CHICAGO, IL, APRIL 28–Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani have created quite a stir with their work on some of the most fun and ageless comics of all time. They won an Eisner for Tiny Titans, their treatment of DC Comics’ Teen Titans, and their recent Kickstarter campaign for their Aw Yeah Comics series surpassed its goal in record time.

Now, this dynamic duo takes on Dark Horse’s best-known character, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, in an all-new comics series, Itty Bitty Hellboy!

A ghost named Rasputin has been spotted. And Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are going to find out what’s he up to. Who is Hellboy, anyway? Why does he have such a big hand, and what is it used for? Who’s weirder, he or his friends? What is the B.P.R.D.? And what does chicken soup have to do with all of it? All this and more will be answered in the debut issue, where BIG things happen to Itty Bitty Hellboy!

“Itty Bitty HELLBOY! WOW! Such awesomeness! I haven’t screamed so much AW YEAH SHOUTOUTS in all my life! It is truly an honor to be the next creative team to add to the HELLBOY saga! I have been a fan of Mike Mignola since Hellboy’s early days at Dark Horse LEGENDS! It’s true. Can’t wait! Itty Bitty has never been so HUGE! AW YEAH HELLBOY!” said Art Baltazar, famous cartoonist.

“We get to work on HELLBOY? HELL YEAH!” exclaimed Franco Aureliani. “One of the most iconic characters in all of comics, and we get to bring our own style and story to it! Truly a dream come true! We’re big fans! Itty Bitty Hellboy is going to be a lot of fun . . . and we get to actually say HELL(BOY)!”

“Given the recent developments in Hellboy’s life—falling in love, discovering that he’s the rightful king of England, having his heart torn out and dropped into hell—this is clearly the next logical step in his evolution,” said Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

For more information, check out the exclusive interview with Art & Franco on Nerdist News!

Itty Bitty Hellboy #1 arrives on shelves at your local comic shop on August 28!

Agent Burgos, C2E2: HELLBOY GETS ITTY BITTY!

While talking with IGN, Ron Perlman is adamant that a third film be made. But before he says that, he discusses Del Toro’s original plans for the franchise, and how those plans have evolved over time.

“[Del Toro and I] both walked away from ‘Hellboy 2′ agreeing that there would never be another one,” he says. “But, with the passage of time, it became clear to me that he really always designed it as a trilogy. [Guillermo] has a very well-articulated idea of what the resolve would look like and it’s amazingly theatrical and is epic in scope and would make for amazing cinema, with or without the first two movies.”

I have no doubt that should Del Toro create a third Hellboy film that it would be an incredible piece of film. The first two films are quite often overlooked when it comes to great comic book movies, not to mention they both did pretty well at the box office, with Hellboy pulling in $99 million world wide in 2004 and Hellboy II: The Golden Army raking in $160 million in 2008. Perlman went on to say: “I said [to Guillermo], ‘You owe it to the world to finish this trilogy. I’ve been giving him Jewish guilt.”

I can’t help but agree, Mr. Del Toro! Hopefully the visionary director can find a way to make the film happen. Del Toro’s latest potential masterpiece comes in the form of giant Jaegers taking on the Kaiju in Pacific Rim. After that, the Del Toro heads back to the horror genre with his haunted house tale Crimson Peak with Charlie Hunnam, Emma Stone, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jessica Chastain.

Josh "ecksmanfan" Johnson, Ron Perlman Is Demanding Another Hellboy Movie From Guillermo Del Toro

There are a lot of comic book properties out there that fans would love to see adapted for the silver screen. There are also a few characters that have fans waiting anxiously for a second or third film. One of those is Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy films. The previous two films held their own at the box office, bringing in enough to warrent the continuation of the series, at least for two films. The last we heard on the project, Del Toro stated that money, as is usually the case, was the hold-up on a third film. He has ideas and a story pretty much ready to go, but the problem is that he’d need over twice as much money than Hellboy II: The Golden Army used to make the film he wants. Being that the second film barely made enough to cover its budget, the studio isn’t to keen on the idea of forking over that kind of dough, which is understandable.

