About

Hellboy is a Dark Horse comics superhero created by Mike Mignola. A half-demon summoned by Nazi occultists, Hellboy was discovered by the Allied Forces, amongst them, Professor Bruttenholm who raised him as a normal boy. He works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense {B.P.R.D.}, an international non-governmental agency, in a series of tales that have their roots in folklore, pulp magazines, vintage adventure, Lovecraftian horror and horror fiction. In addition to various comic book titles, the character has inspired multiple film adaptations.

History

Comics

Hellboy was first introduced in a four-page comic by Mike Mignola and John Byrne in a promotional piece for San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 in 1993. The piece was used in the first official Hellboy miniseries, _Seed of Destruction in 1994 (shown below).^[1]

As of 2018, Hellboy and other Hellboy-related characters have appeared in more than 100 issues, collections and mini-series.^[2]

Films

Guillermo del Toro Series

On March 30th, 2004, the Guillermo del Toro-direct adaptation of Hellboy was released in the United States. Staring Ron Perlman as the titular character, the film gross more than $99 million worldwide and earned an "Fresh" rating of 81% based on 196 reviews on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (trailer below, left). The film follows Hellboy's origin story as well as the miniseries Seed of Destruction.^[3]

Four years later, on July 11th, 2008, the del Toro-directed sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army was released (trailer below, right). The film was more successful than its predecessor both financially and critically. The film earned more than $160 million worldwide.^[4] Additionally, the film earned an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[5] In their critical consensus, the site wrote, "Guillermo del Toro crafts a stellar comic book sequel, boasting visuals that are as imaginative as the characters are endearing.

2019 Adaptation

On May 9th, 2017, artofmikemignoal.com's Facebook ^[6] page posted, "Okay, here's some news--There IS going to be another HELLBOY MOVIE. It's going to be an R rated reboot directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game Of Thrones ) and starring David Harbour ( Stranger Things ) as Hellboy.
Principal photography began in September 2017 in the United Kingdom and Bulgaria and ended in December 2017. Hellboy is scheduled to be released on April 12th, 2019 (teaser poster, below).

Fandom

On February 3rd, 2011, Redditor ^[9] deathmouse launched the /r/HellBoy subreddit. Within seven years, the subreddit has received more than 3,400 readers.

As of October 2018, the official Hellboy movie Facebook^[7] page launched. Within two weeks, it had amassed more than 1 million likes and followers.

The official Hellboy movie Twitter ^[8] account, which launched on August 28th, 2017, has more than 20,000 followers.

Cosplay

Search Interest

External References