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Hellboy – Baba Yaga

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While I tried my best to get another update done for the weekend, it wasn’t to be. I had an out of town funeral to attend with my wife that I just got back from last night. I seem to have survived my first visit to Dallas though I’m glad to be safely back in Chicago where things suit me much better. Truthfully, I also picked a bad miniature to work on in terms of a quick turn around time. As the title suggests, I went for Baba Yaga, who many of you probably have heard of. She’s a figure from Slavic folklore that rides around in a wooden cup. She apparently likes to fry up and eat the occasional child and she has a house with chicken leg feet! And while that sounds like quite the colorful character, its kind of funny how she looks in Hellboy.

Very little color to work with there! So I found myself having to pick out fresh colors for her as I went. Here’s what I came up with.

The real challenge with this miniature is the smoke effect in the back. I’ve never tried to paint smoke before but I knew that having smooth blends would be key to make it look decent. In the end, I did what I could in a reasonable amount of time, but I wouldn’t say it is my best work or that it couldn’t be improved if I was willing to put more time in. Truthfully, I’d think twice before taking on a display project with a smoke feature after this first attempt. I need to practice it more to try and master it.

So there’s another Hellboy mini done and while I probably won’t get many more done this year, I will see if I can find some kind of balance with them and Fallout in 2024 to maximize my gaming opportunities next year.

One other exciting thing that happened this past week is that I ended up buying and receiving Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time from Noble Knight. They happened to have a copy of the board game, expansion, and one of the Kickstarter upgrades for sale at a good price so I jumped on it. It isn’t a card game to replace Arkham Horror per say but it should be a lot of fun and I really enjoy Tower Defense games so I’ll report back on it once I have a chance to play it. The game does have 10-15 miniatures so I’ve added something to my backlog as well but that’s alright.

And lastly, for today’s Comics Corner, I have a question for you.  Can a fantastic ending make a journey that is at times a slog worth it?  I think so, but I’d of course be curious what you think, if you’re inclined to share. Before I get started, I can’t talk about X-Men Legacy from 2014 without spoiling the ending so you’ve been warned.

X-Men Legacy by Simon Spurrier isn’t really an X-Men book so much as it is a Legion book.  Who is Legion?  He’s Professor Xavier’s troubled son.  As his codename suggests, Legion has some version of multiple personality disorder but instead of a handful of personalities, he has more like 20-50 in his head.  Generally, Legion has acted as a villain but Simon Spurrier came up with an ingenious angle for the character. The book is greatly enhanced by some fantastic covers. Nearly every single one is as good as what you see below.

What if instead of the villain, he’s the very flawed hero?  David Haller (Legion’s real name) is troubled as I said before.  He is not in control of his powerful psychic abilities and in fact, the comic often shows him literally trying to wrestle or coax the various entities in his head to work with him so he can use his powers which was clever.  He also has a self-destructive side and a lack of confidence in himself.  More than anything, he’s haunted by his own legacy.  He’s the son of Professor Xavier and Professor X. is dead at the time of this book coming out. Can you imagine carrying a heavier burden than that?  How would any of us live up to someone like Gandhi or MLK being our father?  How could we ever match their accomplishments, especially if we struggled with mental health issues?

That is what the book explores and the parts that focus on David Haller’s challenges are moving and impactful.  It makes it easy to like Legion, even with all of his flaws.  He falls in love with Blindfold who is truthfully depicted as quite a homely young lass in this book at times.  I imagine that was intentional but I’m not sure.  She is a “weaker” X-Men character in that she is powerful as a psychic but physically frail and can’t see anything because she was born without any eyes.  A cruel fate indeed.

Getting back to the question I posed, this 24 issue run is a mess at times.  The plot is all over the place.  At times, it is really engaging and at other times, I honestly have no idea what is going on with the plot.  A few issues in the run are definitely a slog and have way too many words per page.  Truthfully, I read this series a number of years ago and the ending is so powerful that I had forgotten about the challenging parts.  It was not easy at times to get through it but the ending is so gosh darn moving that I didn’t regret powering through.

Here come the spoilers for anyone who didn’t heed my previous warning. Despite his best efforts, Legion’s powers run amok in the end and he very nearly destroys the world before Blindfold tells him a message from his father.  “I’m proud of you, son.”  Its such a simple sentence and sentiment but its so well-delivered that I find it incredibly moving. I’d imagine anyone who never had the chance to hear that from someone important to them would feel the same way.  I’m sure there is some other piece of literature that explores similar ideas but the dichotomy of a character who is so troubled and has the best of intentions in spite of it is hard to resist.