While discussing the character with Comic Book Resources, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola had even more dire news for fans of the big red paranormal crime fighter. Mignola was asked about creating new stories and whether or not he’d be sending them out for solicits, and his answer gives the sad news about the potential third film, saying “The biggest problem I see as far as PR for the next billion years is explaining endlessly not only that there’s no ‘Hellboy 3′ movie, but it’s going to be explaining ‘It’s a series, but it’s not a monthly series.’”

In classic Del Toro tradition, he remains positive about the possibilties of a third film, but Mignola, who served as executive producer on the first two films, seems to be a bit more grounded. However, even if a third film was given the go-ahead, it’d be extrememly difficult for Del Toro to find the time to get the film made. He is currently finishing work on his robots vs aliens sci-fi flick Pacific Rim, and work on his next project Crimson Peak, a haunted house thriller starring Jeesica Chastain, Emma Stone, Benedict Cumberbatch and Charlie Hunnam, will begin next year. Del Toro may still have ties to a Marvel project as well as the Justice League Dark project for Warner Brothers.

As time goes on, it seems less and less likely that we’ll see a third film happen in this franchise, which is too bad. Hellboy seems to be a rather “under-the-radar” comic book movie franchise that deserves more credit than it recieves. What say you fans, are you still keeping the hope alive for a third film or is this the end of the road?

Josh "ecksmanfan" Johnson, Hellboy Creator Says “No Current Plans for Hellboy 3″

MILWAUKIE, OR–At this year’s International Toy Fair, Dark Horse revealed what is sure to be one of the year’s most-talked-about toy releases! Hong Kong’s innovative designer-toy company Toy2R will produce a new range of 5” vinyl figures in their popular “Mini-Qee” format, putting their unique design spin on Mike Mignola’s popular Hellboy character.

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy has emerged as one of the classic comic book characters of the modern day, spawning a successful series of graphic novels, motion pictures, animation, interactive games, and toy lines. Excitement around this character is at an all-time high, as Mignola takes him back to whence he came in the smash-hit series Hellboy in Hell, currently in its third issue.

Raymond Choy’s Toy2R is recognized as being among the first companies to explore the potential of the designer/art toy movement since their arrival in 1995. Choy managed to turn his passion for collectible toys into an internationally known company, which today continues to push the boundaries of product design, art, and graphics.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be involved in this program,” Dark Horse Product Development head David Scroggy said. “We have worked with Toy2R for many years, and to see their fun take on Hellboy is a thrill. These vinyl figures will be in very tight edition quantities, so we expect a quick sellout of most of the variants.”

Toy2R’s trademark Qee format gives Hellboy a new look, altering his appearance in several ways, all of which were personally approved by Mignola. The results have already gotten comics fans and toy collectors alike talking, after they were revealed on Tomopop last week. All three were on display at the Dark Horse exhibit booth at this year’s Toy Fair at the Jacob Javits Center.

Dark Horse Comics is the exclusive North American distributor of the Hellboy Mini-Qee line and will handle sales to the specialty market in Europe and other territories. Toy2R will be the exclusive sales entity to Asian territories.

Slated for release in July 2013, the figures will be produced in various limited edition sizes, all with a retail price of $19.99.

Agent Burgos, LIMITED EDITION HELLBOY MINI-QEE VINYL TOYS!

Speaking with Latino Review about Mama, Del Toro touched on horror films, reiterating Dark Universe is moving ahead, and that he hasn’t given up on Mountains of Madness. The director gave fans a lot to look forward to, but he also burst the Hellboy 3 bubble:

Well, a couple of weeks ago or months ago, I did make a couple of phone calls to test, to gage the possibility of doing that because it’s a big movie. There’s no takers for a movie of that size. The two movies made their money back and a little bit. They were financially good, but one was fifty and the other one was eighty, eighty five. This is a hundred and forty. So no one wants to do that leap, from the financial side. So unless we find a way to do the mother of all kick starters.

