A critical evaluation of Hellboy in Mexico by Mike Mignola, Richard Corben (Illustrations) and Paul Gulacy (Illustrations)
Hellboy has always been one of the coolest comics. It’s actually one of those titles that I know I love but I don’t read enough. I partly blame it on my recent avoidance of mainstream comics in search of what the smaller guys have been up to. Turns out that the independent publishers have been knocking it out of the park all along and I’m now playing catch-up. See what I did there – two baseball references…
But it is important to note here that Dark Horse (Hellboy’s publisher) is indeed an independent publisher and that I’ve been missing the big picture. My love for Hellboy is partly due to the independent creator-driven nature of the book. That and like I said, Hellboy is just so damn cool.
Hellboy in Mexico places our beloved character in –you guessed it – Mexico, where he doesn’t just have to deal with all sorts of creepy ghosts and ghouls, but also piece together just what happened in his lost years in Mexico. He might not remember, which is a shame because it involves all sorts of Mexican culture bonanzas like lucha libre and Aztec mythology. As usual, it’s Hellboy’s lovable nature that gets him in all these sticky situation, which suits us as readers just fine. Mignola as always knows to dig deep into these fascinating cultures and tells an interesting story quickly and efficiently. These horrific scenarios are perfectly complimented by Mignola’s high contrast art style. Oh and even though I always thought Mignola was the only person I’d want to see draw Hellboy, the likes of Richard Corden and his Crumb-esque style makes me think Mognola has met his match.
In conclusion, Hellboy in Mexico reminded me about what makes Hellboy such a great book and why I loved it so much in the first place. It’s good to be home.
Get Hellboy in Mexico here!
