Book Review: Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea by M. Mignola et al.

Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea story by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni, art by Gary Gianni, colors by Dave Stewart

After Hellboy left the B.P.R.D., he wandered around for a few years before winding up in Hell. This tale comes from that middle period. Hellboy is sailing the ocean and is picked up by the Rebecca. The Rebecca's captain puts him in chains and hopes to sell him to P. T. Barnum as a side show freak, which definitely shows something odd going on since it's the late twentieth century for Hellboy. If that wasn't weird enough, the captain answers to a strange woman who has hired the ship to find an ancient serpent. She's a member of the Heliopic Brotherhood, a group of scientist exploring and exploiting some Lovecraftian phenomena in Hellboy's world. All Hellboy fans know the Heliopic Brotherhood means trouble. And they have trouble aplenty.

The story is typical Hellboy, which is a fun treat. Mignola quotes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to bookend the tale, which works well for the cursed nature of the characters. The art is more reminiscent of Richard Corben than Mignola, but that's okay because Corben's style works well for the weird horror genre (Corben has worked successfully on previous Hellboy and B.P.R.D. stories). The book is excellent all around.

Recommended, highly for Hellboy fans.

Sample text, featuring Hellboy's opinion about the woman's plan...

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