You can read the full Q&A by clicking here. So Hellboy 3 can’t find the financial backing. This puts the damper on the film for the forseeable future, if not forever. If Del Toro actually follows through on the Dark Universe movie it may ease the sting for some fans. What do you think Hellboy fans? Where you still holding out hope for a third movie?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Guillermo Del Toro Says Hellboy 3 Unlikely

NOVEMBER 21, MILWAUKIE, OR—Dark Horse has partnered with Spicy Horse Games, the creative force behind Alice: Madness Returns, Crazy Fairies, and American McGee’s Grimm, to add key Hellboy characters to Spicy Horse’s lineup of collectible fighting toys.

Last week’s update added Hellboy himself, as well as Liz, Abe, Johann, and Roger, to BigHead BASH’s collection of characters. Players can take the team into combat, waging head-expanding battle across a wacky selection of maps and arenas. Each character design was personally approved by creator Mike Mignola!

Players can purchase the new figures through the BigHead BASH shop, available within the game itself.

BigHead BASH is a real-time shooting game with wacky and collectible toy characters based on original and licensed IPs, including Andox and Box from China’s popular show Happy Camp, as well as political parodies of Ron Paul, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney.

For more information on BigHead BASH, visit http://www.bigheadbash.com.

For more information on Spicy Horse, visit http://www.spicyhorse.com.

Agent Burgos, THE B.P.R.D. COMES TO BIGHEAD BASH!

Yes, you will see them first, ONLY at Comic Book Therapy!

Check them out and tell us what you think!

B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH VOLUME 4: THE DEVILS’ ENGINE AND THE LONG DEATH TP

Mike Mignola (W/Cover), John Arcudi (W), James Harren (A), Tyler Crook (A), and Dave Stewart (C)

On sale Dec 5

FC, 176 pages

$19.99

TP, 7″ x 10″

Agent Johann, the ectoplasmic man, leads a special task force through the monster-filled Northwest woods in order to hunt down and kill the man he blames for leaving him a disembodied spirit. In the Southwest, agent Devon and the psychic crust punk Fenix form an uneasy alliance in order to escape a horde of giant bat-faced monsters.

This arc continues the series Comics Alliance calls “one of the best books on the stands.”

• It’s all going to Hell in 2012!

• Death of an agent!

“Crook’s art here brings the world of the B.P.R.D. to life in a manner that disarms you, making you feel like it’s sweet and innocent, only to sneak up on you.”—Comic Book Resources

Agent Burgos, Comic Book Therapy Exclusives: Darksiders II & BPRD

one of the covers to the series, The Strain

Dark Horse has turned out some of the best large press horror books this side of the Walking Dead, and we should all be greatful for it. That’s the great thing about the comic book industry, there is something for everyone. Young, mature, horror, super heroes, slice of life, western or sci fi, we can all find something we’ll enjoy. And I’ll be honest, with the exception of the Walking Dead and 30 Days of Night, I’m not terribly into horror comics. Even though I love horror movies, horror comics don’t tend to float my boat. And to be honest with all the crap vampire lore that’s floating around out there, you might see this title on the shelf and think it’s just another attempt at cashing in on the vogue that teenage girls seem to glom onto. Trust me, THIS IS ANYTHING BUT THAT! You’re not gonna see tweens wearing The Strain t-shirts or Hot Topic selling crappy merch from this series. This IS a thinking man’s vampire story. Why? Cause it’s anything but typical. From the way the creatures feed, to the massive gore factor and the possible government involvement with The Strain’s creation you’re getting Tom Clancy meets The Lost Boys amped up on steroids.

What did you learn?

How far would you go to cover up possibly the biggest biological outbreak in the modern history of the world? Well, currently in the pages of The Strain, the epidemic which is growing to pandemic preportions, even the mighty United States government might not be able to contain this. And for those of us who love zombie outbreak type scenarios, could not be happier.

