Hellboy - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - R.A. Wonsowski

Layout:
123
444
444

Panel 1 - A hillside at night.  No moon in the sky.  Ethereally glowing, a skeleton wearing a wide flat-brimmed black cowboy hat and a colorful but torn Mexican poncho is shambling in front of us.

CAPTION:  Austin, Texas.

CAPTION:  Where his helicopter crashed years ago, Vaughn's bones search in vain for a Telecaster.

"VAUGHN":  ...dOn'T...bE...LaTe....


Panel 2 - A hotel bedroom.  In a double bed, the sheets in complete disarray, another glowing skeleton, this one in a dark velvet blazer and a tie-dye bandana around its neck, is twisting as if in a seizure, vomiting multicoloured pills and capsules around the room.

CAPTION:  Notting Hill, England.

CAPTION:  At the Samarkand Hotel, Hendrix's ghost mutters the same words Vaughn's been repeating:  "If I don't see you in this world, I'll see you in the next..."


Panel 3 - On a two-lane road, night, a pick-up truck sporting Stars and Bars on the tailgate is overturned and burning off the shoulder.  A third glowing skeleton, the bones twisted and broken in places, is crawling along the double yellow line, searching and screaming.

CAPTION:  Hope, Arkansas.

CAPTION:  An Alabama motorist ditches his truck when Jesse "Goodnight My Love" Belvin appears out of nowhere, searching for his wife.

"BELVIN":  ...jO-aNn-nNh...


Panel 4 - P.O.V. behind HELLBOY.  On a moonless, starless night, he is standing in the middle of an intersection of two dirt roads.  Underneath the high branches of a long dead tree floats the ghost of ROBERT JOHNSON, his flesh hanging from his yellowing skull, his bony feet and hands visible from the cuffs of his burial suit.  His wide smile is a rictus, and his eyes glare from beneath his dirty black felt fedora.

CAPTION:  Clarksdale, Mississippi.

JOHNSON:  ...aHh-nHNungh...uUnhn...hRraah-mahh...

CAPTION:  And if I'm gonna stop all this dead-raising, I need to ask the devil at the crossroads for a ride...

Hellboy - A Surprise Encounter - Niel Jacoby

Panel 1: Interior Mystery Machine. Fred is driving, Daphne is staring absentmindedly out the window, and Shaggy and Scooby are playing cards in the back. Velma is leaning over the passenger seat to talk to Fred. They're dressed for cold weather, and they've all been awake for quite a while.

Velma: GEE, FRED, SURE HAS BEEN A LONG TRIP, HUH?

Fred: I KNOW, I KNOW, WE'RE ALMOST THERE. COLORADO'S FARTHER THAN I THOUGHT, BUT AT LEAST THE HOTEL'LL BE WARM ENOUGH.

Panel 2: Fred and the gang are at the front desk of the hotel. Fred is astonished, and the hotel clerk is apologetic. The hotel is in a very old-school Victorian style.

Fred: BUT-BUT YOU CAN'T BE CLOSED! IT'S THE START OF SKI SEASON! AND WE DROVE ALL THIS WAY!

Clerk: I'M SORRY, BUT WE'RE CLOSING TODAY. I JUST CAN'T DEAL WITH ALL THESE GHOSTS THAT HAVE BEEN SHOWING UP LATELY.

Fred & Hellboy(Off panel, behind them) in unison: GHOSTS?

Inset panel: Fred is startled and has turned back towards Hellboy.

Fred: OH GOOD, SOMEONE EL-WHAT THE!?

Panel 3: Hellboy is coming down the stairs, clearly hungover, with a bottle each of Mrs. Butterworth's and Jose Cuervo in his hand.

Hellboy: DON'T BE STARTLED, I'M A GHOST HUNTER TOO.
(link)
THE NAME'S HELLBOY, FORMERLY OF THE BUREAU FOR PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND DEFENSE. I KNOW PARANORMAL. I'VE LIVED PARANORMAL. AND IT SEEMS LIKE WE COULD WORK TOGETHER.

Hellboy - Born in the Wrong Century - J.D. Coughlan

PAGE ONE

Panel 1: Long panel, overlooking a 17th century American town at night. A man stands in the foreground, just off-panel. This is Septimus Wolfe, an original character.

(NOTE: Wolfe's captions should appear handwritten.)

CAPTION: Salem, Massachusetts -- May, 1692

WOLFE (CAP): From the journal of Septimus Wolfe...

Panel 2: Close on Wolfe as he rides his horse into town. He is a gaunt, middle-aged figure dressed richly but unassuming. Behind him, a woman is being burned at the stake, a crowd cheering around her. Wolfe stares ahead grimly.

WOLFE (CAP): Whilst the Society seems not to care about the fate of these "witches," they have dispatched me to this hellish town to investigate a more manifest threat to God's creation.

Panel 3: Wolfe dismounts his horse in front of a small, dilapidated house. A single window is illuminated. Wolfe looks up at it.

