Sheep Movie Review: Hellboy (2019)

Hellboy (2019)
Directed By: Neil Marshall
Written By: Andrew Cosby
Apr 12, 2019Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim
Genre: Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Rating: R (for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, and language)
Runtime: 120 minutes
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Hellboy is back, and he's on fire. From the pages of Mike Mignola's seminal work, this action packed story sees the legendary half-demon superhero (David Harbour, "Stranger Things") called to the English countryside to battle a trio of rampaging giants. There he discovers The Blood Queen, Nimue (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil series), a resurrected ancient sorceress thirsting to avenge a past betrayal. Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy is now hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world.

Well, I'm a little pissed at myself. And not for the reason you think. I should know better than to listen to the critics. Just because people don't like a movie doesn't mean I won't.

My husband and I watched Hellboy (2019) on-demand and we both enjoyed it. I did go in with no expectations. And you can't compare Ron Pearlman's Hellboy to David Harbour's. Pearlman made a sexy Hellboy...Harbour's...kind of ugly. Pearlman's Hellboy was a higher budget Hollywood version. Harbour's resembles the canon Hellboy from the comics.

The 2019 version's story also has more of a canon comic book feel to it. There is even an appearance by Lobster Johnson!!  So if you don't compare the two, the new Hellboy movie is pretty fun. It has a lower budget and a ton more over-the-top gore. But I really liked the characters, Alice (Sasha Lane) and Ben (Daniel Dae Kim). I've always had a girl-crush on Milla Jovovich.

So, to all the haters of the movie...

4 "Hell" Sheep

SharonS

Sheep Comic Review: Itty Bitty Hellboy #3

Itty Bitty Hellboy #3
Writer: Art Baltazar, Franco

Artist: Art Baltazar

Cover Artist: Art Baltazar
Dark Horse Comics

Genre: Humor, Superhero
Publication Date:October 30, 2013

Format:FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price:$2.99

UPC:7 61568 23936 2 00311

Preview

It had to happen! Because you demanded it! Hellboy and the gang go to the fiery pits of HELL! How did they get there anyway? ALSO, our B.P.R.D. heroes’ search for Sasquatch continues! But what does Rasputin have to do with all this? OOOOH! Is he just trying to scare us? You WILL find out in this exciting issue!!!

* Highly recommended by Franco’s mom.
* AW YEAH!!!! HELLBOY!

Oh, Hellboy is just so gosh darned cute. There's a sentence I never thought I'd type, but there you have it. Art Baltazar and Franco have rendered Hellboy and company to the point of precociousness with this series.

This time around l'il Liz gets some time in the spotlight alongside HB, first with some banana pancakes (is that a thing in the grownup version, by any chance?), and then when the gang gets sent to Hades by l'il Baba Yaga.

Oh yeah, this is Baba's time to shine, too. Throw in those adorably tiny Hellboy hellspawn and you might have the cutest issue of Itty Bitty yet.
There are only two issues left now, and I can only imagine where they intend to go with the kiddified antics. My familiarity with Mignola's creation is sorely lacking, I find, as it feels like I'm missing out on some of the winks and nods that the writers are coming up with for this mini-series.

As a bonus this time around, there is some fan art included in the letters section from a Denmark reader. Neat stuff, and considerably less controversial than the last collection of artwork I saw from Danish cartoonists.

review: Itty Bitty Hellboy #1
review: Itty Bitty Hellboy #2

4 "Itty Bitty" Sheep

Gef Fox
Wag the Fox: Den For Dark Fiction

Sheep Comic Review: Itty Bitty Hellboy #1

Itty Bitty Hellboy #1 by Art Baltazar
Writer: Art Baltazar, Franco

Artist: Art Baltazar

Cover Artist: Art Baltazar
Genre: Humor, Superhero
Publication Date: August 28, 2013

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Dark Horse Comics

UPC: 7 61568 23936 2 00111

Preview

A ghost named Rasputin has been spotted! And Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are going to find out what he’s up to.

Who is Hellboy anyway? Why does he have such a big hand and what is it used for? Who's weirder, him or his friends? What is the B.P.R.D.? And what does chicken soup have to do with all of it? This and more answered in the debut issue, where BIG things happen to itty bitty Hellboy!
* The creators of Tiny Titans, Superman Family Adventures, and Aw Yeah Comics comes to Dark Horse!
* A new kids’ comic with Mike Mignola’s characters reimagined by Art Baltazar and Franco!

I first got into the Hellboy character after seeing the Benicio Del Toro film. The imagery, the action, and the characters were just hypnotic on the screen. Then I got the chance to check out a few graphic novels, gaining an appreciation for Mike Mignola's art style, which really suited the Hellboy universe to my way of thinking. Then I heard about this new kiddified version set to debut this year called Itty Bitty Hellboy. I was skeptical. As it turned it, I needn't have been.

Art Baltazar and Franco join forces again with Itty Bitty Hellboy and turn the big red badass into the cutest wittle so-and-so. Forget world domination, the apocalypse, or any of that cataclysmic malarkey. No, this Hellboy is more interested in his cardboard fortress and playing with his friends, while the bad guys are preoccupied with finding a bigger box. Hijinx inevitably ensues.

Where Mignola created an awe-inspiring anti-hero, Batlazar and Franco have created an anti-Calvin & Hobbes. The book is made up of two- or three-page vignettes. Kind of like the fare you'd find in the Sunday comics. It's punchy, which rather suits Hellboy don't you think, and doesn't take itself seriously even in the context of an all-ages comic book. It avoids being sacchrine thankfully, while keeping the fleeting violence and ludeness to a very clever G-ratedness.

Do this with Batman or another of my beloved childhood heroes, and I might consider it an affront. Itty Bitty Hellboy #1 charmed me into submission, though. I couldn't help but look at the first page and smile, and keep smiling until I reached the last and realized I now have to wait until Itty Bitty Hellboy #2.

4 Sheep

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox 
Wag The Fox

Phoenix Comicon 2013: Photo Fun

I Smell Sheep had a blast at Phoenix Comicon 2013. We hope to see you there next year! Enjoy some fun moments from the event.

Baaart joins the zombie defense. 

Ariel sang a tune

So many amazing comics and artists 

Have to tour the dino park, a must on any convention list! 

There was a real man in this thing, I have no idea how. 

Sat in on the panel featuring NYT bestselling author Kelly Armstrong!

Baaart made some fun friends! 

Image Comics megastar Mike Mignola!

UF and Romance author Jordan Summers

Madhatter tea break

Mike Norton the man who brings us Battlepug comic! 

Stunning artwork

Best road trip, EVER! 

Farscape cast members Gigi Edgley and David Franklin chatted with the fans

The girls; Gini Koch and Marsheila Rockwell having some laughs. Love these ladies. 

The Sheep's own took part in the zombie walk!

Mini Tonto! 

We attended the book release party for Faerie After by Janni Lee Simner!

Going back in time

Comic Review: Hellboy in Hell #4

Hellboy In Hell #4 by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)

Writer: Mike Mignola

Artist:Mike Mignola

Colorist: Dave Stewart

Cover Artist:Mike Mignola
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: March 06, 2013

Format:FC, 32 Pages

Price:$2.99

UPC:7 61568 18635 2 00411
Preview

After a bizarre family reunion, Hellboy can barely process the new information, and the things he's done, since arriving in Hell. But Mike Mignola has one more revelation before concluding this initial monthly run of the story we've been building to since 1994 . . .* Mike Mignola writes and draws Hellboy!
* Death was only the beginning!
* The bizarre origin of one of Mignola’s most enigmatic characters.

Here comes the gear shift in the series, as Hellboy is plucked from one depth of Hell into another by the masked figure he met upon his arrival. Quite the twist to learn to the stoic fella really is once he takes his mask off, but that's not the only surprise in this book's pages.

As it was mentioned in the previous book, Hellboy has blood on his hands for offing a certain someone, but he has no memory of it. This is probably where my understanding of what's going on gets a little murky, because I'm feeling about as lost as the big red hero.

This fourth issue is where the reasons for the masked man to pull Hellboy from the Abyss into Acheron, a slightly less morbid neighborhood in Hell, become at least alluded to. Apparently there are three things Hellboy has to do down there, but nothing is explicitly detailed. But, heck, at least it's been established he is there to actually do something and not just wallow with the monsters.

As I read this series, I'm at the point where a little clarity is quite welcome. The sightseeing tour of every avenue of the underworld has been something to behold, especially with Mignola's art stylings and Dave Stewart's colors, but some good ol' fashioned questing would be a nice change of pace.

So with four issues in the can, it feels like all the prelude and setup has been firmly established, and now it's time to give HB a path and a purpose.

Reviews:
Hellboy in Hell issue #1
Hellboy in Hell issue #2
Hellboy in Hell issue #3

4 Sheep

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox

Sheep Comic Review: Hellboy In Hell #3

Hellboy In Hell #3 

By: Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart
Pub Date: February 6, 2013

Dark Horse Comics 

Hellboy's trip down memory lane continues, already having been given the fifty-cent tour of Hell by his spectral guide. Now Big Red gets the big speech from his uncle, Astaroth, about his destiny and his role designed by his father, Azzael. Family issues, huh? Yeah HB, we all got 'em.

