Customer Reviews

Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 2: The Chained Coffin, The Right Hand of Doom, and Others

5 star:		(10)
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3 star:		(1)
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Wow, Dark Horse continues the good work with HELLBOY. This second volume, as with the first book, shows us the way this work of art was meant to be enjoyed. The oversized book is handsome, tightly bound and beautifully printed on heavy-stock paper. Sure, the book is expensive but it really is worth every cent. Dark Horse shame larger companies such as Mravel and DC in the presentation, quality and pricing of their product.

Like other readers I was disappointed with the original HELLBOY softcover editions which would fall apart after a few readings due to poor bindings but these new versions are sturdy and will look amazing on your bookshelf. The mistakes of the past have been rectified and the new editions are so different that even old fans will marvel at the way the HELLBOY tales flow across the canvas. The vast pools of black paint now almost resemble liquid velvet. And the reds erupt like pulsating lava. The book throbs in your hands!

Mike Mignola's art has never looked this gorgeous. Absolutely lovely, rich and gothic. Get this baroque horror book now and while away the dark autumn evenings as we head towards All Hallows Eve.

When Hellboy isn't saving the world from imminent destruction, he's doing a lot of little odd jobs across the world.

And by "odd jobs," I mean brief paranormal cases involving fairies, flying hunters, homunculi, "pamcakes" and disembodied heads. "Hellboy Volume 2: The Chained Coffin and The Right Hand of Doom" collects two volumes' worth of the demon anti-hero's assorted adventures, ranging from a fairy changeling to a devilish plot to conquer the world. All in a day's work.

Assorted short stories take Hellboy all over the world, and confronting many different problems -- a baby kidnapped by the faery folk, underground fiends, the malevolent witch Baba Yaga, a werewolf trapped by a centuries-old curse, the Saint Leonard worm (a dragon), a spectral huntsman followed by berserkers, a Japanese house full of bouncing heads, a seance gone horribly wrong, and the supervampire Varcolac.

And Hellboy heads to the ruined church where he was found -- only to dream of a dying witch, her holy children and a devil that sought the witch's "chained coffin." Turns out it has something to do with Hellboy's own origins. Not to mention an ancient, mysterious drawing provided by a priest of the "right hand of doom" -- which looks suspiciously like Hellboy's own hand.

And two bigger jobs loom over Hellboy -- after losing her fire powers to a strange homunculus, Liz Sherman is slowly dying. To save her, Hellboy sets out to find the homunculus, only to find that his crazed megalomaniac "elder brother" is planning to use Kate to bring a new, vast homuculus body to life.

And a demon (which looks suspiciously like a housefly) sealed into a box is stolen from a secret compartment, and is soon "serving" a human master. Turns out they want to lure Hellboy to that place, in the hopes of stealing the evil, apocalyptic powers that he has already renounced.

Mike Mignola is awesome at full-length graphic novels, but his shorter works are even better -- these are lean, compact little action stories with nothing more or less than they need. And it's sort of nice to see Hellboy's more ordinary cases -- if you can call these ordinary -- with foes like a changeling, a werewolf, the fairies and even a dragon.

Mignola's writing doesn't suffer from the shorter format, especially since he happily adapts some folktales to fit his world (legends, fairy tales, saints). There's wonderfully sick dialogue ("I'VE LOST MY ARRRRRRMMM!" "I'm sorry. Really. But... do you really need it? I mean, you're already dead and we've gotta go...") and some poignant moments (Hellboy musing on his "destiny"). Naturally, also plenty of bloody, horrific moments including a a chapel haunted by werewolves, a vampire that can "eat the moon," and a man turning into a giant lizard.

Hellboy is basically your average investigator in most of these stories -- he goes in, gets the job done and fixes things (occasionally being mistaken for Father Christmas). He's a nice straightforward kind of guy with a gruff manner, but Mignola reminds us at times that he has some unhappier facets ("You know how I live? I never deal with what I am").

And Mignola gives us some glimpses into where the "favorite son" may have come from, and the destiny he is still determined to avoid forever. It's pretty ghastly at times. At the same time, we get the hilarious "Pancakes" story, in which Hellboy's reluctant first bite leads to, ahem, hell-raising results.

"Hellboy Volume 2: The Chained Coffin and The Right Hand of Doom" collects many of Mignola's brilliant briefer stories, with a full range of Hellboy's smaller-scale cases.

The Hellboy Library Edition has been my introduction to the series. The first volume consisted of two long stories, Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil. This volume consists of several stories, ranging widely in tone. The first, "Pancakes," is a very cute and whimsical two-pager. "The Corpse" is a short story in the most literary sense. All follow Hellboy closely, with the other characters playing minor roles, and contain tight, self-contained plots.

