Hellboy in Hell

Hellboy: Library Edition

by Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart (Illustrator)

After sacrificing himself to save the world, this epic conclusion of Hellboy's story follows him on a journey through Hell, where he once again faces off against the Vampire of Prague, pleads his case when accused of murder, and fulfills his destiny by destroying Pandemonium itself.

This deluxe, oversized hardcover edition collects Hellboy in Hell: The Descent and The Death Card, plus an expanded sketchbook section. Mignola's complete Hellboy in Hell saga!

""The prophecies are coming to pass, the threads all coming together. It's a thing of true beauty, really. When it comes down to it, Mike Mignola creating, writing, and drawing the character feels like one of the most important things to ever happen to the medium . . . Epic, perfectly paced, and profoundly dark. Hellboy is comics. It's what the medium is all about."--Nerdist

"Hellboy in Hell may be Mike Mignola's masterpiece . . . Mignola's sparse illustration is given deep, complex mood thanks to Stewart's transfixing color palettes. Grab the first volume, sit down with both of these monsters, and sink into the storytelling."--The Creator's Project

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Fiction

358 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 2017

About the author

Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.

In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.

In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.

Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.

Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellboy ended? This epic comic, a king amongst beggars, ended?

That's sad. Just sad.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 5 out of 5]

8.5/10
Masterpiece.
An almost metaphysical walk from one outstanding composition to another, like a visual modern Pinocchio - the original 19th century Italian novel, a semi-horror story for today's standards.
Geometrical forms barely kept together by the thinnest lines of ink. What's under that flying cape? A physical form? A ghost? Nothing? The difference between negative and positive space disappears at moments.
Thin is also the plot here. But if you are chasing the smokes of the notion of 'plot' then you may have not completely understood the magic of Hellboy. This is the melancholic tale of an ending world. At the same time, a touching epilogue to the life and tribulation of a great comics character. Thank you for the journey, Mike!
Mignola's storytelling approach is more about what I would call 'elegant narrative gestures', rather than convoluted narrative solutions. In Hellboy conflicts are always solved in a simple, somehow anticlimactic way. The author unties the knots of his stories specularly to the researched minimality in which he draws them. "And there you go."
This book is the pick of Mignola's career. A career that has so many facets. One of which is the step by step removal of self-imposed or environment-imposed storytelling tropes. Hellboy started in 1993 full of unhealthy comic book automatisms: serialisation, the origin story, an aborted superheroes team, Nazis, balloons written by John Byrne (which are not worst than Nazis, of course, but they are bad nonetheless...). Seed of Destruction was the work of a man looking for a compromise between free visual expression and what he believed, consciously or unconsciously, the market requested. Hellboy in Hell is the work a free artist who has find a comfortable degree of superposition with his creation: Hellboy is not a super powered guy, a paranormal investigation, a pulp hero. Those were the boy childhood dreams. Hellboy is the great wanderer of spaces.

[Maksym Karpovets · Rating 5 out of 5]

У якомусь сенсі це завершення великої епопеї і водночас сподівання на продовження. Гелбой потрапляє у пекло, тобто повертається до своєї домівки, де з ним розпочинаються нові troubles. Спочатку треба розібратись зі своїми братами, а потім сестрою, які звинувачують його у всіх проблемах і негараздах. Далі треба розібратись із одним вбивством, яке Гелбой не пам'ятає як скоїв. Також зустріч із новими старими знайомими, що давненько його чекають, а також квести в різних локаціях пекла. До слова, структурна організація пекла була створена Міньйолою завдяки залученню різних джерел - від Джона Донна, Мільтона й загалом середньовічної/вікторіанської містики до різних демологічних систем. Якщо в інших авторів це виглядало б жалюгідно, то в Міньйоли - геніально. У нього все працює і тримається цілісності, кожен елемент підсилює один одного, скріплює воєдино увесь гелбойверс.

Насправді це дуже круто вловлювати усі цитати до минулих томів, відчувати себе частиною всесвіту, вболівати й переживати за персонажа. Утім, для багатьох кінець може видатись дещо дивним, невиправданим, але Міньйола пояснює в післямові, що іншого фіналу не могло би бути. Він логічний, адже випливає із перших же томів, які були написані фактично двадцять років тому. Для Міньйоли важливо було зациклити історію, запломбувати основні й зовсім другорядні діри, створюючи просто феноменально герметичний (і водночас відкритий) світ. Після цього вже може бути лише нова історія, новий початок, який очікують мільйони фанатів хлопаки з найгарячішого місця на землі.

[Matthew J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end, I suppose, of Hellboy. Dang. What a long, sad journey. I can't say enough about this series. Mignola taps into so many of the things I love. There's a reason Hellboy was the comic that got me into comics coming up on 20 years ago. It's beautiful, mysterious, melancholy, funny, surprising, and always worthy.
The series is one of the very best. And this is a fitting finish.

[Sjgomzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the epic heart breaking masterpiece of the last collection, The Storm And The Fury, this felt a little brief, and underwhelming. I still enjoyed it, but I have to wonder if this was really necessary, as it didn’t really add a whole lot to the overall narrative. But any chance to ogle some of that awesome Mignola art is always welcome. I added a star just for that!

[Václav]

(4,6 of 5 for the grim, gloomy atmosphere the Hellboy's descend brings in)
I waited a quite long to get into this final book of beautiful Hellboy's Library editions. These big pages help Hellboy adventures to stand out. Well except for the tens of bonus pages of drafts and so on, which feels like filler to have a like-sized final book. But otherwise, I love my Library editions.
And the story is even greater. It completely fitted my slow night with a glass of some nice smoky whisky. There is quite of action and there is less of it and more contemplation, a gloomy grave-y atmosphere. And the setting of some parts is heavily inspired by the old days' of Prague, and that is perfect. I also liked that this story has some epic climatic end. It somehow more like resonates more into a fade. And that felt more proper than ending with some big bang.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected but certainly glad I read it. There is a certain melancholy that runs through the heart of this.

