Hey, horror fans! Today’s the premiere of Hellboy, a reboot of the film franchise started by Academy Award–winning director Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water) and lead actor Ron Perlman, based on the comic book character created by writer/artist Mike Mignola (Rocket Raccoon, Incredible Hulk, Cosmic Odyssey). Together, they brought us 2004’s Hellboy, 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and two Hellboy Animated specials for Starz: Sword of Storms (2006) and Blood & Iron (2007). Unfortunately, a deal could never be worked out with Universal Pictures—and Del Toro’s schedule of numerous film commitments—for a Hellboy III, which would have wrapped up the planned trilogy.
But now Hellboy and his friends in the BPRD (the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) are back, courtesy of director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) and new star David Harbour (Stranger Things, Suicide Squad). According to IMDb, in this R-rated reboot, “Hellboy comes to England, where he must defeat Merlin’s consort, Nimue the Blood Queen. But their battle will bring about the end of the world, a fate he desperately tries to turn away.” Considering the fact that Nimue is played by alien ass-kicker and zombie hunter Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, the Resident Evil series), Hellboy’s gonna have to put in some overtime if he wants to defeat her.
But while we’re on the subject of Hellboy and his creator, were you aware that artist Mike Mignola once drew our resident soul-stealing succubus, Lorelei? Yes, way back in the early 1990s I was able to commission that convention sketch of Lori you see up top from Mignola, who was riding high on the universally positive response his work had gotten on projects like DC Comics’ Cosmic Odyssey and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. Pretty sweet, huh?
There are more Visions of Lorelei to come. Who’s next? Keep an eye on the blog this year to find out!
