By d. emerson eddy & Zack Quaintance — So, we recently read Hellboy. All of it. Every single issue within the Mignola-verse, as it were, including Hellboy (obviously), the many (many) B.P.R.D comics, and all the auxiliary books that really flesh out the main continuity, including Abe Sapien, Witchfinder, Lobster Johnson, Crimson Lotus, Koschei the Deathless, Rasputin, and The Visitor (and maybe more that I’m forgetting, too). You can follow our escapades with all of this on Twitter, although the best resource is easily this page.

Anyway. Today we want to share just a little bit of wisdom, so you can learn how to read Hellboy, too. Welcome to our Hellboy Reading Order. Now, we should note that more than a few sites do lists like this, but we’re going to (perhaps) standout because we did ours in the publication order of the compiled volumes of the series, rather than something like the chronology of when the stories took place. I could go on about why we did this, but the short answer is that it’s interesting to see how the narrative and continuity evolved in real time, and this was the closest way to do it.

Soooo...check out our reading list! Followed by our choices for our individual favorite volumes within a reading project that took us a year and three or four months, going at our pace of one issue per night (usually pretty late).

Enjoy!

Hellboy Reading Order (by publication)

So, here’s the list...we should note that we took our inspiration (and the first half of it) from Sean T. Collins list, which you can find here.

1. Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

2. Hellboy: Wake the Devil

3. Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others

4. Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom

5. Hellboy: Conqueror Worm

6. BPRD: Hollow Earth & Other Stories

7. Hellboy: Weird Tales Vol. 1

8. BPRD: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories

9. Hellboy: Weird Tales Vol. 2

10. BPRD: Plague of Frogs

11. BPRD: The Dead

12. Hellboy: Strange Places

13. BPRD: The Black Flame

14. BPRD: The Universal Machine

15. Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others

16. BPRD: Garden of Souls

17. BPRD: Killing Ground

18. Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus

19. Hellboy: Darkness Calls

20. Abe Sapien: The Drowning

21. BPRD: 1946

22. BPRD: The Warning

23. BPRD: The Black Goddess

24. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt

25. Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels

26. BPRD: War on Frogs

27. Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others

28. BPRD: 1947

29. BPRD: King of Fear

30. BPRD: Hell on Earth: New World

31. Hellboy: The Bride of Hell and Others

[31.5 Hellboy: House of the Living Dead]

32. BPRD: Being Human

33. Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever

34. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Gods and Monsters

35. Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury

36. Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest

37. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Russia

38. Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand

39. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine & The Long Death

40. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Pickens County Horror & Others

41. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Return of the Master

42. BPRD: 1948

[42.5 Hellboy: The Midnight Circus]

43. BPRD: Vampire

44. BPRD: Hell on Earth: A Cold Day in Hell

45. Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible & The New Race of Man

46. Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat

47. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Lake of Fire

48. Hellboy in Hell: The Descent

49. Sledgehammer 44

50. Abe Sapien: The Shape of Things to Come

51. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Reign of the Black Flame

52. Lobster Johnson: Get the Lobster

53. Abe Sapien: Sacred Places

54. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Wings

55: Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland

56. Abe Sapien: A Darkness So Great

57. Hellboy and the BPRD: 1952

58. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Flesh and Stone

59. Frankenstein Underground

60. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Metamorphosis

61. Hellboy in Mexico

62. Abe Sapien: The Secret Fire

63. Hellboy and the BPRD: 195364. BPRD: Hell on Earth: The Exorcist65. Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card

66. Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore

67. BPRD: Hell on Earth: Cometh the Hour68. Hellboy Into the Silent Sea69. Witchfinder: City of the Dead

70. Rise of the Black Flame

71. Abe Sapien: Lost Lives and Other Stories

72. The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed

73. Lobster Johnson: The Pirate’s Ghost and Metal Monsters of Midtown

74. Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954

75. Lobster Johnson: A Chain Forged in Life

76. BPRD: The Devil You Know: Messiah

77. Hellboy and the BPRD: 1955

78. Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon

79. Koshchei the Deathless

80. Witchfinder: The Gates of Heaven

81. BPRD: The Devil You Know: Pandemonium

82. Crimson Lotus

83. BPRD: The Devil You Know: Ragna Rok

We stopped here, at the end of the main narrative, but there have been more one-shots and other series since, which you’re (obviously) free to incorporate in your own reading and life.

Our Favorite Volumes From the Mignola-Verse

Now onto the good stuff...our picks for the best volumes from the 83 (!!) that we read, one day/issue at a time.

The Corpse

"The Corpse", in my opinion, is not just one of the best Hellboy stories, but one of the best stories in comics. Mike Mignola, Matt Hollingsworth, and Pat Brosseau deliver a masterclass on storytelling in 25 pages. The short story revels in the folklore of the British Isles, bringing in various members of the faerie folk into the narrative, all framed in a fairly simple tale of trying to track down a baby stolen by a changeling.

Through Hellboy's quest to find the babe, we're treated to a presentation of art that perfects tone, timing, pacing, and atmosphere. Especially during the progression of panels while Hellboy waits at the gallows for an allotted time. How the layout, colour, and sound contribute to the anticipation is incredible.

