A fun quick read. ( )

Here we have the first Hellboy novel, officially sanctioned by Mike Mignola (who also illustrates). It took me a while to get a hold of this, since I was silly enough to let it go out of print on me, but now I have it.

This was also, I believe, the first appearance of Anastasia Bransfield, Hellboy's former love interest who calls when needed. Golden explores their story more in some of the other novels and stories he's written.

The story has everything you'd expect from a Hellboy tale; a lost Persian army brought back from the dead, evil sorcerers, underground civilizations, ancient tentacled evil, human-to-monster transformations, dismemberment, ghosts, and a ritual to bring some form of "ultimate evil" back into this plane of existence. And, of course, Hellboy is right in the middle of it.

I really do enjoy the way Golden writes Hellboy. He really does seem to understand Mignola's world. ( )

W 525 r. p.n.e. perski król Kambyzes wysłał 50 tysięcy źołnierzy przez pustynie podbitego Egiptu. Cała armia zniknęła bez śladu. W 1986 r. n.e.- brytyjski zespół archeologiczny, wysłany na skraj Wielkiego Morza Piasku. Hellboy ma wyjaśnić obie zagadki.

525 před Kristem.
Perský král Kambýses vyslal padesát tisíc vojáků napříč dobytou egyptskou pouští, aby obsadila oázu v místech, která teď leží nedaleko dnešních libyjských hranic. Podle řecké historie zastihla armádu těsně před koncem její skoro tisíc kilometrů dlouhé cesty písečná bouře o síle hurikánu. Armáda - všech padesát tisíc mužů - zmizela beze stopy.
1986 po Kristu.
Na okraj Velkého písečného moře je vyslán archeologický tým, aby našel důkazy o tom, že k oné historické události skutečně došlo. I ten zmizí beze stopy. Úřad pro výzkum paranormálních jevů na místo vysílá svého nejlepšího vyšetřovatele, Hellboye, který má najít ztracený archeologický tým a zjistit, co se stalo se Ztracenou armádou... ( )

I used to enjoy Hellboy prose novels more when they were published by Pocket Star Books. I don't know how much say a publisher has in choosing who will author their novels but overall the quality was far better with PSB than when the franchise moved over to Dark Horse Books. A good example of the better quality can be found in 'Hellboy: The Lost Army'.
We start off the book with a foreword by Hellboy's creator Mike Mignola. Not being much of a fanboy when it comes to authors, artists, actors or anyone else for that matter I'm not beyond criticizing even the guy who created one of my favorite characters. The issue I have is in the drawing he does. Now this story is a prose novel but Mignola did contribute some drawings that appear throughout this mass market paperback. That's unusual in itself and, quite frankly, so is Mignola's style of drawing. I'm not quite sure how to describe his style but, to me at least, it seems amateur and yet professional all at the same time. Hellboy looks good on the cover, and I would expect no less from a drawing by his creator, but the skeletons appear too cartoonish in a way. Yeah, "cartoonish" isn't a word so my writing is amateur and nowhere near professional but this blog is for my opinions you know and if I wish to make up words like "cartoonish" then so be it. If it's quality you're after go read one of my followers blogs.
So the story begins with Hellboy having to beat the crap out of a "thing" with tentacles. He hates things with tentacles. So do most of my ex girlfriends but I swear I really do only have two hands...they just move around the female form like there's eight of them. Speaking of such things Hellboy has a love interest in this book. And she's a human female. Thankfully the author spares us any intimate details as even I had absolutely no desire to know how a cloven hoofed, red demon with a stone hand gets his freak on with a human English female. Having a love interest for Hellboy is certainly odd but it does allow for the storyline to play on the age old damsel in distress being saved by her hero subplot.
The main plot revolves around the disappearance of a group of British archeologists along the edge of the Great Sand Sea. It wouldn't be much of a job for Red if it was a straight forward disappearance and it isn't as back in 525BC a fifty-thousand strong Persian army vanished in the same place...hence 'The Lost Army'.
Golden is a huge fan of Hellboy and it certainly shows through in his writing. He knows Hellboy inside and out...actually I'm not sure if he really does know about Red's insides but it sounded like the correct thing to proclaim. What's for sure is that he knows the character well enough to bring him to life perfectly in the novel and add that to his as-per-usual excellent storytelling ability and what you have is an awesome Hellboy novel. The author even done a great job in making the love story between Hellboy and Anastasia believable and that took some doing as you just don't think about a red demon and sex in the same sentence. I don't anyway although it's obvious from looking at Hellboy's head that he's always horny.
With an immortal sorcerer and The Lost Army to contend with this novel is certainly action packed and exciting. Our hero is portrayed wonderfully, particularly his sense of humour, and I couldn't put this book down once I had picked it up. Really, that's the last time I use crazy glue before reading a novel. Even though the "romantic" element was done well I could have done without it but that's being picky on what is an overall excellent novel. Highly recommended. ( )