WOLFE (CAP): For it seems that in their haste to protect themselves from Christian wrath, a true coven has summoned daemonic protection. And I must send this Beast back to its Master.

Panel 4: Large, taking up most of the page. Hellboy, horns intact, sits shackled to a wall in a dark room, in tattered clothing. Upon the wall behind him are various Wiccan and Satanic markings. Hellboy looks very pissed-off.

WOLFE (CAP): But something in my bones tells me this shall not be so simple...

END OF PAGE ONE

Hellboy – Juliet & John. – Shaun Richens.

PAGE TEN – 6 PANELS.

1. DR PARKER stands face aghast. GHOST PETER stands to his side a shocked look on his face.

At their feet is the smashed petri dish the green spore bubbling and growing vast in front of them, dark red veins now running through it.

DR PARKER: Dead or not Peter my boy I would suggest we both make haste.

2. Cut to a ruined temple, it has a mixture of Mayan and Egyptian architecture. HELLBOY sits atop the vast mass of a twisted cthullu like demon from the dark ages.

A great gleaming two-handed sword sticks out of the demons back next to HELLBOY, black blood runs from the wound.

HELLBOY wipes sweat from his forehead as he takes a drag from his cigar. 

NO COPY.

3. Pull in tighter on HELLBOY. A ring of smoke floats up from his cigar.

The stumps of his filed down horns have started to re-grow at an alarming rate.

NO COPY.

4. Even tighter on HELLBOY. The horns are almost back to their full huge length.

Hellboy is stubbing his cigar out on the demons back with one hand, his other reaches up to touch is horns.

NO COPY.

5. Close up HELLBOY, from the torso up. His hand touches his horn and he hangs his head down, his eyes closed.

HELLBOY: Something wickedly hellish has just been born.

6. HELLBOY stands on the back of the demon, both his hands now around the hilt of the two handed sword.

HELLBOY: Looks like I’ve got another job for you.

Hellboy – The Fighting Agents of the T.C.P.S.O. – MK Stangeland Jr.

(Consider the premise here to be part of a Hellboy/Atomic Robo crossover that operates along the same lines as some of the Marvel/DC crossovers that pretended both participants were part of the same universe all along. In it, Hellboy is part of what’s this universes version of both Tesladyne Industries and the BDRP – the Tesladyne Corporation for Paranormal and Scientific Operations.)

(8 Panels)

Panel 1: Briefing room. Already present are ATOMIC ROBO, JENKINS, ABE SAPIEN, LIZ SHERMAN, ARGUELLES, HOSKINS, and SCHAEFER (see the final issue of ATOMIC ROBO and OTHER STRANGENESS for reference on the last three).

Hellboy enters the briefing room. His horns are unshaved, but each of them is being used to hold an extraordinarily large stack of pancakes. The belt he’s wearing has spots to hold both butter and syrup so that he can carry them around and grab them as needed.

ATOMIC ROBO (1): And now that big red it here, we should be…

ATOMIC ROBO (2): …what did you do to your horns?

Panel 2: HELLBOY grabs a pancake off of one of his horns. His other hand is going for the butter he has on his belt.

HELLBOY (1): It’s breakfast. I haven’t eaten yet.

HELLBOY (2): You think I’m going to let good pancakes go to waste?

Panel 3: ATOMIC ROBO puts his hands up in a ‘I’m not even going to bother’ way.

ATOMIC ROBO: Arguelles, could you just start the briefing, please?

Panel 4: Image of a man up on a screen. Aside from looking out of it, he looks perfectly normal, taking a normal, everyday stroll.

ARGUELLES: Here we have a Mr. Jack Phillip. He looks like a perfectly ordinary man.

ARGUELLES: And you’d be right, except that two days ago he was in a coma, then suddenly he got up and left.

ARGUELLES: It’s the third reported case of its type in less than a week.

Panel 5: Similar image of the same man, but with what looks like a filter applied, showing the man being ‘possessed’ by UNDEAD EDISON.

ARGUELLES: When we view him through the right lens, we see the reason why.

Panel 6: Close up on ROBO’s head as he glares.

ATOMIC ROBO: Edison.

Panel 7: HELLBOY, who his putting the remains of a pancake into his mouth.

HELLBOY: Looks the ghost is finally making a move.

ATOMIC ROBO: He’s not a ghost. There is a perfectly logical scientific explanation for whatever it is he is.

Panel 8: Panel of LIZ SHERMAN, who’s toying with a bit of fire as she makes a snarky aside comment.

LIZ SHERMAN: Said the nuclear robot in the same room as the fish mutant and the demon who was literally summoned from the depths of Hell.

(END PAGE)

Hellboy- Watchin' The Tide Roll Away -Dan Hill

I've read the first issue or so of Seed of Destruction and bits and pieces of BPRD. My knowledge of Hellboy comes mostly from the movies and the odd tidbit I've absorbed here and there.