So Hellboy's red right hand is the key to unlocking the unholiest of all unholy armies, but  since the big guy is so darned obstinate against taking over Hell, the little family reunion turns into--what else?--a fight to the death. Well, I suppose they're already dead since they're in Hell, so maybe it's a fight to the super-death.

Sufficed to say, and I don't think this spoils anything, Hellboy gets to keep all ten fingers and toes. But after the huge melee, which ends in pretty spectacular and unexpected fashion by the way, he finds out why Satan is nowhere to be found.

I'm not sure how far down this rabbit hole goes, but Hellboy's journey through Hell has been riveting the whole way through. If there's anything to gripe about, I might take issue with some of the vagueness and ambiguity towards the very end of this issue. I suppose it's the very quiet nature of the scene that leaves a question mark hanging over my head, but it's not like Mignola is set to reveal all just yet. This is only the third issue, after all.

I'm still on the bandwagon and eager to see where the fourth issue is going to send HB next, because this meatgrinder of an underworld seems to be doing a number on him.

4 and 1/2 Sheep 

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox

Comic Review: Hellboy in Hell #2

Hellboy in Hell #2 
Writer: Mike Mignola

Artist: Mike Mignola

Colorist: Dave Stewart

Cover Artist: Mike Mignola
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Dark Horse

Publication Date: January 02, 2013

Format: FC, 32 pages

Price: $2.99

digital $1.99

Preview

In Pandemonium, the dead wait for Hellboy to claim his throne, but is he interested..?

Mike Mignola returns to draw Hellboy's ongoing story for the first time sinceConqueror Worm. It's a story only Mignola could tell, as more of Hellboy's secrets are revealed.
Death was only the beginning.

After finding himself down in the dumps--literally­­--Hellboy has to navigated his way through Hell. At his side is the Dickensian spectre whose intentions are not all that clear, but with this second issue things are taking shape.

Hellboy stands at the gates of Hell's capitol in a sense, Pandemonium, and finds the city is deserted. Apparently word of his arrival has put the fear of God--well, maybe not Him exactly--into them and they've scattered. Even Satan is nowhere to be found, though Hellboy is shown a glimpse of his past and reminded more than once what his birthright is: to take Satan's throne.

If the influences of H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare weren't enough with the first issue, the second issue felt like it threw in a little Dante and Homer for added flavor.

Hellboy's birth is one of the scenes replayed for the ugly cuss's benefit, and if you're averse to seeing humans brought into the world, a hellspawn's isn't that much better to look at. Mignola's style has that rough-hewn quality he's famous for, and it seems pitch-perfect for this story, as Hellboy meanders through the underworld and witnesses the skeletons in his closet. And I'm talking the actual army of skeletons being forged for Hellboy, too.

Can't really say anything bad about this series so far. It's damn near perfect.

Hellboy in Hell issue #1 review

5 sheep

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction

Comic Review: Hellboy in Hell #1

Hellboy in Hell #1
Writer: Mike Mignola

Artist: Mike Mignola

Colorist: Dave Stewart

Cover Artist: Mike Mignola
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: December 05, 2012

Dark Horse

Format: FC, 32 Pages

Price: $2.99

UPC: 7 61568 18635 2 00111
buy digital version $1.99

preview

After saving the world in The Storm and The Fury, but sacrificing himself and Great Britain, Hellboy is dead, cast into Hell, where he finds many familiar faces, and a throne that awaits him.

Mike Mignola returns to draw Hellboy's ongoing story for the first time since Conqueror Worm. It's a story only Mignola could tell, as more of Hellboy's secrets are at last revealed, in the most bizarre depiction of Hell you've ever seen.

* Mike Mignola writes and draws the next phase of Hellboy’s story.

Death was only the beginning!

While I enjoyed checking out the BPRD: Hell On Earth: Russia graphic novel a couple months ago, it wasn't a very good book for a newcomer to the franchise. My familiarity stems from the movies, so I needed something that featured Hellboy himself to get me excited. Well, Dark Horse has delivered with a brand new series penned by the man who started it all, Mike Mignola.

Despite not being up to date on what's been going on with Hellboy and company in previous series, as soon as I looked at the first panel of this issue I knew I was in for a treat.

Hellboy is dead. Sort of. Mignola offers a brief history of the character that ends with the words: "Shortly thereafter he fought a dragon and was killed." Damn.

From there, the story plays out like a Lovecraftian ode to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, replete with Hellboy having to sit through a puppet play of the iconic story. It seems Hellboy must walk an even darker path than he already has in order to find any rest, since the big ugly monsters in the pit don't appear all that tickled to have him in the midst.

I'm not sure how well this series is going to serve as an introduction to the Hellboy character, but for me and my vicarious grasp on the series, I am beguiled by the big galute's adventure so far. Eagerly anticipating the second issue.

4 1/2 stars 

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox
Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction

Comic Review: B.P.R.D Hell on Earth Vol. 3

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, Vol. 3: Russia

By: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi

At the top of the cover I see the words "from the pages of Hellboy." For the uninitiated that should be taken to mean "Hellboy not included," as there is no sign of Hellboy in this graphic novel. There isn't even a cameo appearance by Abe Sapien or Liz Sherman. Since my familiarity with this franchise is rooted in the two feature films, that's a tad disappointing. Compounding my disappointment is the fact that I picked up the third volume in a series called "Hell on Earth" (a detail that I think should have been highlighted on the cover), so I was really walking into this story without much of a clue as to what is going on.

 If I've got the gist of it right, Hell is basically coming up to Earth to play, and not in a nice way. The B.P.R.D. (that's Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) are globally active, and globally overwhelmed to boot, as supernatural occurrences are becoming more frequent and more severe. In this volume subtitled "Russia," Dr. Kate Corrigan and Johann Kraus fly to Russia to help the Russian contingent investigate a series of mutations first found in a mine and threaten to spread if not contained. The Russian higher-ups aren't exactly forthcoming with a lot of info, due in part to their opinions on the encounters the American Bureau has faced in the past with apparently mixed results.

Unless you've been following the series, most of the exposition is going to fly right over your head. It's by virtue of some very eery encounters and key actions scenes that I managed to maintain my interest in the book at all. And Director Iosif Nicheyko proved to be the most interesting character of the bunch, as the leader of the Russian Bureau. A ressurected WW2 soldier, he carries on inside a hermetically sealed suit, similar to those old deep-sea diving outfits, just to keep from falling apart apparently. And even he isn't entirely sure about his origins and how he came back to life. And his true motivations during the investigation aren't entirely clear, either.

It took me a little while to warm up to the art style in this book, with some pages feeling a bit clunky in their execution, and Johann's almost rudimentary depictions. It evens out by the midway point and the horrors the Bureau find are drawn out to very good impact, especially during the big confrontation in at the mine's site.

Fans of the series, should find plenty to enjoy despite the absences of key characters to the franchise, but neophytes like me will likely wind up lost in the morass of backstory.

3/5 Sheep 

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox 

rabid reader, wrabid writer 

Comic Review: B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Exorcism #2

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Exorcism #2 Writer: Mike Mignola, Cameron Stewart
Artist: Cameron Stewart
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Viktor Kalvachev
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: July 25, 2012
Format: FC, 32 pages

Dark Horse Comics

Field agent Ashley Strode attempts to purge a demon from a 100-year-old exorcist, utilizing a deadly rite that sends both of them into a spiritual hell.
*Owl demons!
*Featuring the origin of Ota Benga from B.P.R.D.: 1947.

Preview

So, Exorcism #1 had B.R.P.D. agent Ashley Strode venturing into a dreamland alongside a former consultant for the Bureau, Ota Benga, to face-off against an imprisoned demon. It just so happens that the prison is Benga's mind. Ashley has agreed to release this demon from Benga's mind in exchange for the exorcism of a lesser demon possessing a young boy in rural Ohio. Free the demon, save the boy--and hopefully stem the tide of hellish occurrences on Earth. You now, that ol' chestnut.

Ashley's paranoia and off-kilter handling of the situation helped make the story engaging, especially since the story boiled down to an abbreviated dungeon crawl. But the demon she and Benga face, Marquis Andras, didn't really resonate as a villain beyond the idea that "demon=bad." A demon that looks like a giant barn owl on steroids was pretty cool, I admit, but unless the demon has a prior history in this universe I'm not sure readers are really going to marvel at it beyond its appearance.

As for the rest of Ashley's journey it plays out as character growth. She's not the same agent as when she began, and her naivety towards the demons becomes hardened considerably by the time she has to return to the farm in Ohio and contend with the possessed boy.

Reading the two books back to back helped me a lot in enjoying the story, and Ashley Strode is a character I would definitely enjoy seeing more of down the road, as she is basically my eyes and ears in the Hellboy universe. Exorcism isn't a red-letter outing, I'm going to wager, but fans of the series should find a fun, frightening diversion here. And the scene with the goat is worth checking out all by itself.

3 Sheep

Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox

rabid reader, wrabid writer
Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction