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Hellboy: Weird Tales
Hellboy: Weird Tales, Volume 2
The second volume in the celebrated anthology series features more big names, and sixteen more pages than Volume One, including John Cassaday's complete Lobster Johnson serial.
The award-winning Hellboy series has been lauded as much by other artists as it has by award ceremonies and fans. Over the years, many of the best artists in the industry have offered to contribute, to get a chance to play with the characters and worlds Mignola has created. Dark Horse presents this lavish collection, complete with a behind-the-scenes look at the sketchbooks of the various artists. Collecting Weird Tales #5–#8.
Some of the best writers and artists in comics team up to present stories of satanic theaters, a vacation in hell, and romance in the back of a Cadillac—old-fashioned pulp fun featuring one of the greatest heroes of modern comics.
The award-winning Hellboy series has been lauded as much by other artists as it has by award ceremonies and fans. Over the years, many of the best artists in the industry have offered to contribute, to get a chance to play with the characters and worlds Mignola has created. Dark Horse presents this lavish collection, complete with a behind-the-scenes look at the sketchbooks of the various artists. Collecting Weird Tales #5–#8.
Some of the best writers and artists in comics team up to present stories of satanic theaters, a vacation in hell, and romance in the back of a Cadillac—old-fashioned pulp fun featuring one of the greatest heroes of modern comics.
Paperback
First published October 19, 2004
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About the author
Scott Allie
238 books23 followersScott Allie is an American comics writer and editor, best known as an editor and executive at Dark Horse Comics from 1994 to 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 18, 2024
Standouts were the JH Williams and P Craig Russell drawn comics. Most are just short throwaway tales that don't really add much to the Hellboy Mythos. It's all fine stuff. I wonder if it would have been better or worse if Mignola had more of a hand in guiding the tales to create an overall arc or purpose to the stories.
Love is Scarier Than Monsters
Story: JH Williams III & Haden Blackman
Command Performance
Story: Will Pfeifer Art: P. Craig Russell
Love is Scarier Than Monsters
Story: JH Williams III & Haden Blackman
Command Performance
Story: Will Pfeifer Art: P. Craig Russell
March 5, 2018
Seemed much shorter than other volumes considering the back was filled with a cover gallery.
November 19, 2014
A collection of shorts in the pulp tradition, uneven art and brevity are trumped by variety and whimsy.
April 4, 2019
Very nice collection of various Hellboy stories that cover most of his career in the B.P.R.D. Great collection of short tales. Recommended
July 16, 2008
Lots of great little stories about Hellboy and his friends. The artwork is of an excellent standard. I almost said a uniformly excellent standard there, but stopped myself, partly because that's such a cliche, but also because the art is anything but uniform - a dozen completely different styles appear, each of them quite marvellous. This was actually the first Hellboy book I've read. Volume 2 of a collection of stories not written by the character's creator Mike Mignola is a funny place to start - it's what they happened to have in the library - but I'm keen now to read more.
July 18, 2012
Volume 2 of the Weird Tales compilations was much stronger than Volume 1, both in terms of art and writing. Each individual story seemed like it told a full tale, and there was a lot of variation in the art styles, some which were really beautiful.
November 10, 2016
2016 Re-Read:
Pretty much the same as Weird Tales Vol. 1: some really good stories, some forgettable. This one I reread while watching the 2016 Presidential Election returns, to have something light to relieve some of the tension. Didn't work.
Pretty much the same as Weird Tales Vol. 1: some really good stories, some forgettable. This one I reread while watching the 2016 Presidential Election returns, to have something light to relieve some of the tension. Didn't work.
September 28, 2025
Cool your head is one of the best Hellboy shorts out there- gorgeous art and a real summation of the character. Hellboy is always out searching for meaning, why is he who he is, filling that empty hole with monster punching. What he really needs to find is himself.
My vacation in Hell is another amazing Hellboy shorts. It’s quirky, riffing on Bosch paintings and Dante but still fun and funny. It’s like the best parts of Halloween- a little scary, a little humor.
The other stories are all significantly less enjoyable to me. They all feel like filler and are pretty much fair to meh. I could do without them and not miss much.
My vacation in Hell is another amazing Hellboy shorts. It’s quirky, riffing on Bosch paintings and Dante but still fun and funny. It’s like the best parts of Halloween- a little scary, a little humor.
