With the upcoming April 2nd release of "Hellboy" from Columbia Pictures, the general movie going public has no doubt seen the trailer or preview of the film starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and John Hurt.

But, surprisingly, there are a vast majority of people that do not know what Hellboy is or what he's about. The solution is simple......read the comic! Artist Mike Mignola has been in the comics business for quite some time and has worked on a variety of titles, including; "Alpha Flight", "Batman", and "X-Men". But...by far his creation, his "baby" if you will, "Hellboy", is his most recognized and popular work to date.

Hellboy is basically a foster child, granted he is a huge red demon of extraordinary power, but he is still a foster child, raised by a loving and intelligent group of scientists who discovered him long ago in the ruins of an old church during the last months of WW2.

I suggest for those who lack knowledge of Hellboy or his story to pick up and read the original stories , the original first issues of his book are rare and hard to find but thank God for trade paperbacks.... Hellboy's first story arc and origin are all contained within one trade paperback entitled "Seed of Destruction".

This is the first full storyline and appearance of "Hellboy" and shows in detail, how he came to be. Story and art by Mignola, with scripting by John Byrne, "Seed of Destruction" tells the story of Hellboy's discovery by a team of freedom fighters and scientists with the allied forces in WW2. Hellboy was summoned by the dark powers of the sorcerer Rasputin with a technical assist from none other than the Nazis , but luckily ,Hellboy is first found by the good guys and raised accordingly, and the rest is history....The upcoming feature film is based on this book so do check it out, it's got everything; demons, monsters, sorcereres, nazis, and frogs.....yes I said frogs!

I highly reccomend the book to anyone who wants to discover for the first time ,this extraordinary, refreshing character from the mind of artist/writer Mike Mignola........."Read it and raise some HELL!!!"