I honestly debated whether to write something up about X-Men Legacy because it isn’t a book I recommend to anyone unless the good parts sound interesting or appealing. Otherwise, the challenging parts might end up making you regret reading this series. X-Men Legacy by Simon Spurrier is a story that has heart and if it resonates with you then is worth experiencing, especially when the ending gets it so right.  So there you have it, X-Men Legacy is inconsistent and very much imperfect, just like Legion is. I’d maybe give it a 3 or 3.5 stars overall but the ending gets a 5 stars for being excellent. Not many superhero comics make me feel anything but this one does and I’m sure that is why it sticks with me after reading it a number of years ago.

29 thoughts on “Hellboy – Baba Yaga”

  1. Love the Baba Yaga, nicely done! I think the smoke came out nicely so no worries there. Interesting interpretation of the character, I’d never seen the Hellboy version.

    If you want to try something different for smoke next time, I’ve found that effectively stippling with really watered down paints (think just thicker than a glaze but barely) works really well to get that modulation. You place your colours just like you did there but the dots from the stippling blend with each other in a slightly random fashion which makes for a neat effect. Not sure it’s good enough for display painting (although I’m sure you of all people could make it work!) but for board game/wargame models it works a treat.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Nic! Baba Yaga is quite an adversary for Hellboy and she throws a lot of obstacles at him in the comics.

      Your idea is spot-on and I went back this evening and stippled the smoke a bit. It helped cover up my just okay transitions and does give it a bit more of a smoke-like appearance. There is an artform to the stippling that I didn’t exactly nail but I was happy to add some texture in a short amount of time. Next time, I’d stipple from the beginning which would have saved me time overall and probably looked better too.

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  2. Great work on Baba Yaga. You really got her face and eyes, which brings the mini to life.

    X-Men Legacy does not sound like my kind of thing but it is interesting to read your take on it. I enjoy your comic book reviews.

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    1. Thanks, mate. Of all the parts on the mini, I was happiest with the face and pleasantly surprised by how good it looks.

      X-Men Legacy at times feels like the writer dropped acid and wrote about what we felt afterwards and those parts I could do without myself. Thank you for your kind words as well. I’ve been enjoying writing about comic books and hope to keep it going in 2024.

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  3. Great work on Baba Yaga Jeff, it’s a difficult model that you have elevated with your painting, shame the model wasn’t based off of the version in the reboot film, now she was creepy ! LOL
    Look forward to reading your thoughts on your new purchase.
    Sounds like the comic of Legion, is like the series, in that elements were awesome, and others left the watcher sat scratching their heads ! LOL

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    1. It really was more challenging than I expected. Next time I want a fast and easy miniature, hopefully I actually pick one that is next time haha! I did see images of the Baba Yaga in the movie and yeah, they made her quite scary looking!

      I should have some thoughts on Kingdom Rush in the near future as I’ve gotten a full game in and am starting to grasp the rules.

      The comic is exactly as you describe! I know Legion on FX got a lot of acclaim but it totally passed me by. Personally, I enjoy things that are realistic and not overly difficult to grasp so I question whether I would enjoy the show or not.

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  4. Nice work on Baba Yaga, Jeff! 🙂 Quite a different mini! Glad you enjoyed X-Men Legacy! Not sure if you’ve seen it, but I’ve just been re-reading Uber which I really like – unfortunately the series never seemed to get finished and the trade paperbacks (which I buy) lagged behind the comics.

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    1. Thank you, John! Baba Yaga is certainly a change of pace from Minerva. I had to look up Uber because I haven’t heard of it. And here I was thinking it was just a ride share service! 🙂 That does sound interesting and I’m not sure who sells that series digitally currently. Avatar Press put it out and they might be out of business now unfortunately. I’ll keep my eyes open for it all the same though as I’m sure it will turn up on sale again sometime soon. Thank you for the recommendation!

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  7. Baba Yaga is a pretty crazy mini. For the smoke, I have this mini to paint from FW someday and I will definitely be referencing their painting when I tackle it: https://circusofpaint.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/bb_goblin_secret_weapon_m05.jpg?w=554
    Hmm, I’m not sure if I’ve ever slogged through a comic series only to be super happy with the ending. Usually the art team is going to click with me right away or not.
    Funny, you and I are just missing each other on these trips, haha! You were not far from the Reaper mini factory though. I know that would be one of my stops if I went there again. Where else would I pick up my paycheck!?

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    1. That is a good example to use for smoke. It will definitely take some glazing and patience! Truthfully, I was originally going for something like that but I think the weird shapes threw me a bit on the smoke. The rounder “balls” of smoke should be easier to work with.

