Hellboy First Appearance: SDCC Comics #2 and Next Men #21

Hellboy first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (cover date 1993), published by Dark Horse. The source puts it this way: "Hellboy made his first true appearance in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 in 1993, but that was only in black and white.".

• Original printing was black-and-white: Hellboy made his first true appearance in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 in 1993, but that printing was only in black and white.
• First color appearance came later, in a different comic: his first appearance in color came later that same year, in John Byrne's Next Men #21.

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the issue number, date and publisher; reprints usually say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode format that did not exist in the year printed means a later edition.
• Paper and staples: decades-old newsprint is tan at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and married covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat, straight on, in even light, then the indicia page and the back cover. Include the top edge and staples in one frame. The app reads the title, issue number and cover and matches it against the checks above; the indicia photo settles most reprint questions.

Collectors usually count four early Hellboy appearances (ComicsOnline):

• Dime Press #4 (May 1993): an Italian magazine with about 2,000 copies; only Mignola's Hellboy cover art appears, no story.
• San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993): the first appearance with an actual Hellboy story, printed in black and white. This is the issue most guides call his first appearance.
• John Byrne's Next Men #21 (December 1993): his first appearance in color and the first in a nationally distributed comic, with Mignola as guest artist (Wikipedia; ComicsOnline).
• Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 (March 1994): his first own miniseries, which introduces the B.P.R.D. team including Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman. Mignola wrote the story and John Byrne scripted it (Wikipedia).

The name itself is older: Mignola first used "Hellboy" on a 1991 drawing for a convention program, with no plan yet for a series.

PriceCharting values, read on September 25, 2026:

San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993):

• Ungraded: $199.99 (about 1 sale a week)
• CGC 4.0: $83.00 (rare)
• CGC 6.0: $103.73
• CGC 8.0: $199.99
• CGC 9.2: $252.48
• CGC 9.8: $509.28 (about 1 sale a month)

John Byrne's Next Men #21 (December 1993):

• Ungraded: $119.84 (about 3 sales a week)
• CGC 4.0: $52.86 (rare)
• CGC 6.0: $107.15
• CGC 8.0: $124.87
• CGC 9.2: $154.67 (about 1 a month)
• CGC 9.8: $403.18 (about 1 a week)

CGC 9.8 copies of both trade often (monthly for SDCC #2, weekly for Next Men #21), so 9.8 is the grade that sets the market. The ungraded averages sit above the low-grade slab prices because they mix every condition. CGC charges $30 per modern book plus a $5 handling fee per online order (CGC fee page, September 25, 2026), so grading pays mainly for copies likely to reach 9.8.

No. In the comics his father is the archdemon Azzael and his mother is Sarah Hughes, a 16th-century witch (Wikipedia). His true name is Anung Un Rama, and his stone Right Hand of Doom originally belonged to an angel involved in creating the Ogdru Jahad.

Yes, through his mother. In Hellboy: The Wild Hunt (eight issues, December 2008 to November 2009), Morgan le Fay reveals that Sarah Hughes was the last of a line of witches descended from Mordred, King Arthur's son. That makes Hellboy Mordred's first male descendant and the rightful king of Britain, and he draws Excalibur from the stone (Wikipedia).

No. Hellboy is Mike Mignola's creator-owned character and has always been published by Dark Horse (Wikipedia). The confusion comes from Mignola's earlier Marvel work: the 1985 Rocket Raccoon limited series, The Incredible Hulk #302 to #313, Alpha Flight and Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment (1989). Hellboy's crossovers have been with DC's Batman and Starman (Batman/Hellboy/Starman) and Dark Horse's Ghost, not with Marvel.

The cats come from the 2004 film more than the comics. In that film his room is full of cats, he pets them throughout, and in a subway fight he saves a crate of kittens, telling their owner "It's my job" (Cinema Cats). None of the sources we found gives the filmmakers' reason. The live-action films run from Hellboy (2004) to a 2019 reboot and Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) (Wikipedia).