Hellboy: A Plague of Wasps (Dramatized Adaptation)

Hellboy, Book 1

By: Christopher Golden

Narrated by: Jasmine Hyde, Scott McCormick, Stewart Crank, Carolla Parmejano, Sebastian Zancanaro, Peter Holdway, Kay Eluvian, Bia Borin, Vinicius Faria Zinn, Stephanie Németh-Parker, Eric Messner

Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Hellboy has accompanied his girlfriend, Anastasia Bransfield, on a trip to Brazil to help colleagues who are conducting an archaeological dig in the jungle.

While they’re having coffee, a colleague arrives...through a public square, sick and sluggish and in agony. He falls, and wasps begin to come out of his mouth. When he bursts open, more wasps emerge—his insides are full of a labyrinthine, gray, papery nest.

It becomes clear that something sinister and supernatural is at play here.

This Original Dramatized Audiobook continues the story from Hellboy in Love.

Written exclusively for GraphicAudio and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects, and cinematic music!

Performed by Jasmine Hyde, Scott McCormick, Stewart Crank, Carolla Parmejano, Sebastian Zancanaro, Peter Holdway, Kay Eluvian, Bia Borin, Vinicius Faria Zinn, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker, and Eric Messner.

©2023 Mike Mignola (P)2023 Graphic Audio LLC

Critic reviews

"A full cast accompanied by a score and sound effects brings this Hellboy adventure to life.... Scott McCormick captures Hellboy's wry sarcasm in a booming voice and gravelly timbre. Jasmine Hyde voices Anastasia as more than Hellboy's girlfriend; along with her affectionate fondness for the wisecracking demon, she's a capable adventurer. The sound effects--persistent rain, the hum of a car motor--all capture the ear. The music is an occasional but cinematic presence when it wafts into a scene." (AudioFile)

Excellent! With One Exception...

A Plague of Wasps features stellar casting and voice acting. Each of the characters is appropriately written. I love getting new Hellboy stories, and this certainly didn't disappoint.

I docked a star from the story for the belabored go-arounds amongst the cast about colonialism, as it started to feel like someone, presumably Chris Golden, was bordering on ye olden noble savage trope in their unnecessary effort to sidestep it. I think it would have been a stronger story without the several attempts. Lucky for us, there is a fast forward button that I've otherwise little used.

I recommend this audiobook not just for Hellboy fans but for any of those with a taste for horror in their fantasy works.

A Fun Hellboy Adventure

Graphic Audio has done it again. They have managed to give us a fun Hellboy adventure with a full cast and sound effects. The voice of Hellboy did a great job after i stopped thinking of him as Pops from their Archie adaptations. Can’t wait for the next 2 that’s being released. They will be day 1 purchases for me.

Could've been great.

When you read Hellboy, there are pages of just atmospheric drawings of gorgeous, terrifying locations. Everything looks like a wood carving from long ago, and that's the magic of Mignola. The way he has monsters and humans inhabit the same space so effortlessly is a testament to the storytelling of sequential art.

The sound scapes in this audiobook are absolutely astonishing. They largely keep you grounded in a world that are as rich and mysterious as Mignola's artwork. The voice acting is spectacular. Dialects from all over, and not just standard British or an imitation of vaguely South American, no, the cast should be commended.

The words themselves though.... YE GODS. Wowzers. I realize that an author might feel the need to have to start from scratch when introducing a new reader to this world, but I'm not certain there are going to be any new Hellboy fans who check out the comics or even watch the movies because of this. The dialog is unlike any speech I've ever heard. Every character is dryly sarcastic? Even Hellboy, a man of few words, speaks like he's composing emails to work friends. There was no chemistry between the characters either. It's a real bummer, because it could've been great. The pacing of the story works well enough, but the dialog and narration was really off-putting.

I love Hellboy. I love excellently sound mixed adaptations. I love the performances. I love hearing first person narration from women characters. Hellboy in a jungle with a new girlfriend on a rescue mission with giant insects?! I should love this, but I still gave up only an hour and twenty or so into it. I was really looking forward to the others coming out in this series, too, even was going to preorder them, now I don't think I will.

Horrible

Reads like a bad Harlequin romance, narrated like reading from a little girl's diary from an uninteresting character. Hellboy himself is sidelined as a group character. Worst of all are the performances by Sofia Balerio performed by Carolla Parmejano and Inspector Barbosa performed by Sebastian Zancanaro. In an attempt for realistic nationalities, the performances are wooden and irritating. The only good element is the performance of Hellboy himself, as close to Ron Perlman as we'll get. Unfortunately the written material is plagued with filler language, unnecessary conversations and plot holes that make a weak story an irritating slog. As a Hellboy fan, irs a huge disappointment.