Weird pacing in this one. Feels like we get two issues of material spread over four issues, and then the actual meat in the final fifth issue. It's all a bit dull.2.5 stars(Read as five single issues.)

3.5! Art and mood was fantastic!World: The art was great, the depth and style that set the tone and the mood was perfect. The world building was also top notch with call backs to past characters and dipping into lore and legends of Thailand make for some awesomeness. I love mythology and this had it in spades.Story: The story of the Black Flame is interesting but we don't really get the origin of the Black Flame but the origin of a Black Flame booo! The pacing is okay, the tone and banter great,...

Amid the side catalog of Mignolaverse back stories, there are some that really stand out, and this is one of them, an extended origin story of how one of the more interesting villains of the Mignolaverse--the Black Flame--came to be. As with many Mignolaverse characters, its evildoers are rarely as simple as their vile deeds would suggest. And that is so here, as well. But we also get to meet several other great characters (at least one of which we'll see elsewhere) and the art matches the writi...

Some major Mike Mignola malarky sans Hellboy. Evil cults worshipping the Great Darkness that resides in us all don't cha know. Set in the 20's in Burma & Thailand w/flashbacks to Germany & Britain, it's capably scripted & capably drawn. The colors are the major achievement, (Dave Stewart) not quite as darkly colored as other Mignola comix I've read. There's a somewhat happy ending w/of course a set-up for more occultic madness in the future.

This exploration of the Black Flame's origins was reasonably entertaining but it didn't really grab me by the throat, if you know what I mean. I didn't think I really cared about where the Black Flame came from, especially since he's dead in the main Mignolaverse books, and this book didn't change that.Christopher Mitten's artwork was really nice, though. It's worth reading for his work alone.

It was nice to read this as a trade. I think the Black Flame is a really cool villain in the Mignolaverse, and I'm glad they took the time to give him an original story.

A decent story in an under-utilized setting, but the ending is unnecessary sequel-bait.

Yeah, this was alright. I don't know what I was expecting the Black Flames origin story to be, but it wasn't really this.This felt like kind of an outdated adventure, almost like it was a comic from the 60's. The evil forest cult and some of the tag along friends that come with them and the Black Flame baaasically being set up with a child are kind of weird, but I know who the Black Flame is now, so I guess they did what they wanted to do.

This odd little side-trip into the origins of the Black Flame character--an entirely standalone volume, not numbered or branded as part of any of the ongoing Mignolaverse titles--may not provide the most necessary or visceral reading, but it's a lot of fun, and introduces some intriguing new characters while also tying together the Witchfinder and Lobster Johnson series.I don't really know what makes one artist's work feel like it fits into the Mignolaverse while anothers does not. It isn't as i...

More (alt) history than a typical comic book, this unusually loquacious read is flawed at numerous levels. Featuring an unabashedly orientalist veneer (that to be fair, probably reflects a historically accurate colonialist perspective) and an unusually wordy word count detracts from anything that could have been (at least kinda) good. All the more bizarre concerns the relatively low ratio of action to its oddly high word count. And while it’s good when comics try to do something different, when

The Mignola-verse mines its past, giving the Black Flame an origin story he didn't really need. Worse, the whole thing feels a bit generic, with kidnapped children, sword-wielding cultists and abandoned temples. The setting is Siam, and even the inclusion of a native-born lead character doesn't keep the whole dynamic from feeling iffy from a racial and cultural standpoint. We have a largely white cast of characters heading into the jungle to shoot down the bloodthirsty locals, and even if the fi...

A Mignolaverse comic with zero recognizable characters save a nod to Edward Gray, this origin story for one of Mignola's best side villains is a bit thin. A adventure story with just the scarcest of character backgrounds for depth, the conclusion is forgone and the energy and humor in most of the Hellboy universe is sadly lacking. And I had such high hopes.

Series: Rise of the Black Flame #1-5Rating: 3 stars - I liked itThis is the origin of the Black Flame, who has appeared as an enemy in B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth Vol. 5, Lobster Johnson Vol. 2, and Sledgehammer 44. This origin story takes place in Siam at a hidden temple dedicated to the Cult of the Black Flame. It follows the journey of two police officers, Sarah Jewell, Marie-Therese Lafleur, and Farang on their way to the temple to rescue some missing children. This was kind of a sad origin story...

The origin of the Black Flame...Not mind blowing by far and not adding much to the mignolaverse but entertaining enough to read because of the exotic time and place and the direct ties with the Witchfinder and Lobster Johnson series.A bit wordy maybe (not to say much in the end) but Christopher Mitten's art is interesting and on the whole it's perfectly commendable to BPRD fans. Better to borrow than buy it though.

Black Flame had always been one of those badass villains from the Mignolaverse who's always shrouded in mystery. Rise of the Black Flame delves into how the first Black Flame came into being. Before reading this book I thought it'd be more about the current Black Flame since he was such an intriguing character from the Hell on Earth arc. But I was pleasantly surprised (and I should have gotten the hint from the title of the book. duh) to find out the origins of the character and what a brilliant...

I'm trying to read the Hellboy Universe in roughly chronological order. Though this is a fairly recent comic it takes place before arrival of Hellboy and the rise of the BPRD. Continuity-wise, it has some fun nods to the later books, but it's far duller and plodding than most of the Mignola books I've read.There's a lot of "I remember the time when..." rather than just showing a story. There's also obligatory racist sentiments of characters you aren't supposed to like. I understand the idea behi...

I wish I hadn't bought all the spin-offs of Hellboy & B.P.R.D. Most of them are mediocre at best. This is another instant-forgettable comic book.

Well, I finally (and I do mean finally) got to this one. After missing an issue and then putting the others aside until I was able to pick a collected edition and then setting that aside for some inconceivable reason - I read it. And it's wonderful. Mignola and company deliver yet another thrilling tale of Lovecraftian peculiarities for the reader's delight. This is great stuff with some interesting twists along the way.

The Black Flame is one of the most fascinating and bad-a** looking villains I've ever encountered, probably my all time favorite in the Mignolaverse. This trade focused on the Black Flame's origins and even though I love this character I don't think I needed a whole story on how he came to be. Sure I wanted to know how he turned into a walking ball of blue/black flame but that could have been told in a few pages. The way this plot was lined out is not a good way to tell an origin story. If you c...

Young girls are kidnapped in 1920s southeast Asia. Two British girls are victims in India, so a British police officer and an Indian officer investigate. A weird lead takes them to Siam, where they encounter an occult investigator, Sarah Jewel, who has her own sidekick, a Cajun woman named Marie-Therese. They hire a guide to take them to the Temple of the Black Flame (buried deep in the jungle, naturally), where a cult is bent on resurrecting an ancient evil by means of human sacrifice--probably...