Patric Reynolds takes a quick break from “Joe Golem” to illustrate this moody little tale.
Written by Mike Mignola and Chris RobersonCover by Mike Huddleston
Illustrated by Patric Reynolds
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Clem RobinsAn unusual ghost hunt leads Hellboy to a spectral monkey with a message for a grieving family.
I think it’s pretty fair to say Patric Reynolds is a perfect match for this story. I don’t know if it was written specifically for him or not, but he really makes it work. This is a much quieter Hellboy story than last month’s bombastic issue. The whole thing is restrained to a single domestic environment and Reynolds is likewise restrained. He opts for simplicity, focusing on establishing the space and characters in the early pages, and as a result, Hellboy really pops out. He doesn’t look right in a domestic environment.
Reynolds’s art leans more towards realism than many artists that work on Mignola’s work, and in a story like this I’d think those other artists would be working with a disadvantage. This story demands a strong contrast between the domestic and the unreal, and Reynolds delivers in spades.
His character work also shines in this issue. In particular, the way he sets up the living room and its relationship to the kitchen made it effortless to read where each character was looking and track their eyelines. It wasn’t until a second read that I realized there are five characters in that opening scene, which shows all 360 degrees of the living room by the end of the sequence (skillfully breaking the 180° rule). This is certainly helped by Dave Stewart, who uses a wooden feature wall in the living room and cream tiles of the kitchen as orientation devices, but it’s all there in Reynolds’s pages.
And I have to point this stuff out, because without it, all the stuff he does with the characters’ eyelines wouldn’t have worked. Instead it works so well it’s invisible—the scene flows naturally from start to finish. Throughout the issue, I frequently found the characters that weren’t talking were the ones that were the most interesting to watch. Reynolds put a lot of thought into having each character react to what is being said, and to have each react in different ways. Margaret Koestler especially had some really nice stuff showing a particular kind of exhaustion and many different shades of concerned.
Right, I’m launching into spoilers. You have been warned.
I’m glad to have Susan back in the fold for this issue. She’s gradually become my favorite character in these 1950s stories, and it’s her that does most of the work this issue. Let’s face it, Hellboy can be a bit lazy at times. Although, it was nice to see yet again that Hellboy’s great with kids. He may look unusual, but kids always seem to warm up to him right away. It’s funny how this big red guy can set a kid at ease.
Circling back to Reynolds’s art, I loved when he finally got to cut loose. Susan’s vision was only a single page, but he clearly had fun with it, and when Diogenes the monkey goes on his rampage, it’s cool to see how Reynolds pushes his panel compositions and really starts pushing the black. This stuff is the highlight of the issue.
This maybe a one-shot, but it doesn’t feel like the end of this story really. It very well could be, of course, but I think one thing that’s becoming clearer and clearer as “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” progresses is that Chris Roberson doesn’t have any true stand alone stories. Each one puts a piece on the table for something bigger. This one forwards Dr. Sandhu’s role as a parapsychologist. Considering that by the 1990s the Bureau has an entire department of psychics (led by Dr. Izar Hoffman), it’s easy to imagine how influential both Sandhu and Susan Xiang will be in future. It’s also not hard to imagine that children like Victor Koestler could find themselves as agents of the B.P.R.D. some day.
Or maybe not. Either way, it gives a sense of how the Bureau is growing.
Continued belowEnd of spoilers.
Roberson and Reynolds make a good team. I’ve no idea what things were like behind the scenes, but there’s a sense that they both understood each other and so this story ends up being a very smooth read. This isn’t a big, earth-shattering story; it’s a small story about a family and a monkey, simply told and masterful in its execution.
Final verdict: 8. While I’m waiting impatiently waiting for the next arc of “Joe Golem,” I’m very glad Reynolds was able to take the time to do this. His work truly elevated the issue for me. Hopefully we’ll see Reynolds and Roberson work together again before too long.