PAGE ONE

1.1
Wide panel: We OPEN on a panoramic shot of Hadrian’s Wall stretching across the English countryside. It’s early afternoon and we can make out two FIGURES sitting on the wall.

Obviously it’s raining.

1 CAPTION Hadrian’s Wall, Cambeck Valley, Cumbria.

2 ABE I do like this country. So much...moisture.

3 HELLBOY Great. Remind me why we’re here again?

1.2
CUT TO a CLOSE UP on the feet of HELLBOY and ABE SAPIEN dangling over the wall as they sit.

4 ABE We’re looking for Camlann because Mordred ,or his descendant, I’m not sure which--

5 HELLBOY You ever get tired of this?

1.3
We CUT to a two shot on the pair, Hellboy in his usual overcoat get up and Abe in his suit/helmet combo.

Hellboy holds EXCALIBUR in his left hand.

6 ABE Pardon?

7 HELLBOY History. Tellin’ us what to do, where to go, who we fight, who lives, who dies. All that crap.

1.4
Hellboy holds Excalibur up slightly, staring at it with something approaching disdain.

8 HELLBOY It’s heavier than it looks.


1.5
Tight on Abe as he turns to his friend.

9 ABE "Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds".

1.6
On Hellboy.

10 HELLBOY Amen.

 11 HELLBOY Lets get this over with.

Hellboy - Once and Future - Ben Rosenthal

1.  Hellboy is walking towards a huge wooden door.  He has a sword in hand and is determined.

CAPTION (Hellboy)

This has gone on long enough.

2.  From inside.  The doors are shattering under the force of Hellboy’s boot as he kicks it down.

CAPTION (Hellboy)

People dyin’ in the streets and they just sit there. 

3.  Hellboy is walking down a long isle.  People stand back as he marches.

CAPTION (Hellboy)

I didn't want to have to pull this, but got no choice now.

4.  The Queen of England sits at her throne.  The sword Hellboy was carrying has been thrown at the Queen’s feet by him.

CAPTION (Hellboy – off panel)

To quote a wise man --

5.  A close up of Hellboy.

HELLBOY

Hail to the King, Baby.

Hellboy - Working Up An Appetite - Grant McLaughlin

The American Midwest.  No particular point in continuity in mind.  Perhaps closer to the beginning of Hellboy's career.

Four rows of panels here.  Row one is long and thin, taking up the width of the page but not much height.  The three other rows each take up a remaining third of the page.  Row two is made up of panels 2 through 4, row three is comprised of panel 5, and panels 6 through 8 round out row four.

1 - Overhead shot from far away.  A giant snake-like monster lies dead at the edge of a small town.  The monster takes up the majority of the panel.  Hellboy, a small red figure at this distance, walks away from the creature.

NO COPY

2 - Move down to ground level.  Hellboy walks away from the dead monster.  He looks pretty beat up - his coat is ripped and he is rather the worse for wear.

NO COPY

3 - Hellboy stops and looks at a diner that is on the side of the road.  The diner also looks the worse for wear.

NO COPY

4 - Close-up of a sign that reads "Please Seat Yourself".  Takes up the entire panel.

NO COPY

5 - Inside the restaurant.  Hellboy has walked past the sign towards the tables, grabbing a menu as he goes.  The people within the restaurant are still recovering from what has just transpired.  Some stare out the windows.  Some stare at Hellboy.  The important thing here is that no one is really thinking about restaurants or food.

HELLBOY: Okay.

6 - Hellboy sits at a table, looking at his menu.

NO COPY

7 - Hellboy has put down the menu and looks expectantly for a server.

NO COPY

8 - Repeat panel.

HELLBOY: I hope they're still serving pancakes.

Why Hellboy?

Why Hellboy?

I could list off dozens of reasons.  Hundreds.

I could talk about Mike Mignola's brilliant writing, his gorgeous art, or his phenomenal world building.

I could go into Hellboy's intricate and detailed history, his unique personality, or even just how badass he looks with his trench coat and giant stone right hand.

I could rattle on about the character's roots in classic pulp, horror, folklore, and any number of other genres and styles.

I could go on about all of this and much, much more, but you probably know a lot of this already.  So instead, I'll tell you about what Hellboy means to me.  I only really got into comics in a big way in university.  I don't know if I was trying to make up for lost time, but I gobbled up anything and everything I could get my hands on.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, a heck of a lot of this ended up being superhero books.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against superheroes.  They're still a pretty substantial part of my weekly pull.  But they're only a small part of the much larger comic book whole, you know?

Hellboy is the comic that taught me that.  Cracking open Seed of Destruction for the first time turned me onto all sorts of possibilities in comics that I simply hadn't considered beforehand.  It was different.  It was challenging.  Most of all, it was amazing.

I think it's safe to say that Hellboy is a lot of things to a lot of people.  Let's take this opportunity to explore some of those.