Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s favorite monster movie is an international horror classic

Mike Mignola’s influences are wide, from Henry James to Jack Kirby. in One shot comedy “Hellboy: Midnight Circus” One of Hellboy’s guards takes the young demon to the library so he can learn to read something besides comic books; This seems inspired by Mignola’s love of reading.

“Dracula” is horror a novel Who greatly inspired Mignola, and V “Hell Boy: Awaken the Devil” He thanks “Dracula and all the other vampires I loved.” “Hell Boy: The Conqueror Worm” Titled after Poem by Edgar Allan Poe (with lines from that poem included), and features similar tributes to old pulp heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow.

“Bride of Frankenstein” is Mignola’s favorite A monster Movie but There’s another Boris Karloff horror picture he likes even better: “The Body Snatcher” from 1945, With Karloff playing the role of an obvious and sinister grave robber rather than the lumbering creature.

Hellboy, as a character and comic, is the ultimate synthesis of everything Mignola loves. Sometimes described as a “paranormal investigator”, he has the attitude of Philip Marlowe but deals with cases outside the realm of magic. He’s also (only in the literal sense) a monster. Although he is mostly accepted by humans, Hellboy can never do so completely Cross the bridge to become one of them – it’s a lot like Frankenstein’s monster and his quest for companionship.

“The Bride of Frankenstein” differs from Shelley’s book but better adapts the tragic side of the monster. For example, the book includes sections of the book where the monster tries to befriend a blind man, but is chased off again by people who can see his appearance. The creature desires a bride because of his loneliness, of course, and when she also recoils at the sight of him, his despair is complete.

Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” films particularly highlight Hellboy’s outward character. The director, a huge fan of “Frankenstein” who is making his own adaptation of Shelley’s book, He clearly responded to and amplified the glimpses of isolation in Mignola’s Hellboy.

As played by Ron Perlman and drawn by Mignola, Hellboy has a thick jawline that rivals Karloff’s square-headed creature. The difference is that Hellboy is straightforward and not a killer. It gives kids smiles and lollipops instead of drowning them. The creature decided to attack the world that rejected him. In many “Hellboy” stories, the monsters ask Hellboy to actually start the apocalypse, always telling them to screw themselves up, and tearing off his horns twice to show him the refutation of his fate. (Hellboy never wears his full-grown horns to make himself appear more human.)

It helps that, unlike the Creature, Hellboy had a father who loved him: Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm. In the climate miniseries, “Hellboy: Storm and Fury” Hellboy sees a sign that says “The End is Near,” and feels serious, knowing he was brought to Earth to achieve this end. So, Hellboy recalls a moment from his childhood when Brom reassured him that he was not Frankenstein’s monster:

Dark horse