REVIEW: Giant Robot Hellboy #1

On an island with no name, on the eastern coast of Africa, mutant spiders, kaiju lizards, and one giant robot hellboy duke it out in the name of vault hunting. Mignola does it again! Joined by a cast of talented artists, Mike Mignola gives us a new Hellboy story that is sure to captivate us. Beautiful art like always, straight-to-the-point writing that is direct, action-oriented, and perfectly timed; Giant Robot Hellboy gives a new chrome look to our favorite red paranormal investigator.

I’m a huge fan of Mignola, like huge! If it has the MM name I gotta read it. Whether that’s the Hellboy series, the BPRD series, or any of his shorts and spin-offs Mignola never ceases to amaze me. There is something just so perfect about the way he writes. It’s all about getting you to the good stuff in as least amount of steps as possible. Some really good examples on this issue are; a panel in which a character says “Call your girl.” and instead of wasting a whole page with 5 panels going back and forth between the two characters, you just get one extra panel saying the name of the “girl” in question, and boom next panel (even though it’s not really a panel and she’s jumping in the white margin) you get the words “I’m here.” It’s so perfect. It allows your mind to fill in the gaps and imagine the conversation they had on the phone, all whilst allowing you room enough to speculate on who the girl even is. Another great moment that encompasses this “straight to the point no fluff” Mignola-type writing happens right at the beginning. Hellboy is in 1967 London and a telephone booth rings, he answers and hears “I’m sorry, they made me do it.” One Pfft later and Hellboy is sedated and carried away by G@d knows who. It’s so precise so perfectly timed, you don’t have to read through nonsense just waiting for that tranquilizer dart to get shot, it’s fantastic. This sort of writing is something I aim to imitate with my own comic making, it’s so straight to the point that it packs a punch right to your jaw and you can’t help but be caught off guard by the quickness of the action. Mignola Marvelousness.

The art is just as good as the writing. Despite not being drawn by Mignola themselves, Duncan Fegredo does a fantastic job at retaining the original style of Hellboy whilst still adding his own spin to it. Especially around Hellboy’s face, Duncan gets a bit more cartoonishness to the way Hellboy behaves, if the original makes Hellboy feel like a rock golem in his expression (which is not bad at all, and I truly enjoy the original Hellboy drawings) in this issue Hellboy feels a little softer and alive like he’s just a guy with red skin. It truly makes you root for the guy even though he is literally a demon king from hell. Speaking of the Duncan Fegredo brand of character design, big props on those robot grunts. I love how big and bumbling they look, it no doubt has to be the big long arms that they have, very similar to the way gorillas look with their huge bodies and arms that reach all the way down to their feet. Another home run here by Duncan has to be the environment designs and the glorious use of spotting blacks, the intricate backgrounds are definitely not Mignola-esque but it still feels very nice to see everything so well rendered, especially inside the warehouse where Hellboy is being held. Very cool technological drawings, that feel real. Whilst the backgrounds are very Duncan, the spot blacks are very Mignola and are used so well throughout the whole story that it somehow still gives the Mignolaesque feel that the original Hellboy had. There is no doubt that this time is comprised of fans of both Hellboy and BPRD.

Speaking of BPRD fans, Clem Robins comes back to letter this story. With his classic and professional style of lettering, we get awesome panels with fantastic sound fx’s (such as the iconic helicopter “WUP WUP WUP”) plus a “KRAANG” and a “CHUNG” for good measure. This sort of lettering is a perfect fit for the Mignolaverse. At this point everyone involved is so intuned with the lore, and the style of the world that it is hard to not see them succeed. If you haven’t guessed by now, guess who comes back to color this issue? Well no other celebrated colorist of the Mignolaverse franchises than Dave Stewart, having already worked on titles like Mignola’s Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, and a bunch of other Mignolaverse titles who else would be capable of handling this task of gigantic proportions?! The coloring is like everything else impeccable. I love how some scenes give off the feeling of old-school film noir detective stories without having to go fully black and white. I think the desaturated colors and the spot blacks just work so well together to make you feel like you’re way back in the 1960s. That is something else I truly love about the Mignola verse, even though they could go into all sorts of cliches and tropes, it all still manages to feel innovative and interesting even all these years later. The stories are fun, they are exciting and they are above all boundary-pushing.

I loved reading all 22 pages of this wonderful story and I can’t wait to read more. I tried my best to not spoil too many things as I hope that all other Hellboy fans can enjoy this as much as I did. Getting to read and review comics by some of my artistic role models is a dream come true and I hope I get the opportunity to continue doing it for years to come. This release also lines up perfectly with the new Hellboy game, Web of Wyrd, which if you haven’t played yet, you definitely should. I got it on Day 1 and have been enjoying it greatly ever since. Definitely stay on the look out for a review on that soon.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Created and Written by: Mike Mignola
Art by: Duncan Fegredo
Coloring by: Dave Stewart
Lettering by: Clem Robins
Cover art by: Duncan Fegredo
Variant Covers by: Mike Mignola & Dave Stewart
Published by: Dark Horse Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”