Get ready to become a member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) and begin investigating occult perils that threaten the world’s very existence. Your team will explore gothic locations, hunt clues, discover artifacts, and face off against terrifying foes.

The Hellboy universe is vast. Absolutely vast. It spans, well, a whole universe. From the icy depths of dimensionless space where the ancient elder beings, the Ogdru Jahad, wait eager to return, to the wintry tracts of a Russia preserved in Baba Yaga’s dream. It contains an entirely new and secret history of the world, preserved in a lost language. It’s a universe filled with magic, with arcane science, with Nazis who need punching, and with characters who are always that little bit more than you expect them to be. It’s a universe of stories. And with this RPG, you get to tell your own.

Hellboy: Oddest Jobs is an anthology edited by Christopher Golden and illustrated by Mike Mignola. The collection isn’t like other anthologies, for this one steers toward the category of “collectible.” You want this anthology to sit on your self to show-off to your friends.

As a collector of all things Hellboy myself, I picked up this anthology for two reasons: one, it was Hellboy and two, I knew that Christopher Golden’s involvement would ensure that the stories would have a certain quality to them.

I wasn’t disappointed. Although I didn’t like each and every story in the collection, there’s a broad range of tales and storytelling styles from authors I’ve read and authors I haven’t. Each plot stands on its own, however, and offers something new for fans of this franchise. I really appreciated A Room of One’s Own by China Mieville and Jiving with Shadows and Dragons and Long, Black Trains by Joe R. Lansdale.

“A horrible witch and her zombie servant host a dinner party for a family of corpses, and Hellboy and Roger turn up to blast them all back to hell in this team-up story from Roger’s early days at the B.P.R.D.”

This is Richard Corben? Really? Wow so different from what I am used to, yet I still love it. This book has the typical Hellboy visuals done right. Mostly I base that on the flat color style. The action scenes were a lot of fun here and the character designs stayed solid all the way through. Overall a great looking Hellboy comic.

Lobster Johnson is a character from the Hellboy mythos. He is a crime fighter and masked vigilante with a team of loyal sidekicks? assistants? that help him take out mobsters, villains and other assorted scum. The Satan Factory is a pulp novel about The Lobster’s battle against a failed mob doctor named Jonas Chapel who stumbled into some very dark magic.

I enjoyed all of the appearances of Lobster Johnson in the Hellboy comics I’ve come across, so I was especially pleased to see this novel on the shelf at the store and scooped it up right away. I was wondering how well the character would translate from comic to fiction, and I wasn’t sure if the character could carry a book by himself (with no Hellboy trash talking in the pages). My concern was not needed, Sniegoski delivered a great story with some great characters.

We are back from C2E2, held in Chicago’s gorgeous McCormick Center, and we have quite a bit we’d like to share with you. In this post, we’ll highlight a few dark fantasy, science fiction and horror comics and relay news about publishers.

Several publishers, including Zenoscope Entertainment, were offering a title or two set in their version of Wonderland. Zenoscope, who will also be producing the CHARMED comic, specializes in dark fantasy comics as seen through their GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES line. So if you like Alice, you may want to check out their series of different WONDERLAND comics.

FlamesRising.com is pleased to present an interview with author Thomas Sniegoski. Tom is a veteran author who has written for dozens of comics titles (BONE, THE SISTERHOOD), media tie-in novels (HELLBOY, ANGEL) and his original fiction (The Remy Chandler Series). Fans of Christopher Golden might recognize Tom’s work; the two have collaborated on a number of projects. Our first Girls of Gore article highlighted their character named Eve from The Menagerie.

In this interview, Tom Sniegoski discusses what he enjoys writing, monkeys and some of the challenges he faces.

Why did I read this book? Because (1) I was fortunate enough to acquire an advanced copy, (2) it’s about vampires, and (3) one of the authors is Guillermo. Del Toro! That’s right, the acclaimed and quixotic director of movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy 2, The Orphanage…and in a few years the much-anticipated The Hobbit.

Here’s the thing. The Strain is a vampire book, and with that comes certain assumptions; I was initially dismayed by this fact, because while I love vampires I’m not always happy with the way they’re portrayed. In fact, I wish the back cover copy of this book didn’t come right out and mention vampires precisely because it doesn’t feel like a vampire story most of the time and it would have been a nice surprise once I’d realized it. But I wasn’t disappointed. Del Toro and Hogan have changed the rules. This isn’t some lovey-dovey Twilight-like story with brooding, romantic vampires. And it’s nothing like Anne Rice’s Chronicles, either, which feature beautiful immortals with pearlescent skin and eternal youth. No way. I don’t want to give too much away, but the creatures introduced in this book are an inventive mixture of some of the more horrifying aspects of the genre.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of the Hellboy franchise, so when I found out that Doug Jones (Abe Sapien) was acting in a new series called Angel Of Death, I was pretty excited about it. Then I found out that the series is not your full-length, standard fare — they’re webisodes offered for free on www.crackle.com, a venture by entertainment giant Sony.

