Product Description: Mike Mignola's story notes accompany the long out-of-print stories, giving insight into their creation and inspiration. Some consider Mignola's short stories better than the full-length novels, and this collection makes a strong argument for that, especially with Mignola's masterpiece, "The Corpse."
Overall good transaction. Product was as described. In flawless condition. I will continue to buy from Space Cat.
It's ok The first two had more engaging plots. This is more like a short story collection.
Creatures of another world Mike Mignola's first two full-length graphic novels were basically two halves of one long story.
"Hellboy Volume 3: The Chained Coffin and Others" is brilliant in a totally different way. This is a whole bunch of short stories that explore Hellboy's less prominent paranormal cases, as well as answering some questions left over from Mignola's longer stories. And we finally get some answers about where the demon-hero actually came from.
The first story involves Hellboy's attempts to get a baby back from the fairy folk -- and to do so, he has to get a dead body buried before daybreak. Problem is, none of the graveyards are willing to take him. Then he has to deal with a very unique fairy with very large iron shoes, the legendary Russian witch known as Baba Yaga, and Hellboy's Yuletide attempts to free a young girl from an underground monster.
Then Hellboy heads to the ruined church where he was found. While he sleeps, he dreams of a dying witch's plea to her children -- a priest and a nun -- to keep her save from "my devil." But the devil that returns wants the witch's chained coffin -- and reveals something about Hellboy's own origins.
And when a priest friend of Hellboy's is brutally killed in a tiny Balkan village, he starts digging into the gruesome history of the mysterious Grenier family -- who were supposedly cursed to become wolves every seven years. Apparently one of the Greniers may still be alive -- and for whatever reason, he's gunning for Hellboy an his friend Kate.
Finally Mignola picks up a loose thread from a prior story -- 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...
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 -- a changeling, a werewolf, and a few of the fairies.
Mignola's writing doesn't suffer from the shorter format, especially since he happily adapts some folktales to fit his world. 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 (the fate of the fairy folk). Naturally, also plenty of bloody, horrific moments including a gruesome banquet and a chapel haunted by werewolves.
He also takes the chance to wrap up a couple of loose threads -- namely Baba Yaga and her nasty clash with Hellboy in a wrecked graveyard, and Hellboy's search for the homunculus that drained Liz's powers in "Wake the Devil." One is a sequel and one is a flashback, but they show Mignola's attachment to his fictional world.
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). And Mignola gives us some glimpses into where the "favorite son" may have come from, and the reason why a priest and nun's ghosts were seen earlier in the series. It's pretty ghastly.
Graphic novelists don't usually fare as well in short works, but "Hellboy, Volume 3: The Chained Coffin and Others" is actually better than Mike Mignola's longer works. Definitely a must-read... just not after dark.
hellboy books Hellboy Volume 3: The Chained Coffin and Others (Hellboy (Graphic Novels))excellent purchase, received on time for christmas, recipient was very pleased
Graphic SF Reader A collection of seven stories, that range from being plain, straight out funny, to the more touching pathos of the Wolves of St August.
In 'The Corpse', Hellboy has to strike a deal with a dead man to help him find and return a child, and this is probably the strongest story in the collection.
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