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Friday, September 3, 2010
Hellboy Junior
Review by Michael May
Written by Bill Wray, Mike Mignola
Illustrated by Bill Wray, Stephen DeStephano, Hilary Barta, Dave Cooper, Kevin Nowlan, Pat McEown, Glenn Barr
Published by Dark Horse
$13.95
This past week, Dark Horse released the latest in its series of Hellboy trade paperbacks. This one's a little different though. It doesn't collect a mini-series or an assortment of Mike Mignola's Hellboy short stories harvested from various anthologies. It doesn't collect stories by various creators about Hellboy's supporting cast. No, this is Hellboy Junior, a collection of irreverent short stories about a young Hellboy who never existed in Mignola's continuity. Hellboy Junior is the brainchild of cartoonist Bill Wray, best known for his work on Nickelodeon's Ren and Stimpy and his Dark Horse comic book Big Blown Baby. The concept is as odd as Wray's imagination. Hellboy Junior is related to Mignola's Hellboy only in name and general look. Wray's version is rounder and wears a diaper and has an impish personality. None of which is negative, but needs to be understood to appreciate Wray's stories for what they are. The trade collects three comics: 1997's Hellboy Junior Halloween Special and the two-part mini-series that followed two years later. And according to Wray's website (http://www.bigblownbaby.com/), it also contains a new 18-page Hellboy Junior story. I'm just going to cover the previously printed material, but there's a preview of the new story on Wray's site. The first tale is called "Maggots, Maggots, Everywhere." Hellboy Junior, sick of eating nothing but maggots in Hell, learns about hot dogs from Adolph Hitler and embarks on an epic quest to get some. Along the way he has to get past creatures like a Cerberus, one of whose heads looks exactly like Huckleberry Hound. "Wheezy the Sick Little Witch" is a parody of old Harvey comics like Wendy the Good Little Witch and Caspar the Friendly Ghost. In this story illustrated by Stephen DeStefano, Wendy is sick with a deadly virus, but refuses to stay in bed and take her medicine. Instead, she sneaks outside to play, infecting her woodland friends and killing them left and right. Hilarity ensues. "The Ginger Beef Boy" is a story drawn by Hilary Barta about a man and his she-male wife who can't have a baby for obvious reasons. So one day they make a boy out of ginger beef who comes to life and runs away from home to have adventures. Unfortunately, he's rotting (as beef will do) and gets chased by hungry dogs and flies looking for a nice place to lay their eggs. Mike Mignola draws a one-page strip called "The Creation of Hellboy Jr.," in which Mignola tries to talk Wray into the idea at a bar and they end up duking it out wearing Hellboy and Big Blown Baby suits. "Somnambomo, the Sleeping Giant" is illustrated by Dave Cooper and tells about a giant that the people of Poobie Caca awaken to get rid of a sheep-raping troll who's giving them trouble. Unfortunately, the giant causes more problems than he solves. "The Devil Don't Smoke" by Mike Mignola shows Hellboy Junior sneaking off to the mortal world in order to study a man so that he can ace his term paper. There's a nice cameo by a very confused, real Hellboy and his pal Abe Sapien. "Hellboy Jr.'s Magical Mushroom Trip" is another Dave Cooper illustrated story. In it, Hellboy Jr. learns a valuable lesson about doing drugs and trusting Idi Amin. Mother Theresa guest stars. "The Wolvertons" is drawn by Pat McEown and tells about a hardy lumberjack who marries a hideous alien and has children with her: a handsome boy with a monster body and a daughter with a hideous Basil Wolverton head, but a hot body. The girl of course has no problem meeting boys because she's stacked, but her poor brother is lonely to the point of suicide until he meets a blind Eskimo girl. Unfortunately the Eskimo girl qualifies for a free eye operation and gets her sight back. More hilarity ensues. "The Squid of Man" is another Wray/Mignola collaboration. This one's about a mad scientist intent on creating an Atlantean race out of a dead squid and lobster. Death shows up and is a little miffed that the doctor's undoing his work, so he takes some very funny vengeance. "The House of Candy Pain" is illustrated by Hilary Barta. It has Hellboy Jr. once again in quest of better food, this time with his demonic pal Donnie. They find a candy house, but unfortunately it's occupied by a he-witch who wants to marry Donnie and have Hellboy Jr. for the wedding feast. "Sparky Bear" is an all-Wray noir tale about a Smokey-esque bear who learns the hard price of leaving the forest for the fame of being an anti-forest fire spokes-animal. "Huge Retarded Duck" is another Wray/DeStefano parody of a Harvey book. This time, Baby Huey. In a particularly disturbing story, the Huge Retarded Duck is chased away by abusive parents, beaten by duck versions of the hillbillies from Deliverance, rescued by his repentant mother only to see her violated by the hillbillies, takes his revenge on said hillbillies and gets so turned on by his defrocked mother that he wants to "marry" her. Hilarity… um… nevermind. Finally, we have "Hellboy Jr. Gets a Car," in which Hellboy Jr. takes a test drive in a Duke of Hell's new ride and gets in a lot of trouble. It's written and illustrated by Mike Mignola. As you can see, the jokes aren't for everyone here. In fact, you have to have a pretty twisted sense of humor to appreciate 80% of the stuff. Mine's not that twisted, but it's difficult to account for taste. I enjoyed the stories that Mignola was involved in, not only because I love his art, but those tales were more subdued than the ones written solely by Wray. "The Squid of Man" is especially funny. If you liked Mignola's Amazing Screw-On Head, you'll enjoy "The Squid of Man." The art is great. In addition to Mignola, DeStefano's parodies do a great job looking like Harvey comics and there are some great pin-ups by Kevin Nowlan and Glenn Barr. Wray, Barta, and Cooper all have funny visual styles and McEowyn does a great Basil Wolverton impersonation. It's the stories that are going to polarize readers of Hellboy Junior.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