Created by comic industry veteran Ed Brubaker, Angel Of Death is a series starring Zoe Bell. Zoe plays a character named “Eve,” a brutal assassin who starts off the series with very little humanity. The first episode introduces us to her deadly world — a world so messed up that she accidentally kills a little girl. The series explores Zoe’s character in full detail, to explore whether or not she’s truly an assassin without a conscious. Instead of following orders from her boss “aka lover” Graham, she’s gone renegade to do the bidding of a very unhappy ghost. Does her victim haunt her? Or did the knife that was stuck in Zoe’s brain have some kind of an effect on her?

I was excited to receive my review copy of this corebook. There are genres that I enjoy and there are genres that I love. Preventing Apocalypses falls into the latter category. In fact, I hoped it could provide the mechanics for a two-year old campaign I have been running.

The idea of agencies combating the supernatural, while not original, remains a wide open field. There are several facets of the genre that can be explored, be it comedy, splatterpunk, or Lovecraftian horror. The game’s subtitle–An Action, Horror RPG . . . with a twist of Humor–relates the focus of API. This is a lighter look at the supernatural, something along the lines of Hellboy.

Review by Todd Cash

Flames Rising is proud to bring you an exclusive interview with Tad Stones, a veteran in the animation industry and long-time Hellboy fan. Tad worked as a producer and as a writer on the popular Animated Hellboy series; breathing life into “Big Red” on the small screen.

In this interview, Tad talks to us about his experiences working on the Animated Hellboy films Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron, how he met Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and a few, other surprises.

Interview by Monica Valentinelli

As a fan of Big Red, I was eagerly anticipating seeing this sequel to Hellboy after watching the Hellboy and the Golden Army trailer and hearing about Guillermo del Toro’s involvement with the film. Impressed with del Toro’s work on Pan’s Labyrinth and Christopher Golden‘s novelization of Hellboy with artist Mike Mignola, I went into the movie with certain expectations.

Like other films and content within the Hellboy franchise–you do not need to be familiar with the characters or the setting to watch this film.

Sideshow is proud to bring you this 1:4 scale prop replica of ‘The Samaritan,’ Hellboy‘s famous pistol used in the film Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The display stand features an engraved B.P.R.D logo and four bullet display spaces. The round red portion of the base can be detached, and features a magnet imbedded on […]

This week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews list is going to be a little different…

We talk about a lot of great Horror & Dark Fantasy books, games and other entertainment on Flames Rising and often have suggestions of where to get these great items. This week we’re going to take a look at a few of these online stores and hit the highlights of what makes each of them work for fans of horror…

Yahoo Movies just posted a brand new trailer for Hellboy II: The Golden Army! After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an […]

Starring the voices of Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones and John Hurt

What do vampires, an ancient goddess and Hellboy have in common? In this animated feature film, Hellboy and all his friends take on myth in his signature, sardonic style. True to the mythos, there is a touch of good versus evil mixed in with some savvy backstory and character development.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

The animated Doctor Strange movie was a lot of fun and I’m hoping Marvel makes more of the same kind of feature. The live-action films based on Marvel characters have been pretty hit-or-miss over the last several years… However, according to IGN, Del Toro Eyes Doctor Strange Hellboy helmer wants Gaiman to script. The buzz […]

One of the movies that I am really looking forward to checking out is Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

I’ve been following the press releases and trailers and rumors as I get the time. Guillermo del Toro and his team have not let me down yet. I’ve also re-watched Hellboy and Hellboy: Blood & Iron a couple of times just for fun.

Horror author Christopher Golden tells us about his many Buffy: the Vampire Slayer novels, his work on Hellboy and the upcoming Ghosts of Albion RPG from Eden Studios.

Imagine you are an FBI agent, called upon to take on a new task with a secret organization. You are not briefed on your assignment and have no idea what to expect. Entering the facility, you discover that you are assigned accompany the world’s most talented crime fighters, who just happen to be demons and creatures with incredible powers. Enter Hellboy: a demon raised by humans, set on the preservation of mankind — his way! Hellboy incorporates demons/fantastic creatures, arch-villains, and non-stop action that is both unique and traditional.