Search HBDB
Quickly jump to a Story, Publication, Creator, Series, Cycle, Character, Organization, or Location.
About HBDB
HBDB (the Hellboy Database) is a story-first reference archive and collection tracker for the Hellboy Universe — Mike Mignola's corner of comics spanning Hellboy, B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, Witchfinder, Frankenstein Underground, Koshchei, and the rest.
It exists to answer the questions readers and collectors actually have: which Publications contain a given Story, which Stories appear in a given Publication, what exists (including variants and future releases), what to buy to read a story, and what order to read it all in.
The Archive
Everything is catalogued as discrete, cross-linked entities. Start anywhere in the navigation and follow the connections.
Reading the Universe
Two tools sit on top of the archive for readers trying to make sense of the whole thing.
- Timeline
- Every story event placed in in-universe chronological order. Signed-in readers can narrow it to only story events from stories they've read.
- Reading Orders
- Curated and community reading paths, built in a drag-and-drop board editor and read as a card stack. Each slot points at a specific Publication and Edition, so an order doubles as a shopping list. Signed-in users can build and share their own.
Track Your Collection
Sign in and HBDB becomes a personal checklist. Ownership is tracked at the Edition level — a Publication can have a Hardcover, a Softcover, a Digital release and more, each with its own release date and identifiers.
- My Library
- Everything you've marked as owned, filterable by format and physical-only.
- My Wishlist
- Editions you want but don't have yet — independent of what you own.
- My Stories
- Every story you can reach through a Publication you own.
- Collection Plan
- A set-cover planner: the fewest Publications to buy to read everything — or to finish what you've started.
You set status right on a Publication's page — one chip per format, tapped to cycle through the three states:
- Owned — this format is in your Library.
- Wishlisted — you want it; it shows on your Wishlist.
- Not tracked — the resting state; the dashed chip is still a plain format label.
Own / Wishlist is per Edition and per format. Owning the Omnibus and wishlisting the single issues of the same story is a perfectly normal state, and the Collection Plan's "physical only" filter reads the format's medium to respect it.
Stay Current
- News
- Hand-picked links to interviews, announcements and articles about the Universe, with the most recent on the landing page and the full run at /news.
- Upcoming Releases
- Editions with a release date still in the future, soonest first — solicited issues, announced collections, pending digital drops.
- Random Story
- A door into a corner of the Universe you haven't read.
- Recent Updates
- What's changed in the archive lately — new and edited entries.
There's also a Community card on the landing page linking out to the subreddit, Discord, wikis and the publisher.
Accounts
Browsing needs no account — Stories, Publications, Series, Characters, Timeline and Reading Orders are all open. Signing in is optional and uses Sign in with Discord; HBDB only ever receives your Discord ID, username and avatar. It's used to recognize your account and hold your collection state, saved reading orders and remembered filters. No email, no posting on your behalf, no third-party sharing. See the Privacy Policy for the details.
A Fan Project
HBDB is a small, fan-run site with no affiliation with Dark Horse Comics, Mike Mignola, or any rights holder. Cover images and bibliographic data are used for reference and identification. Corrections, missing entries and suggestions are welcome. Find me on the Mignolaverse Discord: SalvMan.
It's also grown with help from other volunteers — see who's pitched in, and how to join them, on the Contributors page.