http://chud.com/nextraimages/hellboykraus.jpgOur sworn enemies over at IGN have scored a pair of Hellboy II exclusives, the first of which is viewable to your right. See that guy on the far left? That’s Johann Kraus, everyone’s favorite psychic glob of ectoplasm (he’ll be voiced by Thomas Kretschmann, best known as "Roscoe" in SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2)! And if that gets your member a-swellin’, you’ll want to click over to IGN right this instant to see the other two teaser images they’ve posted.

As for that other exclusive, that would be the teaser trailer, which will go live this Thursday at 3 PM EST/Noon PST.

You probably already know the basic thumbnail of the plot by now, but, if not, Hellboy II: The Golden Army concerns a war between the human and spiritual realms. And it’s up to Hellboy and his pals in the B.P.R.D. (The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) to defend the Earth from the otherworldly creatures who’d like very much to destroy them.

I’m aware this isn’t a popular opinion (especially after last week), but Hellboy II is the July ’08 comic book as far as I’m concerned. Now that Guillermo’s got the origin stuff out of the way, he’s free to get lost in Mike Mignola’s richly imagined universe. Come Thursday, we’ll have an idea of how deliriously inventive this second film will be. And then it’ll be a long fucking wait until July 11.