The cover art is very compelling for The Strain

I’ll be honest, when I first cracked open my advance PDF copy of this book, I wasn’t jazzed about the artwork. I mean I was weened on gigantic muscles clad in spandex and capes and this whole sensational idea of what comic book art was supposed to be. I think a lot of us grew up with this inherent flaw. Super heroes are larger than life. And the artwork is supposed to reflect that. But horror comics are a totally different monster. And the artwork, needs to bring that same, raw and gritty look from the equally blood dripping words. So clean lines and bold, powerful and almost blinding colors wouldn’t fit. And after breezing through the first issue, I was hooked.
Not to be over praise worthy, I mean there are still some things to improve upon, but that’s what an epic is supposed to do. It grows, with every panel and every issue. You have to build slowly. Sure you need to pace yourself, but much like one of my favorite horror novels ever, Intensity by Dean Koontz, you have to give your audience something quick. Like a junkie, that first hit has to be hard and lasting, otherwise we’re not gonna bother to finish. The creative crew on The Strain give us that. Although not in the way you might expect from a horror comic. It’s not visual. You meet a few of the characters and you learn about them. Making them relatable and dynamic. You abduct us with identifying with your main characters and then you sledgehammer us over the head with something so horrific that we as the readers will never be the same.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Take that barbie!

And keeping with my current use of professional wrestling finishing maneuvers for grades, here comes another one. And it’s just as vicious as The Strain. It’ll have you grabbing your neck anc sympathizing with its victim. Whether you call her Victoria, Tara or Lisa Marie, you’re sucked into her web as one of her Widow’s Peak Freaks. And her Widow’s Peak, which is one part Gory Special, one part hangman’s neckbreaker and all devastation… Lisa Marie, Tara or whatever you wanna call her will leave you lying in the ring, just like The Strain, unconscious, totally spent and loving every minute of it.

John Chihak, The Hardcore Review: The Strain

“A family of superheroes with bizzare powers. The seven members of the Umbrella Academy have spent their childhoods fighting evil and perfecting their extraordinary gifts under the tutelage of their guardian and mentor, Dr.Reginald Hargreeves. In a story from the past, the UA’s team fights a mysterious assassin and learns a powerful lesson …”

Written by Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), with art from Gabriel Ba (Casanova) and Dave Stewart (Hellboy)

wolverinept, Dark Horse Motion Comics: The Umbrella Academy

First of all congratulations on issue one selling out that must have been so great to hear. How did you find out?

 Brandon: I checked my e-mail and the comic store I go to forwarded me a press release about it. That was the 4^th of July weekend, the Tuesday after.  The Skybound people had not been in the office and had not actually gotten around to email us and let us know. So I got this press release from skybound via my comic’s retailer, and he’s like “congratulations “and I said Oh! Cool! So I heard it on the internet.

I love the story you tell in Witch Doctor 0 about approaching Lukas to work on a comic. Did you have Witch Doctor in mind? Or was it just the opportunity to work with Lukas?

Brandon: I just wanted to do something. And I really wanted to work with him. We ended up throwing a bunch of ideas around and none of them really got a lot of traction except for Witch Doctor.

 The book really seems to be a combination of both of your efforts was it like that from the beginning?

Lukas: Yeah we showed up at our first meeting each with a stack of our favorite comics and kind of just went from there. Like how do we do this.Yeah I think he conceded a little bit more than I did…

 Brandon: Oh Yeah I totally did

 Lukas: cause he brought in Scott Pilgrim…

Brandon: Yeah I bought in Scott Pilgrim and King Cityand Sharknife. And he brought House of Mystery classic Black & White reprint, The Goon and Hellboy. And I was like OK let’s do that.

I read some where that it was also a web comic for a short time?

