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heavensdark's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
the_bitextual's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
A hodgepodge of adventure stories from Hellboy, all good. My one hang up is the change of artists. I understand why it happened and do not begrudge those artists, but they aren't Mignola.
thatguitarist7's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
adamskiboy528491's review
4.0
Hellboy, Library Edition Volume 4 by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben and Others is another big collection edition of the series. The hell demon fights more grotesque monsters. There are even a few stories where there isn't any action and instead focus more on the drama, which was fascinating.
The Crooked Man - In the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, 1958, Hellboy sits with a witched girl in a cabin. Tom Ferrell finds a witch ball and shows it to him to find a woman named Cora Fisher. Hellboy asks Tom about the time he saw the devil. Tom replies that it was when he was only 15 years old. A girl convinced him to become a witch. He made a pact with the Crooked Man, a dead local man who served the devil. The Crooked Man's face is exceptionally unsettling! We also get a witch that can take off her skin and turn into a raccoon, the deformed descendants of the colonists who disappeared from Roanoke and the general creepiness of the setting in the Appalachian Mountains. The art style is highly unsettling as well - the witches are nearly as disturbing as the Crooked Man. God help you if you read it at night.
The Troll Witch - Hellboy travels to Norway in 1963 to seek the legendary troll witch, armed with only a wooden spoon, who had ridden into battle against a group of trolls on the back of a goat. The troll-witch was raised alongside her beautiful human sister, and both loved each other. So when a troll takes the beautiful sister's head and replaces it with a cow's, the troll sister gets on a goat, takes a wooden spoon, goes to Trollheim and beats the trolls. She doesn't manage to put the heads back again, but the spoon is so full of troll blood and the sound of their bones breaking that decades later, the trolls would rather stay outside as the sun rises than go near it. Awesome!
The Crooked Man - In the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, 1958, Hellboy sits with a witched girl in a cabin. Tom Ferrell finds a witch ball and shows it to him to find a woman named Cora Fisher. Hellboy asks Tom about the time he saw the devil. Tom replies that it was when he was only 15 years old. A girl convinced him to become a witch. He made a pact with the Crooked Man, a dead local man who served the devil. The Crooked Man's face is exceptionally unsettling! We also get a witch that can take off her skin and turn into a raccoon, the deformed descendants of the colonists who disappeared from Roanoke and the general creepiness of the setting in the Appalachian Mountains. The art style is highly unsettling as well - the witches are nearly as disturbing as the Crooked Man. God help you if you read it at night.
The Troll Witch - Hellboy travels to Norway in 1963 to seek the legendary troll witch, armed with only a wooden spoon, who had ridden into battle against a group of trolls on the back of a goat. The troll-witch was raised alongside her beautiful human sister, and both loved each other. So when a troll takes the beautiful sister's head and replaces it with a cow's, the troll sister gets on a goat, takes a wooden spoon, goes to Trollheim and beats the trolls. She doesn't manage to put the heads back again, but the spoon is so full of troll blood and the sound of their bones breaking that decades later, the trolls would rather stay outside as the sun rises than go near it. Awesome!
jexjthomas's review
4.0
That these are largely independent stories without much connection to the larger Hellboy mythos. That a number of them are drawn by artists other than Mike Mignola makes this volume a little off-putting at first. And while seeing someone else draw the big guy can take some getting used to, you adjust pretty easily when you realize the quality of the stories. Some of the artists work better than others: Richard Corbin and Jason Shawn Alexander both put visually compelling spins on the character, while P. Craig Russell's art feels a bit too much like it belongs in a superhero book. Russell is not as well equipped to draw horrible monsters as illustrators such as Corbin and Alexander. Indeed, Alexander's beautiful, painted pages show just how well Hellboy can work with another artist at the brush, as it were.
In terms of the writing, Mignola is sharp as ever. The stories take place over several decades, beginning in the 50s through the 90s. As always, there's a lot of great reconfigured folklore and while these stories may not deepen our understanding of the Hellboy mythos, they no doubt deepen our appreciation of the character and the world he inhabits.
In terms of the writing, Mignola is sharp as ever. The stories take place over several decades, beginning in the 50s through the 90s. As always, there's a lot of great reconfigured folklore and while these stories may not deepen our understanding of the Hellboy mythos, they no doubt deepen our appreciation of the character and the world he inhabits.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
The volume contained:
The Crooked Man
The Penanggalan
The Hydra and the Lion
The Troll Witch
The Vampire of Prague
They That Go down to the Sea in Ships
Dr. Carp's Experiment
The Ghoul
In The Chapel of Moloch
Makoma
Afterword
Story Notes
Sketchbook
I rather liked The Crooked Man. It is definitely the first Hellboy story I actually liked. The art was good, the writing interesting. It is basically a backwoods Appalachian feeling story that Hellboy just walks into and it basically just works. But it is still Hellboy so I didn't love it. 3.5 of 5.
