, given that he wanted to kill most everybody and rule what was left, but it was all so out-there and strange and wacky that it seemed breezy and fun. This new Thanos #1 is not breezy, but still an enjoyable reintroduction to the character, and relatively continuity-lite for anyone new to the character after seeing his brief appearances in the Marvel films.
Despite appearances, definitely not for kids! Archie’s Dan Parent continues with this weird parody of comics and the comics market, which starts of with an ersatz “classic” 1960s Kitty story in which she teams up with the Casper the Friendly Ghost like-a-look Dippy, which feeds into the back half of the book where Dippy has returned to kill Kitty! It’s a full-on Harvey Comics parody drawn by an Archie artist, which is amusing just in and of itself, and I think you all know how much I like Harvey Comics. In a weird way, this comic reminded me of that long ago first issue of Miracleman from Eclipse Comics, which started off with a vintage Marvel/Miracleman story (redialogued by Alan Moore), then followed it with the new, updated, gritty, “realistic” version of the character. Kind of the same thing here, only slightly more for laughs, and a little more explicitly self-referential in its commentary on comics publishing. Fits right in as a thematic cousin to all those reflective superhero reboots, like Moore’s Surpreme.
So, about Jack Chick. On one hand, he seemed to be an always-present part of the weirdo comics landscape …his little religious funnybook pamphlets were just some strange thing we’d come across once in a while, in a variety of circumstances. I’d get them with Halloween candy as a kid. I’d see ’em at the local church neighbors attended. A neighbor of another friend “witnessing” to me (at me?) would press one into my hands. Some years back, my old high school friend and former coworker Rob would actively collect them, and a couple of his spares he’d pass along to me.