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Zander Cannon

Heck Hardcover – July 2, 2013

by Zander Cannon (Author, Artist)

46 ratings

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It's his own personal Hell! After the funeral of his estranged father, faded hometown hero Hector "Heck" Hammarskjold finds himself the new owner of the old man's house... and inside it, a portal to the underworld! With few other prospects on the horizon, Heck goes into business settling inheritance disputes by contacting the recently deceased, accompanied by his faithful sidekick Elliot. But when an old flame knocks on their door with an important message for her late husband, Heck and Elliot embark on a terrifying journey down into the nine circles, braving the horrors of Hell for an assignment that will reveal more than they ever imagined!
Award-winning cartoonist Zander Cannon (The Replacement God, Top 10, Smax, The Stuff of Life) collects his serial from the hit digital magazine Double Barrel into his long-awaited first graphic novel: a story of memory, friendship, and regret, where the past is dead and buried... but not out of reach.

Print length

284 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Top Shelf Productions
Publication date

July 2, 2013
Reading age

16 years and up
Dimensions

5.6 x 1 x 8.8 inches
ISBN-10

160309301X
ISBN-13

978-1603093019
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When erstwhile high-school football hero Heck Hammarskjöld comes home for his father’s funeral, he reencounters former classmate Amy, whom he’d like to get to know again, while his old team’s water boy, Elliot, swarms all over him with renascent hero worship. But alluring Amy is married, annoying Elliot is persistent, and so when Heck takes over the creepy old house in which he grew up, the latter comes in handy with the cleanup job that uncovers a gate to hell on the premises. Five years later, newly widowed Amy becomes an early client of Heck’s new business of taking messages to hell and back. Cannon really runs with this setup, telling a morality tale within the trappings of a harrowing adventure that tests all three principals—Heck and, reduced by injuries during an infernal exploratory expedition to a mummy-like drone, Elliot down below and Amy up above. Cannon adopts Dante’s moral architecture pretty thoroughly, just simplifying it—not watering it down—for the purposes of his slighter conception. Sturdily drawn, a helluva good (i.e., virtuous) comics caper. --Ray Olson

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Top Shelf Productions; Illustrated edition (July 2, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 160309301X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1603093019
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 16 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1 x 8.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,484 in Horror Graphic Novels (Books)
- #7,324 in Occult Fiction

Customer Reviews:
46 ratings

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Zander Cannon

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Zander Cannon is an American cartoonist who has worked in comic books since 1993. He has worked for nearly every major comics publisher as both writer and artist on such projects as Top Ten, The Replacement God, Smax, Star Trek, and the Transformers.

With studio partner Kevin Cannon (no relation), Zander writes and draws educational comics about physics, biology, geology, paleontology, rhetoric, history, and philosophy.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

46 global ratings

5 star		72%
4 star		19%
3 star		4%
2 star		6%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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M. Murray

Awesome story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 23, 2022

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This would be five stars if the graphics were done to match the cover, and in this case using colors would have greatly enhanced the scenery. Still a worthy pursuit for most graphic novel fans.

Helpful

Bob Simpkins

Creative, exciting, and told with great storytelling skill!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2014

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Heck is a very creative and well-told yet spare epic that despite its fantastic setting uses an emphasis on character to make its impact - as well as some first-rate command of black-and-white composition and sequential art. The story focuses on Hector Hammarskjold, a former high-school football star grappling with an adult life focused on his past glory, whose father's death leads to a turn of events in which he becomes a kind of private detective who literally travels to hell and back for his clients. Without giving away too much, a new client soon forces Heck to confront his own failings and try to avoid the fate of those he has been seeing around him. While reading it, I was both impressed by Cannon's skill in storytelling and puzzled by the simpler style in which he was drawing - less polished than in past works. At the end, an afterword explains that this was by design, as part of an experiment to work more quickly, the effect of which is to pare the story down to the essentials. Good art and sequential storytelling does not require elaborate illustrations, and Cannon makes this apparent through strong characters and a clear narrative. The setting does grow increasingly fantastic and the imagery is just enough to show this, but it is in his command of the comics medium that he makes Heck effective for the reader. Subtle changes in light and dark, composition, and panel size slow down and speed up the narrative. As the story reached its climax, I found myself turning the pages faster and faster, eager to see what would come next. Heck is not Cannon's best work as an illustrator (by design), but may be some of his best as a storyteller, which in the world of graphic novels is ultimately what is important.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Richard ED Jones

An Interesting Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2014

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What would you do if you inherited a home and discovered that, in the basement, there is a literal pathway to Hell? And that, further, you can walk that pathway and descend to the Hell of Dante, traverse through its circles and levels and then get back out?