These bite-sized chunks of comic goodness are ultimately more satisfying than the epic Nazi-Rasputin-vampire conspiracies that filled the first volume. This is an outstanding set of fables, by any standard. Those who are unfamiliar with the graphic novel genre may find this to be a superb introduction.

What can I say about "Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 2" that I didn't already say in my review of "Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 1"? I guess I could talk about how this volume is full of short stories instead of novel length stories(as was the case with vol.1). This collection of the volume 3 and 4 trade paperbacks is chock-full of creepy, fun-filled weird/fantasy/horror/action tales(that's the shortest way I can describe Mignola's genre-bending stories) that are so vivid and unforgettable that you'll be sad when you get to the end. It doesn't hurt that the quality of the book is beyond description and must be seen and held to be fully appreciated. Or that it is heaven for fans of bonus artwork, commentary, etc.

Mignola's art style is the same as it was in vol.1- which is a great thing! Trust me. His drawings are dynamic, creating a timpani, or rhythm if you will, that combines a look of streamlined iconography and abstract essentials with a realism(which I wouldn't call retinal art, which I believe to be photorealistic, but is along those lines in terms of portraying things as we see them with our eyes) that makes for a distinct and beautiful style. Working closely with Dave Stewart(probably the greatest colorist of all-time), Mignola conveys mood through colors. The use of synesthetics to create things like nervous yellows, placid blues, claustrophobic blacks, and angry reds all add to the emotional rollercoaster you hop on when reading Mignola's comics.

In short, the library editions of "Hellboy" are must-haves for any graphic novel collector, fan of Mike Mignola, or fan of weird/fantasy/horror/action stories. These stories are all gems(particularly "Heads" - I REALLY love that one!). And these gems are invaluable. So, for what Amazon is asking, it shouldn't take you long to pony up the dough and treat yourself to some top-notch storytelling. Oh, and reading them this time of year(it is approaching Halloween) makes them all the more fun!

Dark Horse continues to deliver with it's beautiful collections of Hellboy in oversized format. These Hellboy stories are printed on very thick paper stock and the binding is top notch. This is one of my the best quality comic books I own!

This collection includes many short stories and continues right where Volume 1 left off. The great thing about the Hellboy collections is the fact that they are all self contained - some stories might reference previous events, but it's not a big deal if you haven't read them.

Overall, I highly recommend Hellboy Library Edition Volume 2. It's worth mentioning that you might want to pick up Volume 1 first.

I've been waiting years for this. Hellboy in hardcover. It's a glorious thing. This oversized volume is beautifully designed. It rivals DC's Absolute series in its presentation.

Almost everything is great about this book and the other two published volumes.

My major gripe is that the original covers are in a duotone for some reason instead of the original full color. Also, the image on the front cover of this and the other two books is very easily mangled if you are not careful handling it.

Maybe when they are done with all the volumes there will be a slim hardback/softcover of all the color covers from the original issues.

I bought 2 Hellboy library edition books for my son-in-law for Christmas & he was thrilled! He said the quality was wonderful & they arrived in perfect condition.

This wonderfully bound and collected work of art/book covers the acclaimed Hellboy series and movies. The book Hellboy Volume 1 collects the first two story-arcs-Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil-with the original introductions by Robert Bloch and Alan Moore. This is one of the more important collections within the Hellboy series, as the two story arcs along with some bits from BPRD that show how Hellboy was found and discovered, are spread across multiple series and volumes, which can be found here in this book. You get to learn how Hellboy was discovered, and what happens through most of the series that is also covered in the movies. This is like owning everything; the even better part is that there is a volume two that covers the Golden Army saga, and even more of Hellboy's beginnings.

In all this is a high quality book that will make just about every Hellboy fan jump for joy to get their hands on this volume and its companion volume. Hellboy is one of the more fascinating characters to be developed by Alan Moore, and goes back to many of his roots with 2000AD and work that he did previously. There are excellent story lines, wonderful art, sturdy and very durable to tolerate a lot of reading or general book abuse. The story lines are assorted with Hellboy traveling the world solving problems and generally thumping the bad people. What is nice is that these are really collections of many of Mignola's shorter stories, with a continuity to make them all make sense to the reader.

One of the better Hellboy collections out there, well worth getting and holding on to, both volumes make an awesome present or gift to anyone who has any interest in Hellboy at all. This book is a 5 star book, well worth getting, reading, owning, and enjoying.

As a big fan of Hellboy and Mike Mignola, I am glad to see HellBoy getting the deluxe treatment. Beautiful HC done right. A Must for any HellBoy fan!