MARCH HORSEPOWER -- MIGNOLAVERSE

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MARCH HORSEPOWER — MIGNOLAVERSE

03/31/2013 2:44pm

When we coined last year’s marketing campaign, “It’s All Going to Hell in 2012,” we didn’t consider that it didn’t really leave us very far to go in 2013. But that’s sort of where we’re at with the world of Hellboy and all his friends—we’ve broken a lot of things that can’t be fixed, and there’ll come a time when there’s literally just nothing left. Right now, though . . . these guys live in some interesting times.

Hellboy in Hell #1 sold out upon its release in December, and this month the initial arc concludes. But the story’s far from over. Having died himself, Hellboy’s seen a fair amount of death in Hell, including one cold-blooded murder to his own credit—but if you haven’t read it yet, I really don’t want to spoil it. After #4 this month, Mike will do standalone issues as often as he’s able, so you’ll have to wait a while for the next chapter of Hellboy in Hell. But we promise a wild ride along the way, with the best art and the most intense stories we can bring your way.

This month Mike and company launch three new stories. In B.P.R.D.: Vampire, he teams with Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, the Eisner Award–winning creators of Daytripper, for the strangest horror story we’ve ever done. In the twins’ last Dark Horse series, B.P.R.D.: 1947, Professor Bruttenholm trapped a pair of vampire sisters inside Agent Simon Anders. Haunted by the sisters, Simon returns to Europe determined to kill every vampire he can find. Daytripper prepared you for the surreal and magical, but here the twins also show they can serve up real shocks.

Going back a bit further in our history, this month also sees the release of Sledgehammer 44 #1. Originally written for the late John Severin, this is the World War II–era story of Mike Mignola’s version of Iron Man. In the first Lobster Johnson series, The Iron Prometheus, Mignola’s masked vigilante fought a mechanical suit of armor. Now the Allies turn it against the Nazis, but the Hyperborean magic that fuels the suit leads to cosmic complications. The two-issue story is drawn by Jason Latour, returning after last year’s B.P.R.D.: The Pickens County Horror, and more recently Vertigo’s adaptation of Django Unchained and a new run of Winter Soldier at Marvel.

Sledgehammer 44 is written by Mignola and John Arcudi, the duo that guides most of the expanded Hellboy world. This month Arcudi reunites with his A God Somewhere collaborator, Peter Snejbjerg, in the ongoing B.P.R.D. series, Hell on Earth #106. This story, A Cold Day in Hell, focuses on some of the up-and-coming agents in the Bureau, as well as the revived zombie Iosif, the head of the Russian Special Sciences Service, and Varvara, the demon in little girl’s clothing.

A Cold Day in Hell delivers on a long-awaited plot development, as a mutated Abe Sapien finally rises from his coma, setting up his new ongoing title, which launches next month. In both Abe Sapien and A Cold Day in Hell, you’ll see how Hellboy’s situation in Hell reflects what’s happening in the surface world—and what that whole It’s All Going to Hell thing really meant.

Abe Sapien is written by me and Mike, with John coming in for at least two issues, for a story he originally planned to do in the B.P.R.D. monthly. The art on the book is spectacular. The first three issues, subtitled Dark and Terrible, are drawn by Sebastián Fiumara, making his Mignolaverse debut. Sebastián brings out Abe’s humanity and his monstrosity through gorgeous but grotesque work. Sebastián will alternate art duties with his brother Max, already a familiar face from The Transformation of J. H. O’Donnell and B.P.R.D.: 1948.

Then in May, we start a three-parter in the monthly series, with a title that answers the question, What happens after it all goes to Hell in 2012? Wasteland. Johann Kraus leads a mission to Chicago to recover the agents James Harren and I left there in The Abyss of Time (which also had connections to Hellboy in Hell that you might only be figuring out now . . .). It does not go well. Wasteland marks the end of Dave Johnson’s celebrated run of covers on the monthly title, and we can’t wait to tell you who’s up next (but we will) . . . The real excitement on Wasteland is another new addition to our art bench—Laurence Campbell, who we wooed away from Marvel, and we have every intention of keeping him happy and busy for a long time to come. More realistic than that of most of our guys, Laurence’s work brings the end of the world to life in unique ways, but what’s surprised us the most is how incredibly creepy his realism can be.

It’s true we’re doing more books than ever, but I swear it’s not because we’re greedy—although we are hoarding great artists. But as we approach the end of the world, Mike’s story just keeps getting more complicated, chapters revealed within chapters—even parts of it set seventy years back, or further.

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MARCH HORSEPOWER — MIGNOLAVERSE

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