SOURCE: Cwiklik, Gregory. “Paranormal Popularity.” Comics Journal, no. 214 (July 1999): 34-6.

In the following review, Cwiklik traces the development of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series, praising the “wit” and “intelligence” of Mignola's story arcs and noting the influence of previous artists on Mignola's work.

It's hard not to like Hellboy. First created by Mike Mignola in 1993, Hellboy is a supernaturally-spawned investigator of the paranormal and star of a series of short stories and graphic novels which have now been collected into several full-color books by Dark Horse. Hellboy may be popular entertainment, but it is popular entertainment done with wit, intelligence, and a sense of visual style.

Jules Feiffer has written (in The Great Comic Book Heroes) that comic books are “junk.” Of course this was several years before Zap! and the whole underground comics scene, but in any case, the term is used with affection as much as dismissal...