Customer Reviews

The Coffin

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Coffin is a wonderful book, an intelligent piece of science fiction that meditates on life, death, and life after death with no sacrifice of characterization or plotting. Combined with beautiful illustration that shows off Mike Huddleston's versatility, this book is exactly the sort of thing that would have had my college roommates and me up until six in the morning and loving every second of it.

Dr. Ashar Ahmad has discovered a way to trap the soul at the moment of death, by placing the body in a hermetically sealed containment suit made from a new type of polymer. Heller, the head of the company that funds Ashar's experiments wants the technology for himself, and orders Ashar killed; the doctor manages to encase himself in the suit in time to trap his soul, and sets out to stop the financier. More importantly, he has to determine what kind of life he hopes to lead, now that he is dead.

This book has a very well-done action-adventure plot, very nice character work, and some fascinating ideas about the relationship between the soul and the body and other of life's big mysteries. The philosophical musings don't feel like a forced attempt to give the book depth, nor does the narrative feel liek a forced excuse for Hester and Huddleston to talk about their ideas of the after life. The balance of the two is one of the book's major strengths.

Another is Huddleston's fine art. The book is crisply drawn, the coffin is suitably spooky, and the visions of souls suitably wondrous. Huddleston conveys not only the action of what the characters are doing, but the emotion of what they're feeling. And some of the texturing work here is just absolutely gorgeous to look at. This is a top notch book, and it's well worth reading and sharing with your friends. Assuming you don't have to be up early the next morning.

I've wanted to read The Coffin since I saw one cover in a comic shop years ago. When I saw the gorgeous oversize 10th ann. hardcover I jumped at it and was NOT disappointed. After reading Coffin I automatically pre-ordered Deep Sleeper by the same team. This book is phenomenal. The artwork is simply amazing. I haven't seen black and white art like this since Charles Burns. The story, about life, death and redemption, is fast paced and truly haunting. It ranks in my top five favorite comics of all time.

Read though this in one sitting and I have to say I enjoyed it, but I felt that I didn't completely buy the characters and their motivations. Beautiful art for the most part. I'd love to see more of this world that feels barely touched on in these few pages.

I recently picked up Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston's The Coffin and loved it. It's a hauntingly beautiful comic. And IDW did a fantastic job on re-releasing the book in a wonderful hardcover collection.

Highly recommended for any comic fan.

The Coffin is absolutely amazing. Both the writing and art work from Phil and Mike respectively, are spectacular! Very emotional and moving sci-fi story that is put together in an awesome hard back edition!

Highly recommend purchasing this!

The project that made me and many others realize that Phil Hester is not just a great artist but perhaps (in my humble opinion) an even better writer. Characters with a hard edge that feel nasty and real; a great superhero concept that could have been maudlin and melodramatic, that Hester then cleverly undercuts with wholly imagined personalities; and just enough action moments to satisfy. And Mike Huddleston's really shines here, drawing creepy and cool perfectly, and you can see the beginning of a great artist. The series was so good that James Cameron's LightStorm Studios (or whatever their called) bought the rights to make a movie (don't know what happened with that, but people saw the greatness here).

If you like this, please, check out the other collaboration by these two, "Deep Sleeper", probably my favorite work by these guys. And Phil Hester writes and draws some wonderfully scary and touching stories in his own creator-owned series "The Wretch".

(As to the other reviewer's comments about the production values, my review is based on the original issues of the series. I have heard from the author that the new coloring WAS intentional, that it more closely matches the original intentions of the artist. The price is very decent, well worth the investment either way.)

I think the one star review makes some good points, but this is still an incredibly nice edition of a great story and if you're going to buy it this is the edition, so that's the bottom line

This is some of Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston's best work. It's such a sheer force of creative will and great story-telling that hits on all levels, visual and emotional. I can't recommend this book enough to people looking for a dramatic and emotional sci-fi story with a lot of heart.

This is probably one of the best graphic novels I have ever read, I have two copies of this book, and bought one
for my friend. It is deep and makes you think about imortality

this is a very good sci-fi story. you can google some reviews. i want comment on books quality only.

the publisher used low contrast print for this deluxe hardcover... beautiful black and white pictures are now gray and white, the colored bonus pages are dull, the book looks like a 50 years old copy stored in high temperature.

not exactly what i call "deluxe" hardcover.

most of IDW books are great quality. i dunno what happened here.