Brandon: the first thing that we self published was a 16 page book that was a different version to the Vampire story. And we did a short press run that we sold at conventions ,and we also put it up for free on the Internet and that got us a lot of exposure. That’s how Kirkman found us

Lukas: Our entire attitude for the whole thing was we wanted to put it where people could see it. We didn’t care about getting money back for the printing it was just. We want people to see it. Maybe their might be a vague possibility that someone might want , a company might want to print it on a national level. Mainly though we just wanted people to see it.

Brandon: The first weekend it was out it started getting some interest. We put it out in time for the Stumptown Comic’s festival in Portland…

Lukas: that was the deadline we set for ourselves…

Brandon: Yeah and that weekend Dark Horse came over and was talking to us about it. One of the co-creators of Sand man came over and said “this book looks great! Let’s hang out all the time”

Lukas: Yeah Mike Dringenberg he’s such a sweetheart, he was like “hey the book looks good I live in town lets hang out. “Yeah so I still draw with him once a week

Do you like the mini-series format for the book? Or would you like the book to be a monthly ongoing?

Brandon: The intention has always been… Hellboy has been, of the three things Lukas brought to the meeting I never ended up reading the other two. But I really liked Hellboy. And Hellboy has this really good blend of mini-series and then one shots and stories that are in anthologies or in the back of other books. I find that type of model really appealing.

Lukas: You have to have the right kind of character though. Because Hellboy is definitely a character where you can tell a short story or six issue story and our character is the same. You don’t necessarily need to find out what he’s doing every single month as long as you get those nice satisfying chunks of story. Another thing we kept in mind is that we are trying to play to both formats. So when you get the first issue of Witch Doctor it’s not just set up for other issues of Witch Doctor.  So you’re able to have that experience of picking up a comic and getting a satisfying story. And with the trade you still get that satisfaction but just more story.

Witch Doctor has a very atmospheric feel to it. Is that more a reflection of the art team or the work you guys do together?

Lukas: I start with thumbnails, and he has the most input on the storytelling pages and definitely the character and prop designs are collaborative. It really does take us time to get things right if he has something very specific in mind, we need to keep going till we get there.

Have you decided continuity wise is Vincent in his own universe or is there crossover potential?

Brandon: we’ve talked a little about doing crossovers with one or two other books in the past. Nothing serious or any actual plans. It would be hard for us to crossover with any other book because our monsters. There is such a specific way we do our monsters that doesn’t transfer well to other books.

I really love Penny, I’m always excited to see new female characters and you guys do a great job with her.

Lukas: She was one of those characters that it took some time to get to her final incarnation.

Brandon; When we did our first self published issue. Penny only had like two lines and she kind of had a big smile on her face the whole time. And there was a lot more to that character a lot more we were going to get to . But a bunch of people went:  What’s your problem with women? Why are you so sexist? Why is your only female character so dumb?

Lukas: She looked like a Goth stripper; she was wearing all this like vinyl corsets and stuff like that and we were Like Oh. that’s a good point. She does kind of look dumb.

Brandon: and that along with this vapid grin on her face.

She looks really good in the zero issue really well put together. I’m kind of interested in seeing the earlier version. Is it kind of  hard to find online ?

Brandon: Yeah I hope so.

You don’t want anyone to see it?

(Shakes head)

 Lukas: I wouldn’t mind if after the first series is out and if people know that it’s not the current story but kinda like a curiosity from the past. As long as people are clear on that I don’t have any problem with them reading it.

Brandon: Where I’m just embarrassed by it.

(Laughter)

It’s a sign of your growth no?

Brandon: It’s like people seeing the crayon drawing I did in elementary school.

Lukas: People aren’t going to be like; that sucks, they’ll think oh that’s cute

Right!

I have to geek a little on your art Lukas. It’s Amazing! I especially enjoy the little end page sketches that really show the amount of detail you put in each piece.

Do you start your art with small detailed sketches? Or do you just go to the drawing board and work on the book as a whole?

