The darkest and most satisfying cup of coffee you'll ever have.



Writers: John Arcudi, Mike Mignola

Artist: Tyler Crook

Colorist: Dave Stewart

Publisher: Dark Horse



This book shook me.



Arcudi, Mignola and Crook have penned in this single, standalone issue a harrowing, dark and powerful meditation about living on top of the ashes of a world burnt down. Hell on earth.



Aaron, a man living in the remnents of his town beseiged by monsters and growths of a "The Last of Us" variety acts as a kind of "everyman" narrator in this hell on earth. He goes to work every day at the local coffee shop because as he says, ultimately "people still need their coffee". He lives a life of fear and compromise, desperately trying to convince himself that everything is okay when in reality hell is literally on his doorstep. He's no different than you or I really, looking for a way to make sense of the discordance of life and death. Finally, hope when the BPRD helmed by Johann and Liz arrive. A hope that is rotted away of course because this is Mignola. But, a hope that is rotted away in a beautiful, poetic and morose way.



Arcudi and Mignola are less writers here and more composers, playing a beautiful piece on a broken organ. Each note sickeningly sweet, so close to normallacy but tainted by the out-of-tune realities of the BPRD world, something lurking just beneath the beauty of even one day in the sun. Aaron, a normal man, is juxtaposed against the "heroes" of the BPRD in a way that flawlessly demonstrates that even people of skill and action are no different than us when a soldier comments that he's happy to hear Johann say that he "even thinks there will be a tomorrow" when Johann sets a coffee date with Aaron for the next morning. The whole comic, even in it's victories, feels like a massage parlor where something is off, the fake music of serenity lilting over you as you look at the pained expressions of people interacting in an almost robotic and impersonal way the same way Aaron and the guard interact. Arcudi and Mignola have captured that feeling that's often so hard to describe, a terrifying lightness in your stomach right before the elevator drops off its cabels and smashes into the ground. It's brilliant, somber storywriting that is rarely done this well.



Crook's drawings and Stewart's colors bring that broken world to life. I will admit that I thought it was impossible to make such a seemingly lifeless and emotionless world feel this organic and natural. I will admit, too, that I was proved wrong. It's not just the design of the world and the monsters, which is amazing enough in its own regard, it's also the uneasiness that the tone of the pages so perfectly captures. Crook and Stewart truly do deliever on the "Hell On Earth" title. It feels not only like Hell but also, like our very own Earth.



This book serves as a reminder that real, normal people exist in the BPRD/Hellboy world. It also serves as a reminder that even the BPRD is only seperated from those real people by their uniforms. Most importantly, though, it serves as a reminder that we ourselves could very easily be those real people if our world was turned upside down and then burnt to ashes like this. Buy this, breathe it in, confront the feelings of horror and terror you experience in your everyday life and then realize that it could be so much worse, it's both cathartic and awakening in the best ways.