The other stories are all significantly less enjoyable to me. They all feel like filler and are pretty much fair to meh. I could do without them and not miss much.
October 30, 2020
This volume of Weird Tales in my opinion, is slightly better than the first. The bad jokes most of the stories are here to get to are fine. And the ones that don't have a punchline seemed to be pretty toned down personal things, like the story Hellboy Cool Your Head, which was my favourite in the collection. I also thoroughly enjoyed the 'vintage' Lobster Johnson comics at the end. I'm pumped to get into Lobby Johns soon!
March 12, 2023
Read this straight after the first volume because I picked them both up cheaply and I worked out that there wasn't anything here worth building anticipation towards. This is more of the same with contributions from more artists and writers that I have read and seen in other contexts. This is the kind of book that I might have read repeatedly when I was younger, but for now it will sit on my shelf with my other Hellboy volumes as a satisfying compilation of short stories.
January 29, 2025
Excellent collection of out-of-continuity stories by different authors. Every tale has its own spin while retaining Hellboy and BPRD's core elements. The last part about Lobster Johnson is a nice bonus, too. I would say this is better material than some recent in-continuity comics related to Hellboy and his universe because they lost some of the original Spirit and atmosphere I can find here instead.
November 5, 2023
Again the art prevails from this, but the stories can fall a bit flat just due to the length. These stories resonated slightly more with me than the last batch. As my review of part 1- I would want to see other pieces by the authors ☺️
October 14, 2017
Seriously fun stories and others take a crack at Hellboy.
November 27, 2017
This was a fun romp through the Hellboy world. Lots of great art, themes, and storylines. Incredibly easy to read in just and hour.
June 21, 2022
No tan bueno como el primero, pero bastante bien en general.
June 23, 2022
this book is absolutely amazing.
August 3, 2015
A bit better, but not by much.
So this being the second collection of non-canon Mignolaverse stories, and me absolutely disappointed in the last one, I went into this second collection with absolutely no expectations, and it actually surprised me with a couple of funny quirky tales:
World: As I said in the previous review, there is not much world builing here as it is non-canon. The world building that you see here is mainly to serve the story that the writer/artist is trying to tell. With that in mind, I did very much enjoy the art in the JH Williams III story and also the Dante's Inferno homage story, they were quite fun. Jill Thompson's art in Fifteen Minutes... is also quite wonderful. Overall better than the last collection, by quite a bit now that I think about it.
Story: Non-canon does have it's advantages as it frees the writers from having to following canon rules. That being said, I still felt a lot of the tales here to be rather fillerlike and uninspiring. There were a couple of fun stories this time around (which could not be said for the last collection). Goatman was fun as was the Dante's Inferno homage story. I also enjoyed the Toy Store story as it brought back memories of my childhood toys. So yes, there are improvements, it's still filler but yeah the filler is slightly better this time around.
Characters: As with my last review, there is not much in terms of character development in these stories, no writer here really dives into an aspect of a character and uses that as the main plot for the story. It's a shame as I would have thought non-canon would be the best place to look at these characters when things are not all doom and gloom. Pity.
Well at least that's over and done with. If there is every a Weird Tales 3, I don't know if I can actually make myself read it.
Onward to the next book!
So this being the second collection of non-canon Mignolaverse stories, and me absolutely disappointed in the last one, I went into this second collection with absolutely no expectations, and it actually surprised me with a couple of funny quirky tales:
World: As I said in the previous review, there is not much world builing here as it is non-canon. The world building that you see here is mainly to serve the story that the writer/artist is trying to tell. With that in mind, I did very much enjoy the art in the JH Williams III story and also the Dante's Inferno homage story, they were quite fun. Jill Thompson's art in Fifteen Minutes... is also quite wonderful. Overall better than the last collection, by quite a bit now that I think about it.
Story: Non-canon does have it's advantages as it frees the writers from having to following canon rules. That being said, I still felt a lot of the tales here to be rather fillerlike and uninspiring. There were a couple of fun stories this time around (which could not be said for the last collection). Goatman was fun as was the Dante's Inferno homage story. I also enjoyed the Toy Store story as it brought back memories of my childhood toys. So yes, there are improvements, it's still filler but yeah the filler is slightly better this time around.
