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In 1939, young Professor Bruttenholm destroyed Erzsebet Ondrushko, a female vampire who bathed in the blood of innocents to stay young. Now someone in upstate New York is trying to bring her back, and the elderly Professor Broom has decided to investigate it himself. He takes the top BPRD agents, Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien, who are more worried about his welfare than the return of any vampire. Their tune changes when they face a horde of ghosts, a phantom wolf pack, witches, harpies, a giant werewolf and Erzsebet herself. Hellboy ends up battling the Queen of Witches, the goddess Hecate, who wants him to embrace his true destiny, a destiny that includes the destruction of mankind.
AMAZON.COM
In some ways, Blood and Iron captures more of graphic novelist Mike Mignolas original vision than Guillermo del Toros lackluster feature did in 2004. Hellboy, the demon brought into this world by the Nazis, but raised by "Professor Broom" to fight for good, was conceived as a drawing, not an actor buried under make-up and latex. The story, which incorporates elements from Mignolas "Wake the Devil" collection, sends Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Prof. Broom to the haunted mansion of a vulgar millionaire. Hoping to cash in on the supernatural angle, hes filled the house with relics of "Blood Countess" Erzsebet Ondrusko (based on the 16th century Hungarian noblewoman Elizebeth Bathory) , whom Prof. Broom defeated in 1939. Its really haunted, and the gang tackles harpies, ghosts, witches, werewolves, vampires, and the goddess Hecate. The key actors from the live action film repeat their roles as voices: Ron Perlman (Hellboy) , Selma Blair (Liz) , Doug Jones (Abe) , and John Hurt (Broom) . Perlman makes a suitably underplayed Hellboy, growling his annoyance at everything from a bad donut to a vicious blow from the iron-clad goddess. The limits of the animation would be less problematic if the direction were more dynamic. Tad Stones and Victor Cook dont get the needed power out of the action sequences, especially the prolonged battle between Hellboy and Hecate. It would be interesting to see what a talented director like Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Ruruoni Kenshin) or Hiroyuki Okiura (Jin-Roh) would do with this material. Blood and Iron will appeal to some "Hellboy" fans, but it lacks the dark panache of the original books. (Unrated, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, grotesque imagery, potentially offensive religious imagery) --Charles Solomon
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About the Author
Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered. In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like and . By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like (1988) and (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film for Topps Comics. In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created , a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 graphic novel collections (with more on the way) , several spin-off titles ( and ) , three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries. Mike also created the award-winning comic book and has co-written two novels ( and ) with best-selling author Christopher Golden. Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film (1992) , was a production designer on the Disney film (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on (2004) and (2008) . He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.
