Hellboy, Vol. 11: The Bride of Hell and Others

By Mike Mignola

Mignola uses a Mayan god in an impromptu fleshing out of a drawing of HB hanging out with Mexican wrestlers, not having planned to turn it into a story. Mexico '82, HB and Abe are stranded and waiting to be picked up by BPRD, currently in the outskirts of a deserted building, inside of which has old posters of Mexican wrestlers. Abe points out a photo with HB in it, he telling of when he'd been there in '56, and was hearing about a hole periodically putting up a terrible stench which people would go to perform bad things on each other, thinking the smell was from the debil, and he'd come out. When HB's been scouting the place, he meets the wrestling bros, who tell of finding the dead priest in the church, and whilst praying was told to prepare to fight monsters, becoming quite good at it.

So, HB joins up with them, and they work hard and party at night. HB gets to know the younger bros more than the older, they all getting along working and partying for a month, before a tragic disappearance of Esteban changing the group's dynamic. They begin q'ing vamps and monster which devolve into dispatching them in a way which HB felt some guilt, esp. since they learned nothing for their effort. HB discovers a clue from a poster, and he goes to the old temple int he woods.

Inside, he sees what he thinks is Esteban in a wrestling ring, Esteban immediately throwing HB around. When he hears an inner voice blaming him for what had occurred to Esteban, he shows his bat face. HB does the mercy of staking him, Esteban thanking him before he dies. The bros and he bury him in a churchyard, then HB and they split up, HB getting found in a bar a few mos later.

HB feigns memory loss when Abe asks what he'd been doing, but a photo shows he'd been wrestling, little kid fans loving him. Parts of the next story has Lovecraftian themes. 1960 Kansas, HB meets a Mr. Sullivan who wishes to get help for a house making him kill people. Sullivan goes over how he's an alchie recoverer and has fucked his life up when he'd spoken to a man he thought was a lawyer and had gifted him a house with enough cash to clean himself up in Kansas.

When he'd gone to the house, he'd discovered a skeleton and 3 gold coins, chucking the skeleton in the yard. In the morning, he gets cravings for alchie again, so he lures a lady into the house, takes the coins and disposes of her body after the house takes her. Sullivan shows HB the room then ofc shoots HB and locks him in the room. After praying to the dark creature for what he'd give him for a prize like HB, he's smooshed by a huge brick of gold coins falling downstairs.

HB escapes and the dead owner tells him to biff off, but HB destroys the house's evil corpse-bodied heart before obliging. MA, 1960 HB is helping a lady escape a crazy gift shop worker who thought he is a priest of Horus. Before HB can handle him though, the lady explains the idiot is praying to the wrong god of the temple he is in, this god having its alligator statue head, bite the idiot's head off. A successful conclusion!

The next is a vamper story. England 1966, HB chases a lady vamp from a house, warns an old fella to stay away, but then finds the both in an old house, and the fella schools HB on Euro-vamps, as opposed to Ameri-vamps. The man shares the Euro vamps tactic for laying low, literally The 1 HB'd been after is 1 of his sis', the other a girl the vamps had also used. The 1 the fella warns against would be awake, and wondering where Kate is by now.

The old fella tricks HB into falling into the basement where he then phones him, and tells HB of having to feed the younger sis, Mary. HB finds her singing to a dead cat before turning into a scary skeleton. Meanwhile, the fella who'd called BPRD into back up arrive, and they calculate the odds of HB already having finished the job. They're soon stuck outside as corpses reanimate and unbury themselves.

Mary takes care of the bad vamp which kills the zombies again, and releases Mary. The group ends the night at the bar. CT 1985, a missing 18 yr old Amer. girl, Teresa has caught the attention of BPRD. HB saves the girl as she's being sacrificed, running her to sacred ground where a monk sits nearby telling him about the statue standing there for St. Hagan.

He explains of the girl being safe til he finishes off the vamp creature. So, HB goes in search of him during the day, finding him, and hearing his story, acknowledging his judgement for justice, but how he'd gone too far. Regardless of this, HB doesn't succeed in saving Teresa, for being a willing bride, so she dies.

A quickly put together story follows. 1985 MA, HB is sent to investigate a series of missing bodies, and a person, as well as a skull, all connected to the family Whittier. He's in time to attempt to stop an old fella from finishing a spell, but he gets put to dust easily enough, HB having a smoke with a skelly. KS 1985, Buster and some kids around town perform a ceremony in the woods calling up evil gods.

Fwd 18 hrs, HB has comes to check out half of a missing cow, attended by an angry farmer, blaming the kids for his missing cows, HB taking it seriously when seeing a left guidebook for spells and a skull with candle. When the farmer and his hubby host him in the evening, she thinks she hears a noise outside, HB walking out and being abducted by aliens. He floats through monster-filled space, then sees a half human cow before getting held down by a bunch of alien creatures. HB next succeeds in getting the be-boxer'd half cow to help fight them off, the to getting dropped back on erf and HB almost getting ambushed by some fellas, scaring cow boy off, and he staying in Nebraska as another kid attempts the same evil god spell using his head as a candle holder as he sits there. Hilarious good fun!