Patrick's Reviews > Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

I love this series. I have for years.

That said, I haven't been a faithful follower of the books. I don't read comics in single issues. I read comics once they're collected in trade paperback, and even then, my purchases are erratic.

But earlier this year I went on a Hellboy binge. I bought everything that I didn't already own, and read it all in just a week or two. Both the main storyline, all the side arcs, and the BPRD series too. About 30 books in all.

How do I feel about it after glutting myself? I still love it. If anything I love it more than before because I have a much better appreciation for the entire story arc that's been taking place.

When I try to think how to describe Hellboy, I find myself a little stumped. I want to use phrases like, "Mythically robust" but that's a wankerish thing to say, and it really doesn't do the series justice.

If forced to summarize this quick and dirty, give it the elevator pitch, so to speak. (That's where you pitch a story to someone in the space of time it takes for your elevator to reach their floor.) here's what I'd say.

"Imagine Sandman. Leave in all the clever trans-mythic brilliance, but remove all the emo bits and replace them with punching and snappy one-liners. Garnish lightly with Nazis. That's Hellboy."

God. That's awful. This is why I don't review books. I'm terrible at this.

Even worse, it implies I don't love Sandman, which I do. Sandman is in my top three. And I'm well aware that it's not emo, it's tragedy. Don't fill my inbox with hate. Okay?

Okay. Let's move on.

Simply said, if you haven't read this series. You really owe it to yourself to try at least the first three trades. It wasn't until I read The Chained Coffin that I *really* came to appreciate what was going on in the series in terms of storytelling. It's marvelous.