Published in March 2014 by Dark Horse (ISBN 978-1-61655-353-1, cover price 19.99£), this hardcover book with a red canvas spine (12 x 9 inches or 31 x 23 cm and 133 pages) is printed on thick glossy paper and fits rather well with the Hellboy Library Edition collection. The two pictures below are indeed here for size comparison with volume 6 of this collection.
250 copies have been sold through UK Forbidden Planet libraries with a signed and numbered A5 miniprint. Mine is #221.
The book, designed by Mike Mignola and Cary Grazzini, opens with a three pages introduction written and illustrated by Peter De Sève. Then follows a one page foreword written by Mike Mignola where he explains that "this is not The art of Hellboy Volume 2" but "the idea [with this book] is to show the evolution of the whole Hellboy thing, from a single drawing of a big, shaggy monster to a whole bunch of different books about a whole bunch of different characters, all functioning in one world, one history, and telling (sort of) one big story".
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| illustration by Peter de Sève |
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| the first Hellboy drawing |
This book is a collection of mainly virgin front covers from the Mignolaverse, original line art and sketches, as well as very few watercolor painting. Most illustrations have probably been published elsewhere but if there are some die hard completists who read my blog, they will be happy to know that this book finishes with a detailed index!
And the best thing for last, the indispensable index:
