Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with 75 years of superhero comics behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite characters in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know!

With Halloween rapidly approaching, we are continuing our exploration of comics' spookier side, and this week we're taking a look at the world's greatest paranormal investigator, Mike Mignola's Hellboy! Find out which real life human served as the inspiration for the big red monster-punching muppet, what other hero starred in the secret proto-Hellboy story, and how a simple one-off goof sketch grew into an internationally known franchise.

Show notes:

Yep! You are right. Hellboy's father is named Azzael, not Azazel. A typo occurred. I hope you will be gracious about it.

Real talk here for a second: Hellboy is basically the best comic there is. If you don't know, here are ten reasons why.

If you want to jump in on the best comic series basically ever, you should start here.

Or! If you want to skip to the first all-Mignola story to get a better feel for what the rest of the series will be like, start here, and then go back to that other one.

Or better yet, just get this badass hardcover with both stories in it.

That one Batman story is here.

Watch more installments of You Think You Know Comics? below and let us know what comic book characters we should cover next.