Hellbound

Highway to Hell #1-4

by Victor Gischler, Riccardo Birchielli (Illustrations)

Crime/humor novelist Victor Gischler has written a number of licensed titles ( Spike-- A Dark Place, Phantoms of the Black Coast ) as well as some original stories ( Clown Fatale, Kiss Me, Satan ) for Dark Horse. Hellbound will be his third. Featuring art by Riccardo Burchielli who illustrated the DC/Vertigo titles DMZ and Northlanders .

When two disgraced FBI agents are sent to investigate gruesome murders along Route 5, they discover there's a lot more going on than a simple string of bodies left by some garden-variety serial killer. Horrific nightmares are tormenting the small towns along the highway, and only one man in junkyard armor keeps them at bay.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Comics

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

Victor Gischler is an American author of humorous crime fiction.
Gischler's debut novel Gun Monkeys was nominated for the Edgar Award, and his novel Shotgun Opera was an Anthony Award finalist. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese. He earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of Southern Mississippi. His fifth novel Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse was published in 2008 by the Touchstone/Fireside imprint of Simon & Schuster.

He has also writes American comic books like The Punisher: Frank Castle, Wolverine and Deadpool for Marvel Comics. Gischler worked on X-Men "Curse of the Mutants" starting in the Death of Dracula one-shot and continued in X-Men #1.

Gun Monkeys has been optioned for a film adaptation, with Lee Goldberg writing the script and Ryuhei Kitamura penciled in to direct.

Reviews

[Jacinta Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was full of supernatural creatures, corrupt cops, rogue FBI agents, blood, and gore. And I loved every second of it. If you're into crazy page-turning storylines and aren't bothered by pages upon pages of graphic violence, then this graphic novel is definitely for you.

[Melissa Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is about all the evils out in the world and the ones who keep that evil in check. Good graphic novel with a fun story and great artwork. There were some frames during fight scenes that I had trouble discerning what was actually going on. At those times it was a bit frustrating but was able to move forward and enjoy the rest of the book.

[Nate]

Solid. I picked this up because I’m on a horror kick and it looked like grisly fun. Hellbound sees two disgraced FBI agents called in to investigate a series of gruesome murders in the rural Northeast. They get caught up in a war between vampire demons and an armored junkyard warrior called the Obscurer. There’s a real giallo feel to the story, which makes sense given that it’s published by Italian Job Studio. Gischler keeps the story moving nicely with good dialogue and action. Some scenes are super gory, and Riccardo Burchielli gives the book a dirty, Texas Chainsaw-type look. The flashback sequences by Francesco Martina are also well done. It’s nothing mind-blowing, but Hellbound is an entertaining, bloody slab of horror noir.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was pretty damn good.

[Prince Jhonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speedy and ridiculously entertaining pulp-horror, frankensteining together the best elements of splatterpunk and monster movies. Reminds me a lot of David Lapham's FERALS in its approach.

[Jezreel]

Loved. Funny, gory, great illustrations - enjoyable read all the way through.

[Holly Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough about Hellbound. This is a graphic novel that is absolutely batshit crazy, with no predictable moments and great characters. The artwork and creature design is phenomenal, as are the plot and writing.

Two FBI agents, Agent Brew and Agent Mirchandani, are not department favorites. As a result, they have to deal with all the weird cases that nobody else will touch. This means the cases that will most likely never be solved, the gory cases, and the downright occult cases (which they don't realize are paranormal at the time). They are called into a small town for a case that is totally out of the scope of the local police force. While investigating, they encounter a werewolf, which bites Agent Mirchandani when the Agents get in between Dusker and the werewolf. Dusker is an obscurer, one of a line of ancient guardians that keep the monsters in check. His adversary, Marion, chooses to mount a full-scale attack on Dusker and the Agents.

The final showdown is fantastic! There are more tidbits on the complicated history between the obscurers and the monsters, as well as a plethora of extremely creative and detailed monsters. (One of my favorites has to be the tree-root thing with a huge eye and a cemetery growing out of it's shoulders. It may not sound like much, but it's really a sight to behold!)

The ending is aggravating, but only because I wanted to know what happened next. The pages flew by, and before I knew it, it was all over. I'm hoping there's another (several) volumes, because this is a story I'm extremely interested in following.

[Mark Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty decent for a graphic novel, although it was not quite what I was expecting. But, the writing style is consistent with Gestapo Mars, which I read earlier this year. There is some good humorous dialogue between some of the characters.

[Paolo D'Alessandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard boil some horror and prepare to meet hell in this high voltage graphic novel! Some interesting stuff happening despite some cliché characters and too-well-known plot devices. Worth a read though.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars