Yard sales this weekend...that'll be better than any stupid ol' Comic-Con...sniff!

The San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing, and as usual...I'm not there. I was going to say I'm a million miles away, but that bit of hyperbole would actually be better: A million miles away, I'd be in space or something. As is, I'm a mere 1300 and change miles almost due north. At a desk.

While I'm envious of those in attendance, I know more of us don't get to go to Comic-Con than do. And I can't say I have a burning, lifelong need to get there, like a salmon flopping its way upstream. I also know my level of patience with that much crowding would run thin, and I would ever have to have almost unlimited budget for stuff or I wouldn't want to go at all...still, it'd be nice to go to "Nerd Prom," instead of drinking out back by the dumpsters, angrily muttering that you didn't want to go anyway. Figuratively speaking. Maybe figuratively speaking.

Well, for me at least the drinking is figurative this weekend: last weekend, I realized I can't drink ten, eleven beers in a couple hours anymore. Which brings up today's comic! The new Hellboy: the Storm #1, the latest chapter in HB's ongoing saga from Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo. Show of hands: how many here did a big "Awwwww!" when Mignola announced he wasn't going to be drawing Hellboy for a while, in order to get more writing done? And now Fegredo's done Darkness Calls and The Wild Hunt and that's no longer an issue.

In this story, the noble dead of Britain are beginning to rise from their graves, as evidenced by some opened tombs and a glimpsed figure in armor. Hellboy, with new girlfriend Alice, tries to play it off as the work of "thieves. Really big thieves." Even with Hellboy there, that's easier to believe than the truth.

Hellboy bags out of getting a drink, saying he's quit drinking. This leads to a quick walk through of events since he quit the B.P.R.D., and Hellboy's interpretation? Got drunk, something terrible happened, repeat. (The best thing about that? Mignola could've written Hellboy getting drunk and punching monsters forever, and that would've been just fine. Instead, he moved on with it, and it's better.)

Still, this is Hellboy we're talking about: it's pretty obvious something terrible would've happened if he'd been sober as a judge, anyway. And, to prove the point...

Fluff, I hate going to GCD and seeing a Hellboy thing I don't have. But I still love this series, and I love how it started way over there and has somehow got to where it is. I feel like I must be the last person still buying single issues though, but if you have to wait for the trade, still worth it. If you haven't kept up, or maybe only know Hellboy from the movies, get back in there.