I liked the beginning art to The Penanggalan, especially that of the girl. But the rest of the story wasn't all that great.
The Hydra and the Lion was a very small story, maybe about Hercules? The art was okay.
I liked the idea behind The Troll Witch, but found the story just barely readable.
The Vampire of Prague was stupid but at least it was short. It did have some interesting art.
They That Go down to the Sea in Ships was a Blackbeard story and was actually one of the better ones but not up to the level of The Crooked Man.
The setup to Dr. Carp's Experiment was pretty good, but the pay off wasn't much
The Ghoul. Not much here
In The Chapel of Moloch. This was another one of the better ones - almost as good as The Crooked Man. I liked the setting and the characters - the payoff perhaps not as much.
The Vampire of Prague
Makoma. A folktale not bad, not great
Afterword
The Story Notes alone were worth a half a star bump.
Always good to see a Sketchbook - even better one with words like this one
All in all a mixed bag. This was a beautifully bound edition with great pages. It was still Hellboy but there were two stories I actually liked and the Story Notes and Sketchbook made it a full package.
The Crooked Man
The Penanggalan
The Hydra and the Lion
The Troll Witch
The Vampire of Prague
They That Go down to the Sea in Ships
Dr. Carp's Experiment
The Ghoul
In The Chapel of Moloch
Makoma
Afterword
Story Notes
Sketchbook
I rather liked The Crooked Man. It is definitely the first Hellboy story I actually liked. The art was good, the writing interesting. It is basically a backwoods Appalachian feeling story that Hellboy just walks into and it basically just works. But it is still Hellboy so I didn't love it. 3.5 of 5.
I liked the beginning art to The Penanggalan, especially that of the girl. But the rest of the story wasn't all that great.
The Hydra and the Lion was a very small story, maybe about Hercules? The art was okay.
I liked the idea behind The Troll Witch, but found the story just barely readable.
The Vampire of Prague was stupid but at least it was short. It did have some interesting art.
They That Go down to the Sea in Ships was a Blackbeard story and was actually one of the better ones but not up to the level of The Crooked Man.
The setup to Dr. Carp's Experiment was pretty good, but the pay off wasn't much
The Ghoul. Not much here
In The Chapel of Moloch. This was another one of the better ones - almost as good as The Crooked Man. I liked the setting and the characters - the payoff perhaps not as much.
The Vampire of Prague
Makoma. A folktale not bad, not great
Afterword
The Story Notes alone were worth a half a star bump.
Always good to see a Sketchbook - even better one with words like this one
All in all a mixed bag. This was a beautifully bound edition with great pages. It was still Hellboy but there were two stories I actually liked and the Story Notes and Sketchbook made it a full package.
seanwpace's review
5.0
Much like volume 3 was important as a turning point in the ongoing plot of Hellboy, this volume is important as a turning point in the creation of Hellboy stories.
This collection contains the first stories in the main Hellboy Canon drawn by artists other than Mike Mignola. Personally I think Mignola's artwork is iconic and a key part of what makes the Hellboy books what they are, but the artists in this book do succeed in capturing something that keeps them recognizable. Richard Corben does a particularly good job of keeping the tone strange and spooky in The Crooked Man and Makoma.
The stories themselves backfill some adventures Hellboy had prior to the events of Seed of Destruction. At first its a little disappointing to not see where things go after The Island, but it's nice to get more instances of Hellboy's work with the BPRD.
This collection contains the first stories in the main Hellboy Canon drawn by artists other than Mike Mignola. Personally I think Mignola's artwork is iconic and a key part of what makes the Hellboy books what they are, but the artists in this book do succeed in capturing something that keeps them recognizable. Richard Corben does a particularly good job of keeping the tone strange and spooky in The Crooked Man and Makoma.
The stories themselves backfill some adventures Hellboy had prior to the events of Seed of Destruction. At first its a little disappointing to not see where things go after The Island, but it's nice to get more instances of Hellboy's work with the BPRD.
frasersimons's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
This is by far the most uneven collection. Always pretty fun, but of the various artists only one was better than the original and the others were a downgrade. Story wise, around 3 were of the same quality as previous, and others were forgettable.