Before Hellboy was published independently at Dark Horse Comics, the concept was initially pitched to a board of directors for DC Comics, who loved it, but did not like the idea of it involving “Hell”.
The early stories were conceived and drawn by Mignola with a script written by John Byrne and some later stories have been crafted by creators other than Mignola, including Christopher Golden, Guy Davis, Ryan Sook, and Duncan Fegredo. The increasing commitments from the Hellboy franchise meant that the 2008 one-shot In the Chapel of Moloch was the first Hellboy comic Mignola had provided the script and art for since The Island in 2005.
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