It also serves as a kind of a turning point and a seed for the broader narrative, as it plants the roots for the shift from Rasputin and his goals to what will come based more in fable in the Arthurian trilogy. (d. emerson eddy)

Hellboy in Mexico

Of the 83 volumes we read, my personal favorite was Hellboy in Mexico, a story of raucous good times in Mexico, of monster-hunting luchadores, of vampiric turkeys, of losing a friend, and of doing ones duty for a brother no matter how much it hurts you both. The artwork in this tale is delivered by Richard Corben, perhaps the greatest artist (aside from Mignola himself) to do sequential work with the character, and many of the panels are among the most memorable within all of the Mignola-verse.

One of the qualities I appreciate most about this comic is how it feels so vital to the larger Hellboy mythos, to his character motives and to the person he would later become, while also standing just fine entirely of its own. I moved to Washington D.C. from California in the middle of this reading project, and while staying in an Airbnb in an English Garden Apartment (which, don’t be followed, is just a damn basement), my wife and I read this one together at night. The story was so immersive that we were both able to compartmentalize the mass amount of stress we were under and just get lost in the art and characters and tragedy. It read equally as beautiful for me (who’d read everything published before this) and my wife (who was reading a Hellboy story for the first time). I can think of no higher mark of quality. (Zack Quaintance)

Koshchei the Deathless

There's a rich tapestry of selection when it comes to the breadth and depth of the Hellboy universe as the different corners explore various genres and types of storytelling, giving the audience a variety to choose for their tastes. One of my favourites that I think draws from some of the foundational influences for the overall narrative is Koshchei the Deathless by Mike Mignola, Ben Stenbeck, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins.

It's part of a group of tales that worked to give a bit more spotlight to Hellboy's unique rogues gallery and it's also one of the stories that goes hard to bridge the various moving parts of the narrative's pieces. It incorporates a deep and rich love of folktales, particularly aspects of Russian folktales here, with the events of the overarching Hellboy narrative, and spins it in a tale told in a pub in Hell.

It weaves together horror, heartbreak, and humour in a way that is unmistakably signature to Mignola's stories. Brought to life through some gorgeous artwork from Stenbeck and Stewart. (d. emerson eddy)

The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed

One of the pages that jumped at me most in my early Hellboy reading was an almost nonsensical throwaway page in which a bunch of space guys were monitoring Hellboy and his exploits from some drifiting crystalized cocoon thing in space. What was that? It was the first sense I had that this story was much much more than a big red guy punching bigger scarier things (boom!).

It took dozens upon dozens of volumes of stories to pay off, but we finally learned the deal with the space guys in The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed, and it was so much more than just a cursory tying up of a footnote from past continuity. In fact, I have this story as the most romantic and moving of the entire Hellboy canon. It’s a story about one of the space guys who is left on Earth to monitor Hellboy, about the love he finds in segregated 1950s America, appearing as a white man who then marries a black woman, the two of them bonded by commonalities of otherness. His alien physiology makes him immortal as she remains subject to normal human again, and while I don’t want to give anything away, I’ll note that utter shattering heartbreak ensures. The creative team here is Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson writing, Paul Grist art, Bill Crabtree colors, and (as always) Clem Robbins letters. And it’s just so good. (Zack Quaintance)

Hellboy: The Midnight Circus

Duncan Fegredo is a powerhouse of a collaborator. In the Arthurian trilogy of Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm & The Fury he deftly became the face of the modern Hellboy narrative, bringing a new verve to the story and closed out that period of Hellboy's life in epic fashion. When he returned for Hellboy: The Midnight Circus, something different appeared.

With Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins, Fegredo showcased two different styles, one for standard reality and one for the fantastical situations in which young Hellboy found himself embroiled. The softer, almost dream-like quality to these sequences enriched and enhanced the overall feel of a story that felt like it drew inspiration from works like Pinocchio and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Also giving us some of the most beautiful colours from Stewart throughout his tenure.

This original graphic novel tapped into the imaginative side of the Hellboy narrative, revelling in the limitless sense of wonder of childhood tales, while still forming the framework for some of what would come with Hellboy's family. It's another story that's a testament to being able to work completely on its own, but also serve as a backbone to the broader narrative. (d. emerson eddy)

Hellboy: Conqueror Worm

I thought about picking a Lobster Johnson story here — specifically one drawn by Tonci Zonjic — or an early BPRD story, so as to include the vast contributions that John Arcudi and Guy Davis made to this narrative. BPRD: The Killing Ground, I should note here, does strike in many ways as the quintessential Arcudi/Davis-era story, leaning as heavily as any on the relationships between characters, their lack of communication, and their disparate motivations. It’s the one where Johann gets his new big body shredded and Daimio is unveiled as the were-jaguar, but alas.

HI just kept coming back to Hellboy: Conqueror Worm as my third and final pick. This is, essentially, the volume in which Hellboy walks away from life with the BPRD and from the concept within which the character was created, opening up a new and different pathway for all his future stories, and really for the grand narrative that was to take shape after. You can practically feel Mignola in this one giving up plans he’d had in his head for some time in order to follow his evolving creative muse, and there’s no better way to serve a story or a character. Also, this one gets extra points for being the first appearance (I think) of Lobster Johnson. (Zack Quaintance)

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.