Hellsing

Hellsing, Vols. I & II
Kohta Hirano
U.S. copyright December 2003 (Vol. I) & March 2004 (Vol. II),
Dark Horse Manga
ISBN (Vol. 1): 1-59307-056-X
ISBN (Vol. 2): 1-59307-057-8

The Hellsing Organization is a group in England dedicated to fighting vampires in defense of queen, country, and the Anglican Church. It’s run by the director of Hellsing, a member of the Order of British Protestant Knights, Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who keeps in her arsenal two special weapons—the gun-totin’, shades-wearin’, genetically enginered vampire Alucard and his short-skirted, big-breasted, rocket-launcher-carrying sidekick Seras Victoria.

The story follows the Hellsing Organization as it and rival Catholic organization Section XIII Iscariot investigate the mysterious increase in vampire attacks in the United Kingdom. Why are these vampires able to break the “rules” of vampirism, and who’s creating so many of them?

Hirano’s stylized and stylish black-and-white artwork is reliably high-quality, retaining traditional manga motifs but edging, especially in Volume II, into surreally gothic territory. There’s gore galore, too, as Alucard and the rest of the Hellsing Organization don’t spare the bullets (or rocket launchers, or razor wire, or....) when it comes to wiping out undead. Call me twisted, but I was darkly amused watching Alucard and the vampire Luke Valentine blowing the everlovin’ hell out of each other while chuckling madly to themselves. Hirano has an appealing, if macabre, sense of humor, and the Americanized translation suits the work's visual style (pace, translation purists). My only objection to the translation is the use of accented speech for several characters, a practice discouraged in contemporary fiction (“Oor mission is tae destroy doon tae the last wee bit thae fools wh’ would oppose oor God” ... “I’m certain it vill be a conflict stained vith much blood.”).

This is the first licensed English-language edition of Hellsing. Readers may already be familiar with the four-DVD American release of the Hellsing anime (Pioneer LDC), but the anime eventually diverges from the manga, so there’s a reason to pick up the comics, too. In addition, each of these volumes contains part of Hirano’s one-shot “Cross Fire,” which follows the separate adventures of members of Hellsing’s rival organization, Iscariot.

Dark Horse is scheduled to release the third volume on June 16, 2004. Michael from Dark Horse Comics tells me "We'll be publishing the whole thing in five (possibly more) volumes. We are releasing Hellsing on a three-month cycle."

The Hellsing books cost a little more than most manga, at $13.95 each, but they're well worth picking up.

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