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Hellboy Library Edition, Volume 4: The Crooked Man And The Troll Witch (2011)

by Mike Mignola(Favorite Author)

4.55 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1595826580 (ISBN13: 9781595826589)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Dark Horse Comics

review 1: This library edition truly stands out from the others. While Mignola may not be drawing all the stories anymore, the quality of the stories is as good and often better than many of the others that make up the Hellboy canon. There are so many exceptional short stories in here. And a lot of the stories are unique or at least unusual pieces, broadening the scope of Hellboy and giving it that depth and sense of an expansive history waiting to be explored that makes the whole series so enchanting. The Crooked Man is an excellent longer story with a couple interwoven plots and Hellboy just kind of happens along for the ride. There are some good uses of mythology from The Troll Witch and Makoma (there's also They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships, but I wasn't as big of a fan... more of this Blackbeard story). I realize any of the stories, perhaps especially The Penanggalan, pretty well fall into this category, but I mean to say that the iconography of the mythology used was such a prominent and endearing feature of the stories. And both Dr. Carp's Experiment and Makoma add a great deal of depth and an odd toying with time and time travel that is too fun to miss. While I do enjoy the longer stories that flesh out the central plot of Hellboy, it's the short stories that broaden and deepen the world and the life of the character that really draw me in and make it all feel so epic and expansive a tale to get lost in.
review 2: Here's the thing. This volume is not as good as the previous 3. Very little happens in the book that seems to resonate through the world Mignola has crafted. It feels like Hellboy has reached a point where now the stories are just stories, individual looks into the life of one of the most creative and original comic book characters ever created. But that isn't even remotely bad.Each story in this collection is still brimming with the wit, style and plotting Mignola (and an assorted crew of artists, a first at this point in Hellboy's saga) has basically perfected with this series and BPRD. I don't know how he does it. Hellboy has always been about exploring folklore from a modern perspective, a mixture of Ghostbusters, The X-Files, and somehow James Bond. But that has never gotten old. Mignola is such an expert on the stuff that I feel like his well will never run out in my lifetime. I can read about Hellboy fighting an ancient, mind-controlling demon in the same book I read about him slapping around an idiotic vampire who loves to play cards and know that the ridiculous and the thrilling are still going to blend together perfectly for years to come.I love Hellboy. I love Mike Mignola. And most of all, I love that Mike Mignola loves Hellboy. Because that's what makes it so great. less

Download links for: Hellboy Library Edition, Volume 4: The Crooked Man and the Troll Witch

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