Free Comic Book Day 2024:
Hellboy/Stranger Things
“The Fortune Teller”
Script: Mike Mignola
Art: Mark Laszlo
Colors: Dave Stewart
Lettering: Clem Robins
“Deliver Me From Evil”
Script: Derek Fridolfs
Art, colors, lettering: Jonathan Case
Cover: Mignola and Stewart
Published by: Dark Horse
Released: May 4, 2024
I enjoy Hellboy comics and keep meaning to read more. That and the agreeable price of free was more than enough reason for me to pick up Dark Horse's Free Comic Book Day offering this year. But it was the second feature that made this one of the first issues I read.
I've been hooked on “Stranger Things” since the beginning, giving it a try initially because I always thought “Stranger Things” would be a great title. But the Duffer Brothers actually did something with that idea (and much more), much like Steve Alten beat me to writing a horror novel about a megalodon shark by, you know, actually writing it.
Waiting for season five was always going to be a challenge, even without the added delay caused by Hollywood strikes. Before that, I'd rewatched the entire series with my oldest daughter, and now she's even more eager for the final installment than I am.
So I thought, hey, maybe this comic will give me just a taste of what could be coming.
Spoiler alert: It doesn't.
I've only read a handful of “Stranger Things” tie-in comics, none of which added a whole lot story-wise. One showed season one from Will's perspective in the Upside Down, which was OK but, to me, kind of takes some of the mystery out of it. Another showed Dustin and Suzie's experience at Camp Know Where, which was a decent story but didn't fit tonally. And even the better-than-I-expected crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles safely returned everyone to their status quo.
That's pretty much what you'd expect from tie-ins and crossovers for major properties. It's not like we're going to get a flash forward in which Steve and Dustin announce they're running for the White House, although I would be inclined to vote a Harrington-Henderson ticket.* The major developments will rightly come in the core material.
The story “Deliver Me From Evil” focuses on breakout season four character Argyle, showing him and Jonathan Byers on the job for Surfer Boy Pizza. Well, Argyle is on the job; Jonathan is getting stoned in the van.
Argyle regales Jonathan with tales of his brushes with the supernatural over the years, including encountering a chupacabra at his cousin's birthday party and the spirit La Llorona when sneaking out of class to make out with a girl. Each gives you the impression Argyle was using the seemingly tall tales to cover up his own mishaps, such as prematurely breaking into his cousin's pinata or sneaking out of class to make out with a girl.
The third, a vision of the serpentine deity Quetzalcoatl, even Argyle admits was almost certainly influenced by his favorite recreational drug.
No new ground is broken, but it's a fun story. Argyle's dialogue is spot-on, a nice bonus for people who want more Argyle. I did find him amusing, though I think perhaps we got just the right amount of Argyle in the show.
Back to the headliner, Hellboy, who has more in common with the X-Files than just investigating the strange and mysterious. X-Files episodes were often divided into one-offs and mythology-building stories, and that's how I tend to think of Hellboy stories. This one, though, qualifies as both.
Set in 1983 in Romania, we find Hellboy in Romania, investigating a 22-year-old bride-to-be found dead of natural causes – or they would have been if she was 100 years old.
Hellboy's investigation takes him to a fortune teller the victim visited the day before her body was found. The mystic's assistant says she's not in, but she appears from behind the curtain, very interested in the visitor.
Urresca freely admits she takes more than money from her clients – she also takes some time from their life, just off the end, where they won't miss it. In return for her honesty, she invites Hellboy to touch her crystal ball, and when he wisely declines, she lunges across the table at him and is overcome with visions of his past, present and future.
These visions provide a Cliff Notes version of the character's history, a lot of which was recognizable to even a casual reader like me. The knowledge and the energy she attempts to drain are too much for Urresca, who crumbles to dust. Her assistant, who confesses he isn't sure what she was and just found her under a house in Istanbul “a long time ago,” soon follows.
It's a quick, creepy story that serves up an atmospheric taste of what Hellboy comics are like. The flashes of his overall story, followed with a helpful and extensive list of related trades, make this an excellent gateway to Hellboy comics and a perfect example of what a Free Comic Book Day issue should offer.
* - Unless they're running against Mr. T and Amy Adams.**
** - Also my picks for the leads on a new season of “True Detective.”
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