Goodbye Hellsing by Tim Ervin

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Goodbye Hellsing by Tim Ervin

06/24/2010 10:05am

Sometimes when something ends, like high school or med school or . . . school, it’s met with some kind of joyous celebration of relief. It’s over. You’re glad. You’ve accomplished something great. Hooray.

And sometimes when something ends, you kinda hang your head and ask why it’s gotta end, like it all went too fast.

Although my time with Hellsing lasted long enough for me to go from being a hypothetical high school graduate to earning a master’s degree in hedonist bohemian pantsless poetry (Six years! Egads!), I’m not walking away from this epic, hilarious, blood-drenched, politically-confusing psycho-manga like your typical graduate. No parties for me. Although I feel we here at Dark Horse have certainly accomplished something great, and although these last few years seemed to drag a bit (one volume per year is tough), I just want more. I don’t want it to end. Hellsing was too much fun. It went too fast.

I remember it like the first day of school, even though I don’t remember my first day of school. Anyway, when I first encountered Hellsing I was immediately fascinated. A vampire vicar who hates the sun is killing townsfolk. Enter a mysterious vampire killer with a big, black hat and a bigger, black gun. It was a bit goth, had vampires, and felt like a showdown. So far, nothing’s breaking new ground here, but the style and attitude of Kohta Hirano’s artwork enticed me to keep reading. I mean, I had to read it. How else would I work on it. But I loved reading it. I loved that style and attitude. You could really feel Hirano in that work, his wacky personality—like that weird friend you knew in high school that was so talented but was so strange that maybe being seen with him would make you less popular with the girls. But let’s not go further into my teen years, we’re talking about Hellsing here. It didn’t take long for the series to absolutely explode into an undead war between Catholics, Protestants, and Nazis. But not just between those archetype character religions. No, they were battling with mystical paladins and powers. They were armed with unimaginable weapons. They were adorned with impeccable taste and fashion. What a combination!

And so Hellsing lurched forward into a frenzy of odd accents and strange names. I’m so glad our translator, through Digital Manga, parsed through so many opinions and options regarding accents and names—sometimes my final decisions could only be made by the most technical means available—the number of hits on google, but fortunately most of those decisions were made for me. Like the name “Alucard.” You know, there are purists who think it should have been “Arucard” because that’s the literal interpretation of the Japanese name. But come on. It’s “Dracula” backwards. How hard is that? (I know, I know. Some of you will disagree. But those of you who disagree had fewer hits on google, what can I say?)

But here we are, at the end of our road. Each volume was like a class in obscure political films, only without the boring lectures and super-long analysis papers (and thank the gods for that.) I’m not ready to head out into a cold, corporate world where Alucard isn’t kicking major ass all over England. But alas, this is the real world, and so I pause in deep thought, reach to the top of my mortar board and flip the blood-red tassel to the other side, and step off the stage and into the mists of time.

Farewell, dear Hellsing. You will be missed, weirdo.

Tim Ervin has worked for Dark Horse Comics for almost 12 years and has held nearly every job in the company, including one summer where he was a shelf in the warehouse.

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Goodbye Hellsing by Tim Ervin

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