NOTE: I am currently reading the Hellboy series if any other comic or publisher or Dark Horse themselves might have something.
Planetary from Wildstorm/DC.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_(comics)
There are a number of B.P.R.D. knockoffs, but I think the best one is Perhapanauts. Nevermen is good too!
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/40-369/The-Nevermen-TPB
Global Frequency:
Planetary ❤
If you dig Planetary, pick up the new “Outsiders” book from D.C. It’s a direct sequel.
Thanks! Didn’t know about it. 🍺
Sin City?
Maybe, that is Dark Horse.
I’m not too familiar with Hellboy so it’s hard for me to compare carefully. I’d say Sin City is stylistic, violent, puppy noir that is dark and good. If that sound interesting?
Maybe. I gotta respect Frank Miller.
I read The Dark Knight Returns.
- pulpy
Although I haven’t read Hellboy yet, I doubt it has much in common with Sin City.
Assuming you’ve worked through Mignola’s other comics, BPRD, Joe Golem, Witchfinder, Lobster Johnson, Amazing Screw-on Head, etc:
Hellblazer - classic occult detective comics
Damn Them All - like a female John Constantine
Caballistics Inc - team who investigate supernatural mysteries, Mignola-esque art
Absalom - actual police detective who investigates demons over-stepping the agreed upon line. Same other as the above and Mignola adjacent art
Necronauts - same author again, about a team of real-life figures drawn together to investigate Lovecraftian cults
Charles Fort, Prophet of the Unknown - similar concept (with Fort and Lovecraft as characters) and the same artist
Devlin Waugh - camp, vampire occult detective in the Judge Dredd universe. The first volume has a number of shorter stories that get you into the fictional setting then the big story drops in the second volume
MI-13 are the group investigating British weirdness in the Marvel Universe - see Paul Cornell’s Wisdom (if nothing else) and Captain Britain & MI-13
Some iterations of the Howling Commandos do something similar - Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos and Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Later series of Marvel Zombies (3 onwards) have a team that works to stop the zombie menace
You’ll find similar teams at DC bringing together magical superheros and monsters - Shadowpact and, more recently, Justice League Dark. Creature Commandos previously did something similar and looks to be leaning into this under James Gunn.
While we are looking at DC, Sandman is always a solid recommendation. As might be other Gaiman series - the Dead Boy Detectives, The Trenchcoat Brigade, The Books of Magick.
The Doom That Came to Gotham - Mignola’s Elseworld mix of Batman and Lovecraft. See also: Gotham by Gaslight
The DC Universe by Mike Mignola - collects various DC outings, especially his run on Superman
Cosmic Odyssey - Jim Starlin trying to do Cosmic stories, similar to his Marvel ones, with Mignola on art duties
Those are some very good recommendations…
Happy it helps - I’m a big Hellboy (and occult detective, in general) fan, so am always on the lookout for other things that would scratch that it itch and those are the ones that came immediately to mind. It’s a lot so have a read around and see what sounds good. If I had to grab a couple of books off the shelf to get you started then I’d go The Doom That Came to Gotham (recently got a nice trade I believe) and either Hellblazer or Necronauts.
Worth noting a number are from 2000AD, so you’d largely get trade paperbacks collecting the original anthologised stories, but that might not be an issue coming from Hellboy where you really get a collection of shorter stories.
You could check out Mignola’s other works set in the Outerverse: Joe Golem and Baltimore.
Very true.
