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Hellboy In Hell Volume 1: The Descent (2014)

by Mike Mignola(Favorite Author)

4.17 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Dark Horse Comics

review 1: Oh Hellboy, you're in it now. After having sacrificed his life to save the Earth from a Hell on Earth scenario, our average joe hero finds himself falling into his birth land. Here Mignola gives us a somber, lonely and stark view of the Land of the Damned. And it's here Hellboy comes face-toface with his father. This was a story twenty or so years in the making, but the impact would not have been as grand had we not had those intervening years to know this man. Hellboy is not without friends here though, as the surprise appearance of a certain hunter of the occult whom HB has never met, but has read about some of his exploits makes an appearance. We start to learn about life in hell and also get an old school Hellboy one shot story. It looks like Mignola is setting Hell up... more to be Hellboy's residence for a lengthy stay and I look forward to his version of it and exactly how or even if our hero can escape. As if I needed to say it but Mignola's art is in fine form, he hasn't lost his touch at all.
review 2: Good stuff! I'm always happy to read Hellboy. That said, this book exemplifies some things about serial fiction that I'm going to rant about for a bit. It's nothing against this book in particular, so please don't take home the impression that I hate it, because I don't. So this book is actually something like the 6th or so in the series. But the only way one can possibly know that is if one consults a list of available Hellboy books. Heck, there's even a "1" on the spine, by which I take to mean that there will be at least one more volume titled "Hellboy In Hell", just with a different subtitle. Even Goodreads, which is usually pretty good about listing things in series order, thinks this is Volume 1. But, as one reads it, it quickly becomes apparent that there have been other books before, which is something of a problem because there are characters who show up and events referred to that the reader is clearly expected to recognize, but, in my case, didn't because I haven't read all of the previous volumes. So the general impression of this story, for me, was pretty random. And, dammit, Hellboy is better than that. I can sympathize with not wanting to scare away potential buyers by putting "Volume VI" or whatever on the cover. "Better not buy that one until I buy and read the previous five," they'll say, and buy some other book instead. But, if previous books are necessary for full comprehension of the story, then there must be some way of alerting people so that they know to, you know, READ them. I like the idea of Hellboy and Mike Mignola is a fantastic artist, but I have trouble reading them because, as I said, it's hard to know which one to read first. If one has been following the comics and buying each graphic novel as it comes out, that's great, but what about us latecomers, especially if we're browsing the shelves of a library that has a few random volumes of the series as opposed to a well-stocked comics shop or bookstore that has the whole series? Some digging on the internet is clearly in order ... It's not an insurmountable problem, sure, but it really shouldn't be a problem at all. It's not just Hellboy that does this, but quite a number of series, both graphic novels and prose. If you're going to write a series, especially one with strong continuity between the books, it's only common courtesy to make the reader aware of that fact. less

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