Last week, I re-read the
Hellboy: Right Hand of Doom collection for the first time in a few years. As many of you know, I've wasted plenty of bandwidth bitching and moaning about the lacking of self-contained short comic book stories. Mike Mignola proves me all kinds of wrong with this collections of Hellboy odds and ends. The one little story that always makes me smile is 'Pancakes'. It is 2 pages of comic book bliss. It combines a simple gag, some modern humour and a real early 50s monster movie vibe. There's so much to take in from these panels that I thought it would worth posting them in their entirety here.
It's breakfast time, and Hellboy isn't too sure about eating pancakes. Luckily he eventually eats them and narrowly averts a potential catastrophe. There are a few elements here that really stick with me. I love the fact that he refers to them as 'Pamcakes'. This lets us know that this demonic-looking creature is still just a little tyke. I also really dig the "Meanwhile in Pandemonium..." caption - it's a truly 'classic' elements. He's also infused the artwork with a Kirby/Meskin at Prize Comics look and it's a perfect fit. Mignola is one of the true comic book geniuses of the last 30 years. I was very slow to hop aboard the Hellboy bandwagon and that's ok, because I still have lots to discover and re-discover.
Last week, I re-read the Hellboy: Right Hand of Doom collection for the first time in a few years. As many of you know, I've wasted plenty of bandwidth bitching and moaning about the lacking of self-contained short comic book stories. Mike Mignola proves me all kinds of wrong with this collections of Hellboy odds and ends. The one little story that always makes me smile is 'Pancakes'. It is 2 pages of comic book bliss. It combines a simple gag, some modern humour and a real early 50s monster movie vibe. There's so much to take in from these panels that I thought it would worth posting them in their entirety here.
It's breakfast time, and Hellboy isn't too sure about eating pancakes. Luckily he eventually eats them and narrowly averts a potential catastrophe. There are a few elements here that really stick with me. I love the fact that he refers to them as 'Pamcakes'. This lets us know that this demonic-looking creature is still just a little tyke. I also really dig the "Meanwhile in Pandemonium..." caption - it's a truly 'classic' elements. He's also infused the artwork with a Kirby/Meskin at Prize Comics look and it's a perfect fit. Mignola is one of the true comic book geniuses of the last 30 years. I was very slow to hop aboard the Hellboy bandwagon and that's ok, because I still have lots to discover and re-discover.
3 comments:
Yes, that is a great comic book short Scott! I love Hellboy to death... the perfect ingredients have gone into this series... story, art, subject matter gang up together through Mignola's brilliance to come up with the near perfect comic. Sure some storylines are not as good as others, but even the sub-par stand higher in my esteem than much of what is currently out there. Even when Mignola stands down from art his successor Duncan Fegredo (sp?) keeps up the deliciously high standard. I'm now well-into B.P.R.D, the sister series, and liking it just as well. Craig
Got bargain-priced used copies of this one & its immediate predecessor, The Chained Coffin etc., in the mail just a couple of days ago & am looking forward to diving into them.
For some reason, I got turned onto the various BPRD releases before I did Hellboy, & while I've accumulated the former in the form of individual issues (mostly via eBay), I'm keeping a lookout for Hellboy in trades. This gives me the first 4; at least 4 more to go, plus whatever has come out since the last trade.
*Sigh* Thought I typed my name in. In this instance, "Anonymous" = Dan Bailey
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