Since 2012, Hellboy has been making his way through the afterlife, but next year, it looks like his time in Hell is coming to an end. In an interview at Vulture, Mike Mignola revealed that Hellboy In Hell, the latest chapter of the ongoing narrative chronicling the life (and death) of the BPRD's most celebrated agent, will end at #10, and that he has no immediate plans for another comics project thereafter.

What this means for Hellboy himself remains to be seen, but one imagines that it's hard to find a new place to go once you've been to Hell for the better part of four years. Then again, we probably thought there was no place to go after you save the world from an apocalypse that you're prophesied to lead, too.

 

Hellboy in Hell, Dark Horse Comics
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In lieu of his work doing art for another Hellboy adventure, Mignola told Vulture that he's going to focus on painting:

 

“It's been at least 25 years since I finished something and I didn't know what I was doing next — I've always had a project lined up,” says Mignola. “I've painted in the past, but I only average about one painting a year, and the last painting I did, I actually really liked. So I thought, Gee, if I do a bunch of paintings, maybe I'll actually figure out what I'm doing instead of relearning every year. So I asked my wife, could I do this? Could I just take a year off and just paint? Of course, I can't really take a year off — I am co-plotting B.P.R.D. and these various other books, but I'd like to take a year off from drawing any kind of comics, and just spend the bulk of a year doing color work. I've never taken a significant chunk of time to just do work essentially for myself. I have no idea where it's gonna go, but it's exciting. It's what keeps me going. “

 

It's worth noting that while the ongoing Hellboy story might be on hold for a while --- and while BPRD is coming to an end next year as well --- there are plans already in place to continue with other adventures from throughout Hellboy's long history. Earlier this year, Dark Horse confirmed that their series of stories chronicling Hellboy's early years will continue with Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953 by Mignola and Frankenstein Underground artist Ben Stenbeck, as well as an ongoing Hellboy and the BPRD series by Mignola, Chris Roberson and Paolo Rivera. But what part of Hellboy's life that's going to focus on remains to be seen.

 

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