In HECK, the person to whom that happens decides to set up a business, taking messages to and bringing back messages from the dead and damned.

While it's an enjoyable premise, I thought Zander Cannon (artist and writer) might have been a bit blunt with the story, hitting us repeatedly over the head that the main character was in need of redemption and showcasing the ways in which he could gain it. A bit slow at times, but Cannon filled the passing time with a lovely set of drawings, so that helps out.

If you're looking for time to kill and want to see a dedicated professional turning out above-workman like work, you could do worse than HECK.

Look, I know it's not a great recommendation. What can I say? I didn't love it so couldn't give it five stars. I think it's a nice example of professional craft, so I can't give it three stars just because I didn't enjoy it. So four stars it is, and, thus, the review.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Chris Shadoian

and even the books I like are unlikely to draw a five-star review

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2014

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The only thing I can add to Heck's already well-deserved positive reviews is, well, me.

I'm extremely choosy about comics and graphic novels. I'll rarely purchase something without having the chance to at least leaf through it, and even the books I like are unlikely to draw a five-star review. But I bought Heck without seeing it first, and without hesitation because Zander Cannon has always been exactly what a modern comic creator should be: a well-balanced mix of traditional knowledge and fresh ideas, polished skill and innovative technique—and my presumption was not misplaced.

I've never met a comic I couldn't pick on, at least a little—in fact, I'm pretty sure such a thing is a physical impossibility—but Heck is the closest I've ever gotten. Oh, sure... I could find something. If I wanted to. But I'd have to sit down and start scrutinizing, and I refuse to actively try to spoil it for myself.

Heck was a sheer joy to read, to look at, and to read again. My favorite book of 2013.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

H. Jeffery Hodges

Recommendation: Helluva Good Story!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 5, 2014

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From my blog (which says a bit more and provides images):

http://gypsyscholarship.blogspot.kr/2014/03/helluva-good-story.html

Just a few days ago, I bought the graphic story Heck, by Zander Cannon, expecting from the blurbs that it would be some sort of adventure story about a descent into Hell, and it is that, but it's also so much more!

The story is -- one might say -- a postmodern retelling of Dante's Inferno, and it's actually an ethically profound story, something that I hadn't anticipated!

The story affirms the virtues of loyalty to friends and courage to protect them, as well as the importance of rejecting various vices that Dante once warned about, but it also shows the difficulty of refraining from succumbing to temptation, due to the power of desire and the weakness of the will.

At the same time, Heck is a helluva good story!

Helpful

Wandering One

I enjoyed it, good story, weird art.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 2, 2014

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It's interesting that this is created from old characters (who were rendered in regular comic style). The story is actually quite interesting, following in the footsteps of Dante's Inferno. My only beef is that the avant garde crudely rendered black and white art tended to be a little distracting. But after getting about half way through, that no longer seemed to be an issue in my mind because though the rendering is very loose, the actual visual storytelling is excellent. This is a classic hero's quest.

Definitely worth purchasing.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2015

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It's no spoiler to say that the characters created by Zander Cannon develop from paper thin to emotionally complex by the end of the story. That's the best aspect of the journey depicted here, and the layers of hell, as the main character says, are really just in your head. Heck works as a square-jawed shaman of sorts, but he's the one who gets the most healing in the end.

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gav downie

Great Stuff!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 8, 2014

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Zander Cannon writes and draws a fantastic yarn with heart and soul. Thoroughly worth reading!

pedro gamonal reina

Gran comic

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on November 6, 2019

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No he podido dejarlo hasta acabarlo. Aunque el dibujo es muy simple , posiblemente es lo que mejor le vaya a la historia. Lo he disfrutado mucho, aunque no sea demasiado original, es inteligente, humano y no se pierde un momento todo fluye muy bien.

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Heck Hardcover – July 2, 2013

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