      Funnily enough, the art isn’t that great in X-Men Legacy. It isn’t bad but the first artist clearly couldn’t keep up with the book and so it kind of becomes unpredictable who is doing the art from issue-to-issue. Inconsistent is a good word to describe it.

      I thought you got your paycheck from Spain (where AK is located, probably Madrid)! 😉 In all seriousness, I wasn’t in town very long, just long enough for the funeral really and the whole thing was marred by family drama so I was pretty glad to leave Dallas behind. There was no sightseeing or fun to be had there for me on this trip.

      What I saw of Dallas was kind of strange too. We were in the wealthiest part of town and the roads were worse than in Chicago where we have actual winters to rough them up. Most of the houses felt a bit like compounds too. I certainly have no plans to move there!

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      1. Yea, I figured with being a funeral, other activities might be out of the plan.

        I usually use the term “artist” to refer to the writer as well as the penciller, etc. I guess I should have just said “writer” since
        you mentioned story. Though the penciller, inker, etc. can also have a very big impact on the story as well. Even though they might not have contributed to the actual plot.

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      2. Ahh… That makes sense! The writer is definitely an artist so I can see where you’re coming from. I usually think of comics in terms of art and then the writing almost as two separate entities. Of course, I want to see both of those things come together and work well but that doesn’t always happen as we know 🙂

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      4. Its a good question. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a series with consistently poor art. I can’t remember a series where I was so turned off by the art that I didn’t read it though either. Marvel and DC generally have okay and up level art in their books and I think the indies is where you sometimes find artists who need a little more practice,

        I do remember that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which I bought physically when I was collecting, had some pretty bad fill-in art and I didn’t like the main artist in the book a ton either. It was good or acceptable but not impressive. I think that might be as close as I’ve ever gotten.

        Have you enjoyed anything with bad art?

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      5. I tend to not read series as much anymore. I’m drawn to things that have already ended and have a stopping point. Whether that be a limited series or a regular series that ended.
        For regular series, I pretty much agree. There are points where bad artists would hop on and I’d have to just hope/wait they get someone better eventually. That goes for writers and pencillers though. For limited series, if the artist is bad, I probably won’t get past an issue or two. It has to be more than I’m just not crazy about their style though…if an artist isn’t able to convey emotions well and/or draw a page so that you can naturally follow a panel, that will make me jump off in no time.
        To make a comic really good though, you definitely need good art and writing.
        The art style also needs to match the story. Dave Gibbons style he used for Watchmen would not have worked on something like the X-Men. And put just about any other 80s superhero comic artist around back then on Watchmen and it would have been horrible.
        So if the art style matches the story and is able to convey the story, even if I’m not crazy about it, I can still get behind it. I’m trying to think of a prime example, but nothing is really coming to my head right now. Maybe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I wasn’t crazy about the art in there and would never consider buying an original art
        piece from the book (even if I had tons of money), but the story was well done and the art certainly served the story.

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      6. I have never had any luck with following a single character through various creative team changes and I tend to follow writers and occasionally artists much more. I also tend to pick things that I’ve heard good things about more than just taking a chance on something too. Our time is not infinite after all.

        I think you’re spot-on with everything you said about art and how that needs to support and ideally, compliment the story. Maybe you should be a comic book editor (or whoever helps make those decisions)! I think some people really have an eye for that sort of thing though I don’t think that I’m one of them truthfully.

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      7. Totally agree, nowadays there is so much to choose from.
        Including stuff from the past on up, that it only make sense to read what interests you.

        I actually might have made a decent comic editor, though from what I’ve read behind the scenes, It sounds like politics and dealing with artists egos is a major part of the job.

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      8. I think you’re right that editors rely heavily on soft skills. I watched a video or two about Jim Shooter and I got the impression that he ruffled too many feathers despite having great ideas and so his time at Marvel was shorter than it might have been otherwise. So that definitely supports what you’re saying!

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      9. According to some, all the top talent left while Shooter was at Marvel. So that’s not good. But I’ve heard arguments from both sides about him. He’s a pretty good example of what people have to deal with as an editor. With any group there will be a certain amount of infighting, especially when money and careers are on the line.

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  9. Tremendous work on Baba Yaga, especially as I suppose that it’s more of a board game quality cast than a painting miniature. It’s quite an interesting look too, though I suppose maybe it should be what I expect for this character.

    It’s interesting that you feature a comic about Legion today. Yesterday I’d never heard of him and now that’s twice in a couple of hours as I just listened to a podcast which mentioned the character. Quite the coincidence.

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