Lukas: I think the reason everything looks so detailed is because I’m still trying to teach myself the concept of economy and I don’t know if I‘ll ever get there (laughs). Most of my heroes are like Bernie Wrightson, Mark Schultz and like those guys are very detail orientated. Lots of brushwork and I also love Bruce Timm and Darwyn Cooke but I never really lean that way as far as art goes. I love guys like that who really have economy but every time I try to do it, It really doesn’t work out for me. I can actually do super detailed work quicker than I can do economized work.

Brandon: there is an old writing adage: I wrote it long because I didn’thave time to write it short. It’s almost that same kind of thing.

 Lukas: Yeah, Yeah

It would be great to see a one shot with your descriptive words and the resulting Art from Lukas. You could fill a whole volume with those types of sketches.

Brandon: I love those making of books, that’s actually something we both love to do.

Lukas: Originally I wanted to be an entertainment concept artist… I grew up reading the Art of Star Wars books, stuff like that .I wanted to be the guy that drew Jabba the Hutt 50 times before they picked one. I still get on conceptart.org everyday to see what people are working on. I love doing that kind of stuff. So when it comes time to sketch things for the series that’s kind of the most fun I can have doing that.

Has either of you given any thought to having a second book together? Or on your own with another artist or writer? Or is all your attention focused solely on Witch Doctor?

Brandon. This year I expected that I would be able to launch another project. I actually had contact with another artist as well and I had to keep backungi it and back burning it. He was really excited about it and kept

sending me tall these ideas and finally I had to say: Listen I can’t; right now. I have to get this first mini series out and after that I’ll take stock and then get to this project with you…

I’m still working a day job, so I work three days a week. So I have four days left over and ideally its nice to have a day off occasionally o there is only so much time I can spend doing comics stuff. It’s been such a huge learning curve. We haven’t put out a comic before. So we have to be taught how to do everything.We have to do it wrong and then figure out, based on that a better way to do it.

Lukas: That’s true

 Is your Skybound deal similar to like Image? Is the character ownership yours?

 Brandon: Yeah

Lukas: Robert is very adamant that it defaults to whatever you guys want to do. Its up to you guys, if you need help with it I’m here. That was the starting set up.

Do you guys still find time to read comics?  What are some of your favorite pulls right now? What are you looking forward too?

Brandon: The only ones I’m really excited for are Atomic Robo and Uncanny X-force.

Lukas: Uncanny X-Force is on the top of my list right now

Brandon: Unfortunately I’m just not really excited about most of the comics that are coming out right now. I’m not much of a DC person and even with Marvel the books I used to like are being canceled. Casanova when it comes out in September, That’s my new favorite comic.

Lukas: I’m excited about the new Star Trek books IDW is going to put out. You know the new crew and stuff?  It’s not tied to any of the continuity. They can do new episodes they can change as much as they want

Brandon: they can bring in the Borg

What about Star Wars?  Are either of you guys Star Wars fans?

Brandon: I was a Star Wars fan when I was a kid, in junior high I got into Trek and then I got back into Star Wars again.

Lukas Yeah Me too. And I’ve never been more betrayed. Except for Lost.

Yes! You poor lost fans. I feel for you.

I noticed WitchDoctor has a Facebook page is that a promoted site or are you guys actually running it?

Brandon: Yeah that‘s me. We have a facebook page and a twitter page.

How are you guys doing with the social media aspect? It seems sometimes common courtesy seems to go right out the window, have you had any issues?

Brandon: I think that when people are communicating through text and your not hearing each others voices , not hearing the reaction of the person you can just type manifestos and such so all social media does is gives people an easier way to throw that at people. For me though it’s been great. I really like that on the first day the comic came I searched for Witch doctor on twitter and all these people were talking about how much they loved it. It was also a great way to find reviews and pod casts that were discussing it. So it was extremely affirming.

Thanks so much guys!

One of the announcements form Image/ Skybound was that Witch Doctor will be back for a one shot and an additional four issue mini-seris in 2012

Yogikai, INTERVIEW: WITCH DOCTOR CREATORS SEIFERT & KETNER