If you're a Hellboy fan - be it the much awarded Dark Horse Comics series or Guillermo del Toro's cinematic adaptations - then you've definitely noticed the plethora of Hellboy goodies that've come our way via the LCS in 2009. I did, but I'd chalked them up to extra enthusiasm on creator Mike Mignola's part. I mean, anyone who walks out of last summer's Eisner Awards with as many honors as he did just has to be pumped.
What I hadn't realized was that 2009 is Hellboy's 15th Anniversary -- and seeing as abbracadabbling got the word out Sony's PlayStation was also celebrating its big 'one five' this year, we thought it more than fitting to also give Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and the rest of the B.P.R.D. gang their comicsblog due.
Mignola took his interests in the paranormal and Jules Verne-inspired adventure, blended them exquisitely to fit the decisive lines and starkly-contrasted color and shadow of his art, and created the heroically dark world of Hellboy back when I was college and paying little attention to comic books. And while his leading man may seen an unlikely protagonist, Hellboy's debut in the second issue of Dark Horse Comics' San Diego Comic-Con Comics in 1993-1994 certainly found its audience early -- and without my help!
In the fifteen-plus years since that convention, Hellboy's grown to become a cult phenomenon, and one of the most successful independently launched comic book franchises ever. Even as Dark Horse Comics has moved away from creator-owned properties to producing comics based on licensed properties (ie., Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Hellboy remains one of the company's very few original creations still being published.
But perhaps more than its success at beating the odds and striking it big, Hellboy's known for the dark yet beautifully rendered illustrations that have become the series trademark. So its only logical that art has played the biggest role in the celebrations for the character 's 15th Anniversary. And perhaps the biggest of those just happened, when Philadelphia's Brave New Worlds hosted Hellboy festivities December 4th.
That's where the supremely talented members of The Autumn Society, a Philadelphia-based artists collective that thanks to the internet is now expanding world-wide, opened their Hellboy15th Anniversary Art exhibit last Friday. From what I've seen of the exhibits so far, it must have been an amazing night at Brave New Worlds. From illustration to oil painting, and mixed-media to C.G.I., Hellboy and his cohorts were represented in truly singular fashion, and with a display of fondness for Mignola's creations that was as unique and rare as the art on display.
In short, whether you're a Hellboy fan or not, you've got to see what The Autumn Society has to offer. All their Mignola-inspired creations, along with so much other terrific art, can be discovered on their blog. [Link]
H.M. Vidaurri's Abe Sapien
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