FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

Cover Image HELLBOY ANIMATED: The Judgment Bell

by Jim Pascoe and Rick Lacy

(Dark Horse Comics)

Reader Appeal: Teens

Genre: Graphic Novel / Gothic Superhero

I’ll admit it: I like Hellboy.

There’s something about the gothic comic genre (like Hellboy, and Spawn) that I find attractive and interesting, more so than the traditional superhero and mutant comics. Spawn tends to be a bit too dark and weird for my taste. But Hellboy, despite looking like a demon, is actually a pretty nice guy. So nice, in fact, that they adapted his story into a series of animated TV movies—and then into a series of animated-style graphic novels. And so we have Hellboy Animated, a kid-friendly, gothic comic.

In case you don’t know, Hellboy is a paranormal investigator and spends his time hanging out with a group of others misfits (a fish man, a homunculus, and a pyrokinetic girl) defending the world from otherworldly menaces. This time around, he’s trying to help a father find his daughter, who recently disappeared in the vicinity of a haunted castle. Inside the castle, Hellboy finds a whole dungeon full of kidnapped children who are being sent, one by one, to try to recover something called the Judgment Bell from a monster living in the castle. It’s up to him to rescue the children, defeat the monster, and figure out just who it is that has been trying to get hold of the bell - and why.

I can’t honestly say that I was thrilled by the plot of this comic. It had good ideas, it had some neat characters and an interesting history, but none of it really came together for me. Everything went by pretty quickly, and the cuts back and forth between characters - and back and forth in time - fragmented the story too much for it to hold together. Hellboy talked and acted like Hellboy should - brute strength and casual dry wit - which was probably the highlight of this story. But overall it lacked depth and felt rushed. You won’t get a lot of deep meaning out of this comic, as a result. There are some vague messages about not trying to seek power man was never meant to have, but nothing too developed.

As for the “animated” style of the art, I came into this with a pretty open mind. I don’t expect everything to look dark and realistic. I’m a fan of the vaguely Japanese style of other animated adventures, like Teen Titans. But this just didn’t work for me. The panels seemed cramped, the characters lacking in essential detail (what happened to Hellboy’s face?). Combining this more kid-friendly style of drawing (and simplistic execution) with the dark subject matter just looked plain weird, in my opinion.

This weirdness extends to the plot, too. In keeping with the “animated” style, the plot was simple, quick, action-oriented, a little more Saturday morning-ish. The problem is, the subject matter is dark. The kidnapped kids are being killed, there are macabre monsters and a demon who gets his heart torn out. There’s a villain who is perpetually on fire and floating statue heads with killer tongues…Somehow all that just doesn’t fit with the Saturday morning visual vibe. Despite the way it looks, the cute expressions, the fairly G-rated and cheeky dialogue, this just isn’t kid-friendly material. And those same elements will probably keep any teens from really enjoying it as well.

Parents especially should be careful not to be misled by the fun cartoon style of this graphic novel. There are numerous (if lightly portrayed) disturbing and controversial elements, such as pacts with demons, communication with the dead, gruesome death, and so on.

All in all, this wasn’t one of the best graphic novels I’ve read. The art was sub-par, the style seemed wrong for the material, and most of the story’s potential was wasted. It might have made a decent animated TV movie, but I can’t honestly recommend it on any grounds in its current state.

FAMILYFANS RATING: C-

AFTER THE STORY

If your family members are interested in this book, then encourage discussion about it afterward. You can use these questions to get started:

• Was John right to blame Trevor for what happened to him? Why?

• Power and immortality turned out not to be so great for John. Why not?

• Do you think there any analogy or broader message you think the author was trying to convey with this?

--MV

Note: All book or comics-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective publisher.