Sunny Annotations

I’ve just finished a month long read (well, mostly re-read) of all of the comics in the Hellboy Universe. I read them chronologically in the order they happened in the world of Hellboy, which made for an interesting shift in change and style throughout, as modern comics caught up with older ones and mixed and mingled until continuing pretty linearly at the end. 

It started with Witchfinder in the 1880s and Lobster Johnson in the 1930s, then followed Young Hellboy and Trevor Bruttenholm in the late 40s, then Hellboy and the BPRD covered the 50s. Once you get into the mid 50s and 60s, you start getting a lot of the classic Hellboy short stories, including several set during his “drunken haze” down in Mexico. These continue until the 80s, where we get some more Abe Sapien focused adventures, and then finally get to the Hellboy comics that started it all in the 90s. From there, we get some fine Hellboy adventures with and without the BPRD, which splits off into its own comic after Hellboy leaves. BPRD is the mainstay all the way until the end in the late 2010s, with a brief stop over with Hellboy in Hell. 

I read most of these in omnibus form thanks to Hoopla. A quick look at a list says that’s about 88 trades, which at about 5 issues per book is 440 issues, or 8,800 pages. Whoof! So much reading! What’s my take away? I liked a lot of it a lot! 

Mike Mignola’s art is terrific, and only gets better as he goes on, getting more refined, simple, and solid. Tied with him for my favorite art is Tonci Zonjic on Lobster Johnson, who’s creamy dark shapes make me think of Alex Toth. Peter Snejbjerg and Ryan Sook are always a treat, and I really grew to appreciate Richard Corben this time around. BPRD is a fun team book, though at the end of it, I feel like some characters, like Panya, were just kind of, around, not really developing their own story lines as much as they could have. The late-stage Abe Sapien books were a struggle to get through; I don’t care about small town struggles or end-of-days cults when there are cool exciting monster stories happening. Not to mention, Abe’s denying-his-foretold-future is the same as Hellboy, which we’ve already had plenty of. 

A lot of classic Hellboy is Hellboy walking around while an old poem or scripture reads out, presumably on theme and to slow down the viewers eye, but I just can’t bring myself to try and connect them with the visuals I’m seeing. It’s just too engaging to look at. There’s also always several pages in the later-stage Hellboy stories that recap what happened in the previous story, which makes sense when the series are coming out years apart, but when read close together in an omnibus, feels like retreading. Also Hellboy is always confused about what’s happening to him so his commentary on those events doesn’t add much... though I suppose it does spell it out in a simple way, because we as the reader also usually don’t know what’s happening. But gosh is it nice to look at. 

“Why do girls always cry?” “’Cause almost nothin’ can beat a girl’s tears.”

With this chapter it is confirmed that each chapter is missing one page somewhere in the beginning, with the first page, 85, being only the 83 page of the digital collection. I’ll go ahead and use the page numbers as marked, as opposed to what page it is in the collection.  

PG 83/84 - A great one-two of Megumu being blasted by a gust of wind.

PG 85 - It’s a Star Kids meeting with everyone in attendance. I don’t think we’ve had everyone in one shot before so let’s do a roll call for fun! On one side we have Mr. Adachi, Kenji, Junsuke, Shosuke, Haruo, Sei, Tsutomu, and Taro, with the House Master in the background. On the other side, we have the Twins, Miss Mitsuko, Asako, Megumu, and Kiko holding Chiaki. At the front of the table sits Koji, with Blackie the cat. Curious that it seems to be split by gender, but Koji seems to be more on the girl’s side. Nothin’ wrong with that, though!  If memory serves, the Twins, Tsutomu, and Koji never get any character backstory filled in. I’m not even certain those are their names; I’m just relying on old notes! Guess we’ll find it, eh wot! 

PG 86 - Megumu has accused someone of not flushing their number two, and Junsuke is blamed. I like his reaction in the first panel with “SHOCK” appearing in white, contrasting with his hair. The panels are cluttered and stuffed with faces; there’s so many people there! 

PG 87/88 - Haruo shifts the blame to Megumi herself; I love the narrow panel of Kenji sighing. I love panels when someone is just taking a breath. 

PG 89 - The meeting is adjourned and people take their leave. I love the HMPH face of Junsuke and the quiet expression of enjoyment on the House Master. And we’re treated with a Koi button panel! 

PG 90 - Here’s the song Haruo is singing: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvhv2ejCxM0

PG 91/92 - Haruo sees Megumu with some friends from outside of Star Home and tries to use telepathy to get her to look at him... and it works! Surely it is just a coincidence...

PG 93 - Junsuke is learning to ride a bike and Koji wears an amazing shirt that just says “Hand Quilting” 

Kiko is acting out some quite frankly disturbing roleplay with her dolls in the Sunny, involving Kenji’s porno mags, but Haruo catches her so she stops. As Junsuke succeeds and then fails at bike riding, Kiko reveals to Haruo that Megumu likes someone in Star Home, and she herself is in love with Haruo! 

PG 101 - Haruo is saved from the situation by an errand to pick up some soy sauce. As he heads back home upon completion of said errand he comes across Megumu watching a dead cat float in the river. She fears for her future when she ends up just like the cat does, and wants to give it a funeral. I wonder if she was put into this mood by her supposed “outside” friends, or these thoughts just naturally occurred, as they do. 

PG 109 - As they head back, Haruo asks Megumu about her Star Home crush, and she reveals it’s Kenji. Ah, young romance!