Characters: As with my last review, there is not much in terms of character development in these stories, no writer here really dives into an aspect of a character and uses that as the main plot for the story. It's a shame as I would have thought non-canon would be the best place to look at these characters when things are not all doom and gloom. Pity.
Well at least that's over and done with. If there is every a Weird Tales 3, I don't know if I can actually make myself read it.
Onward to the next book!
April 4, 2012
I'm a little conflicted about the two volumes of Hellboy's "Weird Tales." On one hand, reading through them, I was left with the feeling that -in many cases- I'd rather see the creators do something wholly original, rather than tell a tale in the Hellboy universe. But, on the other hand, if they had, and if this was just an anthology of random stories, would I have bothered to check it out? So, while Hellboy is the draw here, convincing me to check out these books, he also sort of becomes the anchor, hindering my enjoyment of them.
This is because, in my mind, Hellboy and Mignola are too linked. To remove the later is to undermine the former.
That said, there are some solid stories here, including Eric Powell's, John Cassaday's (though his Lobster Johnson story in volume 2 was a bit of a dud for me), Joe Casey and Steve Parkerhouse's, Jason Pearson's (an artist who I wish did more work), Alex Maleev's (maybe), Craig Thompson's, Tommy Lee Edward's, Evan Dorkin's (sort of surprising), and Kev Walker's. But, for every hit, there is, predictably, a misfire. And, in many cases, I'm not sure if Hellboy and his supporting cast are the reason's for those stories success.
So, overall, solid anthology series, but one that leaves me realizing there are probably plenty of equally enjoyable anthologies out there that don't rely on a marquee character.
This is because, in my mind, Hellboy and Mignola are too linked. To remove the later is to undermine the former.
That said, there are some solid stories here, including Eric Powell's, John Cassaday's (though his Lobster Johnson story in volume 2 was a bit of a dud for me), Joe Casey and Steve Parkerhouse's, Jason Pearson's (an artist who I wish did more work), Alex Maleev's (maybe), Craig Thompson's, Tommy Lee Edward's, Evan Dorkin's (sort of surprising), and Kev Walker's. But, for every hit, there is, predictably, a misfire. And, in many cases, I'm not sure if Hellboy and his supporting cast are the reason's for those stories success.
So, overall, solid anthology series, but one that leaves me realizing there are probably plenty of equally enjoyable anthologies out there that don't rely on a marquee character.
July 17, 2024
Been of the opinion for a while that drawing Hellboy isn't as easy as Mignola makes it look. Obviously Fegredo's worked it out, and a few others, but most of the artists in this anthology haven't got the goods. The big red dude looks like a cartoon character, or a cardboard cut-out, or an oversized child, or a weird lump of rock.
The stories themselves aren't a great deal better, too lightweight or too silly, not hitting the mark in the way that Mignola's work does for me. But perhaps it's inevitable that when I'm so bought into the original, any deviation feels off to me. For me the only exceptions were Kev Walker's 'Long Distance Caller', maybe the only one of the bunch that has Mignola's gift for pacing and empty space, plus great art, and 'A Love Story' by Tommy Lee Edwards and Don Cameron, frequently close to wordless yet remains both action-packed and deeply touching.
The stories themselves aren't a great deal better, too lightweight or too silly, not hitting the mark in the way that Mignola's work does for me. But perhaps it's inevitable that when I'm so bought into the original, any deviation feels off to me. For me the only exceptions were Kev Walker's 'Long Distance Caller', maybe the only one of the bunch that has Mignola's gift for pacing and empty space, plus great art, and 'A Love Story' by Tommy Lee Edwards and Don Cameron, frequently close to wordless yet remains both action-packed and deeply touching.
February 5, 2014
The short stories, or "weird tales", contained within this volume are very short and they're not really all that detailed. Most of them were very short and sweet, which doesn't bother me having read all of the other Hellboy volumes. My appreciation for this volume came from seeing Hellboy through the eyes of other artists or writers. The illustrations were drastically different from Mignola's original volumes, and even between each small story contained within this book they were unique. Some of the art styles were so cool to see one of my favorite characters in. Some of the stories were a lot better than the others, but they were all serviceable enough to me.
November 16, 2017
My feelings here are pretty much the same as they were for the first volume.
