Saturday 1 February 2014

Hellboy: The Midnight Circus Review

Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Duncan Fegredo

What kind of mischief will a young Hellboy get up to when he runs away to the circus? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dark Horse:

Young Hellboy runs away from the B.P.R.D. only to stumble upon a weird and fantastical circus and the few demons from Hell who inhabit it.

Being a huge Hellboy fan having read most of his solo appearances it puzzles me that it has taken this long to make a story featuring a younger Hellboy. I has however finally come and although I am happy I wasn't too sure just how much I liked it.

Mike Mignola as usual does a great job of adding mystery and suspense to his Hellboy stories. I personally however wasn't as happy with this story as I hoped I would be, as despite it being very fun and having some brilliant developments, it just felt too quick paced, having a rather brief time span. In saying that Mignola does utilise the circus setting perfectly, allowing the young Hellboy to have some fun. It was however the supernatural twist to the circus that interested me the most, with Hellboy's reaction to the wacky events being nothing short of amazing.

The artwork in this OGN would be from Dugan Fegredo who's worked on quite a few Hellboy stories over the years. Now I personally don't feel there's a better artist for Hellboy than Mignola himself, but if I had to pick the next best it'd probably be Fegredo. His style is very similar to Mignola's, being very gritty and impact. Fegredo also adds a lot of charm and emotion through the character expressions, with the odd mischievous look on Hellboy's face being simply wonderful. I was however in two minds about Dave Stewart's colours, as despite the duel tone adding a unique flare, I would have probably preferred just the one style of colours. In saying that both sets of colours were spectacular and made Fegredo's art even more beautiful.

Hellboy: The Midnight Circus is a fun and enjoyable read, but it is at the same time very quick paced, not taking very long to read. I do however still recommend this OGN and especially to Hellboy fans, but to non-fans you may want to try one of the other Hellboy stories first.

Rating: 8/10

No comments:

Post a Comment