Hellboy's publishing history confuses even experienced comic readers, mostly because of how Dark Horse structured the character's numbering from the start.
Hellboy in Hell and the main Hellboy ongoing series aren't two unrelated things, but they aren't quite the same series either, and the difference actually matters for how you read both.
Understanding that difference is especially useful right now, with two new Hellboy in Hell minis bringing fresh readers into the character's orbit.
Here is how the two actually relate, and why Hellboy's numbering looks the way it does.
Hellboy's core series isn't published as a single continuously-numbered ongoing the way most superhero books are; it's broken into individual miniseries and one-shots, each with its own cover numbering.
Underneath that, there's a secondary internal count tracking each story's place in Hellboy's overall timeline, so Hellboy: Wake the Devil #1 is also counted as issue seven of the character's ongoing adventures even though its cover says issue one.
Hellboy in Hell is different: it carries its own clean, continuous numbering from #1 to #10 and does not continue the main series' internal ongoing count.
That makes Hellboy in Hell function more like a self-contained sequel series than another entry in the same numbering scheme as Seed of Destruction or Wake the Devil.
Despite the separate numbering, Hellboy in Hell picks up directly from where the main Hellboy ongoing left off, specifically from the ending of The Storm and the Fury.
So while the numbering resets, the story itself doesn't skip anything; Hellboy in Hell is a direct continuation told with a fresh issue count rather than a reboot or a side story.
B.P.R.D. is a separate, parallel series that follows the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense after Hellboy leaves the organization, overlapping with the main Hellboy timeline rather than following directly from it.
It's worth knowing B.P.R.D. exists as its own long-running series, since new readers sometimes assume it's simply more Hellboy issues under a different cover title.
Nothing But Blood and Parade of Horrors both continue Hellboy in Hell's clean numbering pattern as standalone two-issue minis rather than extending the original #1 through #10 count.
That keeps the original ten-issue saga intact as its own complete unit, with the new minis functioning as connected but separately-numbered follow-ups.
Knowing that Hellboy in Hell isn't just more of the main ongoing under a new name helps explain why jumping straight into it without reading the main series first leaves so much context missing.
It also explains why back-issue bins often separate Hellboy in Hell from the main series rather than filing everything under one continuous run.
Since the two series use entirely different numbering systems, keeping them physically separated on your shelf, rather than filed together by cover number, makes a growing collection much easier to navigate.
Use a comic book divider to mark the split and a current-age backing board behind each issue to keep both runs straight.
Splitting Hellboy into individually-numbered miniseries rather than one continuous ongoing let Mignola write at his own pace without being locked into a monthly schedule for over thirty years of material.
That flexibility is part of why the character's bibliography looks unusual next to a typical superhero ongoing, but it also means a clean reading order matters more here than it would for a simpler, single-numbered series.
Plenty of other long-running characters eventually split into multiple parallel series with their own numbering, but few do it as thoroughly as Hellboy, where even the main character's own ongoing adventures carry two separate counts at once.
Knowing that going in saves new readers from assuming a typo or printing error every time a cover number and an internal issue count don't match.
No, it uses its own clean #1 through #10 numbering.
Yes, it picks up directly from the ending of The Storm and the Fury.
No, it's a separate, parallel series following the Bureau after Hellboy leaves it.
No, they're separately-numbered two-issue minis connected to that saga.
Hellboy's numbering looks confusing from the outside, but once you know how the pieces actually connect, sorting a growing collection gets a lot easier.
Find the right gear for organizing your own run in EVORETRO's comic supplies collection.
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