Highlights of this collection include JH Williams III and Haden Blackman's "Love is Scarier than Death"—which deals (in a canonically plausible way) with the mystery of Hellboy's love-life; and Craig Thompson's "My Vacation in Hell"—an incredibly silly little comic, yet one that still feels (for some possibly intangible reason) distinctly Mignola-ish.
Highlights of this collection include JH Williams III and Haden Blackman's "Love is Scarier than Death"—which deals (in a canonically plausible way) with the mystery of Hellboy's love-life; and Craig Thompson's "My Vacation in Hell"—an incredibly silly little comic, yet one that still feels (for some possibly intangible reason) distinctly Mignola-ish.
October 15, 2014
Me gusta Hellboy desde que lo tenía de vista nomás y mientras más leo de él, más me va gustando. Me encantan muchos de los autores involucrados en este tomo y me encantan estas antologías en las que varios talentos exploran un cachito de un universo claramente "de autor", aunque vaya en expansión constante.
Decí que la mayoría de las historias acá reunidas no pasan de la anécdota divertida, y por eso le amarreteo puntaje, porque si no este tomo la rompía.
Decí que la mayoría de las historias acá reunidas no pasan de la anécdota divertida, y por eso le amarreteo puntaje, porque si no este tomo la rompía.
May 8, 2010
Though quite the proud comic geek, I haven't read much of Mike Mignola's Hellboy. This anthology was a fun intro to the B.P.R.D. universe. A tight collection of short stand alone stories each offering a solid punch of pulp weirdness. Will have to check out some more Hellboy, time and budget permitting.
May 2, 2016
HELLBOY RETROSPECTIVE 2016
Volumes I & II of WEIRD TALES are anthologies containing stories outside creator Mike Mignola's canon, written and drawn by other comics professionals. The individual tales differ wildly in quality, but volume I is a little stronger collectively. By no means essential, mostly for the Hellboy superfans only.
Volumes I & II of WEIRD TALES are anthologies containing stories outside creator Mike Mignola's canon, written and drawn by other comics professionals. The individual tales differ wildly in quality, but volume I is a little stronger collectively. By no means essential, mostly for the Hellboy superfans only.
July 8, 2014
I have some difficulty with the Hellboy novels Mignola hands over to other artists. The stories aren't bad but the art can't compare. I enjoyed "Shattered" and "Command Performance" along with the Final Fantasy feel of "Toy Soldier". The rest were all right. I loved and appreciated the Lobster Johnson comic after the Hellboy stories.
August 3, 2014
Una variada y divertida antologia de Historias Extrañas alrededor del personaje de Hellboy.
Siempre es interesante ver diferentes estilos de dibujo más allà del de Mike Mignola.
La historia final en plan retro de Bogavante Johnson ha sido curiosa.
Con todo, siempre me gustarán más la historias largas, a poder ser escritas y dibujadas por el autor original.
Siempre es interesante ver diferentes estilos de dibujo más allà del de Mike Mignola.
La historia final en plan retro de Bogavante Johnson ha sido curiosa.
Con todo, siempre me gustarán más la historias largas, a poder ser escritas y dibujadas por el autor original.
October 14, 2014
La que quizás sea la mejor antología del mejor personaje realizada por más de 20 insuperables autores, en una cuidadísima edición de Scott Allie con toda la muchachada.
Si tenés que leer un solo tomo de Hellboy, que sea este. O el anterior.
O cualquiera de los integrales, bah, que son de lo más rendidores.
Si tenés que leer un solo tomo de Hellboy, que sea este. O el anterior.
O cualquiera de los integrales, bah, que son de lo más rendidores.
January 23, 2012
A collection of other artists doing Hellboy stories. Some are excellent and some are just OK, but the real kicker is the burst of Lobster Johnson stories at the very end. Hooray for pulpy adventure!!
December 18, 2015
A fairly mixed bunch, some of the stories were great, with beautiful artwork, some less so, but even the worst ones were still okay. Definitely a must for any Hellboy fan, if you're starting new, I'd probably leave this one til later.
May 23, 2016
Everyone wants to play with Mike Mignola's toys...for good reason. In this collected series, Mike Mignola let people play with the characters and the world he created (Hellboy), to honor the world that inspired him (tales from the magazine Weird Tales).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews