The second issue of Hellboy: Weird Tales features names that are a lot less familiar to me than some of the "big guns" that created the first, but I actually found the second issue to be the stronger of the two. Perhaps it's the shock of the new, or perhaps it's because this one felt "continuity-light" and just more fun, but at any rate, there were four stories in here and I thought all of them were solid reads with terrific artwork. My favorite story is actually the one that has the least of the humor tinge to it, but all of them are entertaining.
By far my favorite story in this issue is by Dark Horse mainstay Randy Stradley and artist Seung Kim, done in a black and white graywash style that is simply exquisite to look at. Kim obviously has a lot of training in realistic anatomy and backgrounds, as the work is borderline photorealistic, and I was surprised at how well that worked on exaggerated, fantastic characters like Hellboy or the demon in the story. It definitely works, though, and while it seemed like Hellboy took a while to tumble to the true identity of the demon, I thought the quick showdown and Hellboy's no-nonsense attitude in dealing with the villagers or their problem monster was well-written.
Each of the stories in this volume has something slightly different to offer. Joe Casey and Steve Parkhouse serve up a gorgeous take on the adventurous sense of fun with "Flight Risk," based on the famously competitive natures of quirky geniuses, and this was probably my second favorite of the stories in the issue. Parkhouse's colors are beautiful, and I love his costume sense as well, putting Hellboy in an aviator's jacket or rendering a creaky-looking jetpack that makes the flight seem both risky and fun at the same time. Casey, meanwhile, has plenty of fun with the weirdness that populates Hellboy's world, whether it's the notion of freestyle jet-packing or the use of a particularly unusual flight complication.
While Casey's story is fun, though, it isn't mostly for humor value like the last two stories in the book. Mark Ricketts (of Nowheresville) collaborates with Eric Wight, another artist I'm not familiar with, on "Curse of the Haunted Doiley," which takes the trouble of nagging mothers to hilarious new extremes. Wight, along with colorist Madsen, provides a bright and definitely not scary atmosphere for the story, and though I'm hard-pressed to come up with good comparisons for the art style, I will say that it's clear and enjoyable on the eyes. Meanwhile, Eric Powell (of The Goon) serves up the funniest story in the book, as a young Hellboy gets into the kind of mischief only a demon boy on an army base dedicated to the occult could, and his determination to keep things quiet along with his utter failure to do so makes for plenty of laughs.
As with the first issue, the whole affair closes out with another short installment of John Cassaday's pulp style strip about Lobster Johnson, which is a true enough evocation of the period, even if it doesn't really do much for me personally. All in all, though, I found the second issue of Hellboy: Weird Tales to be pretty strong, a good second step for the anthology as well as a pleasant chance to get acquainted with new or relatively new names in the comic field.
