Consider yourself warned: Do not pick up Art of Hellboy unless you've either got loose cash lying around or you already own all the other Hellboy trades. Because I speak from personal experience when I say that this book will turn you into a Hellboy (and probably a Mignola) completist. It's a great idea that comes out just exactly like you would imagine it in your wildest dreams when someone told you about it, a triumph of design, content and presentation. Mignola's artwork, both in black and white and colored by the variety of top-notch colorists he has had, pops off the page at this size, and it's a treat to see not only familiar pieces, like covers and interior pages, but new works, unpublished sketches and convention sketches and unused covers and pages. Honestly, I'd usually be a little wary of an expensive hardcover that is based not around a story but around a collection of art, but this is a treat that any comics lover should consider adding to their bookshelf.
I come at this from the point-of-view of someone who hasn't read that much Hellboy. Seed of Destruction, Weird Tales and the B.P.R.D. specials are the extent of my experience with the character. So it is possible, however unlikely, that much of my enthusiasm comes from so much of this being new to me. However, I suspect that the longtime Hellboy fans would actually get more out of it than a relative neophyte like myself. If you've tracked down Mignola's work in its other formats, you'll probably be delighted to find work here that would not be easy to locate, notably convention sketches and work that comes out of Mignola's own sketchbook but which was never really meant to see publication. Of particular interest to me was the model sheet of Hellboy, which editor Scott Allie notes is the "one and only" (something I'll wager isn't as true with a movie in production), is certainly interesting as it gives a pretty good insight into how well Mignola knows his well-known creation.
The Art of Hellboy, like Dark Horse's Art of Sin City, is not a complete overview of the series or any sort of retrospective on the artist in general. There are no interviews with Mignola, no profiles of the characters, no timeline of the book or anything like that. And while I'd certainly like to see a Hellboy Companion or something of that nature, that's not what The Art of Hellboy sets out to be. Instead it is simply a celebration of Mignola's art and his work on this character, and it lets the artwork speak for itself. Allie's notes are fairly sparse, introducing each piece and telling where it comes from but generally letting the work stand on its own. Fortunately, it's strong enough work to do so.
In reading through The Art of Hellboy, one gets a sense of just how unique Mike Mignola is. There have been imitators of his style, and in fact some quite good ones, but it's easy to spot them as imitators, and just as easy to look at each page here and know that it's Mike Mignola's work. Allie admits in his introduction that he didn't like Mignola's artwork when he first discovered it, and neither did I. In fact, when I first saw it in the pages of X-Force (not X-Factor, as the introduction says) I thought it was horrible, amateurish work, and I was among those legions of fanboys clamoring for the return of regular penciller Rob Liefeld. I can only assume at this point that I was suffering from a mild bout of insanity, but I also think Allie makes a good point in the introduction about super-hero work not really being Mignola's forte in general.
Hellboy, with its mixture of gothic and pulp traditions, is right up his alley, and these pages are filled with work that evokes classic horror and pulp standards. Hellboy with a big huge stake and hammer, obviously ready to do some vampire slaying. Hellboy battling any number of imaginative monsters. Hellboy in leather and canvas trenchcoat, big honkin' gun at the ready. Hellboy in a variety of interesting settings, in a library on the cover of The Comics Journal (one of my favorite pieces in the book) or standing in front of any number of picturesque chiaroscuros. One gets a sense of familiarity from Mignola's work, a certain tone and approach that comes through, but somehow the work never seems repetitive, and though there are many stylistic elements in common with many of the pinups and sketches, each one seems fresh and new.
The Art of Hellboy also includes a few sequential pages. Some are the artist's favorites, reprinted out of context of the rest of the story they came with but still strong enough to stand on their own. One of the gems of the collection, though, is the reprint of strips from Dark Horse Extra, which thanks to the large format are allowed to be presented in their original, horizontal style and which make for a beautiful and engaging short story break in the middle of the many pages of artwork.