[Gabriel Llagostera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomo final del personaje que funciona más como un epílogo que recorre su historia y su legado, que como una narración tradicional en tres actos. Mignola construye un clima vinculado a sus lecturas con un dejo de tristeza que recorre todo el tomo. Hermoso.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to put into words the thoughts and feelings about a book (and a series) that manages to condense so many thoughts and feelings into often wordless passages that resonate all the harder for the lack of typical comics exposition. Hellboy has always been poetry, a modern version of the Eddas, or the Kojiki, or (specifically in Hellboy in Hell's case) a reimagining of Alighieri's own foray into the underworld.
Perhaps the most abstract and yet thematically focussed of Mignola's stories, Hellboy in Hell takes the titular character from the world he knew, loved and swore to protect, and casts him back into the pit from whence he was spawned. There will be no return. He is dead, he is damned, and he will have to get used to a new life in a new town - Pandemonium. His presence in Hell, however, is a catalyst for inexorable change, and it is up to Hellboy, through free will or determinism, to find his place there.
And it's beautiful. It's horrendously bittersweet, and the end comes far, far too soon, but the final hark back to a seemingly unrelated short story put a lump in my throat the size of a continent. Symbolism on every page, Mignola's art and Dave Stewart's colours have never felt more refined, more in key. It's a book of greys and reds, firey oranges and abysall murk, so inescapably cinematic you can see each scene play out like something from a german expressionist film with a modern day blockbuster budget.
But like that, it's over. And I am bereft.

[OmniBen · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 4.75/5
And so we come to the final instalment in what has been one of the most amazing reading experiences of my life. And though this is the end of the main series proper, there really isn't the sense of loss one would expect during these times of reflection upon completing something so momentous and meaningful. It could be that I have thousands and thousands of pages of the extended universe to read, so it doesn't feel like the ending that it is. Who knows? I'm not sad, I'm happy. Very, very happy.
Either way, one might have forgiven Hellboy in Hell for simply being 'good'. A competent and commendable final instalment to a n amazing series. But hell no, said Hellboy in Hell, you and your meagre expectations can go and suck eggs, and proceeds to whip out one of the most monolithically outstanding stories to ever grace a comic book page.
Mike Mignola is the master of minimalism. His simple drawings, his effortlessly uncomplicated storytelling. It all comes together in such a sublime way as to pretty much bitch slap the rest of the comics industry into submission. Having his art over the final ten issues of this book was exactly as it should have been. A mention here for Dave Stewart, who I believe was on colours. What Mignola is to art and writing, Stewart is to colours.
I really don't know how you could have topped this. Quite frankly, if Sydney Sweeney grew another boob Total Recall style, it still wouldn't be as good as this. High praise indeed. 4.75/5


OmniBen.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing on from the Fury, Hellboy is dead and falls into the abyss where he is surrounded with giant bugs and squids and is attacked by the armored hell knight he fought in the wild hunt on the bridge. The illustration is much less detailed than previous volumes as Mignola himself returns to the drawing board but there are some added elements that make it still dynamic like the runes or markings which is a mysterious linear element. There is also a much stronger colour and tonal contrast which suits the situation in Hellboy is in. It's the afterlife, hell, a non reality.
Hellboy is then taken to Pandemonium, a great Gothic or classic roman structure full of of statues but empty of beings as everyone has left due to the arrival of Hellboy. The only one still there is Satan, sleeping in his chambers. Hellboy later finds out that he killed him there but he chose not to remember ever doing it. There he sees the citadel of the fly and his throne. The tour continues with the river of souls where a blind and deaf giant is forging out of the fish (souls) the dormant army of Hellboy. Looks like an unending pile of giant chess knights. The last part of his tour is the chambers of his birth where he sees a flashback of his birth. Not a nice or emotional scene at all. He there is reunited with his demon uncle, the wondering man. He shows him then the icy prison his father is in for having created him then and out of nowhere, Hellboy's two brothers which we've never heard from before attack him to take his arm and then the throne. The fight wasn't going anywhere so the uncle steps back in and kills one of the brothers to speed things up so he can command whichever one takes power. AS they argue a giant leviathan breaks out of the ice and devours all but hellboy out of nowhere. Sort of Random in my opinion.
The ghost like figure guiding him through all of this and saving him left and right is the is mysterious figure called Edward Grey. Edward gives his rather long backstory which I did not see the correlation between him and Hellboy at all and Hellboy then reflects on his current situation. He is particularly lonely, vulnerable and sort of depressed but for the first time in a long time, free. He starts to build his new world in the grey land of the dead in hell. he meets some old timer souls there and helps them with whatever problem or curse they have. His arrival in hell also completely destroyed the social structure of hell as well as the slaves have taken over pandemonium and the princes and generals dead. By now hellboy is a shell of his former self. He is grey, one eyed and skinny with a huge hole where his heart used to be. One of the comics in this volume has a beautiful water colour sequence. He ultimately still can't really start fresh though without ending the past. His family is dead and hell is crumbling but not finished. Hellboy finally becomes the giant horned flame giant he was meant to be and burns Leviathan and crushes Behemoth. The now winged giant snuffed out the last citadel with his lighting. Finally alone in the dark, he breaks his horns and the end is there. As he wonders alone, a sunrise is on the horizon as a new beginning. He finds a house by the sea. It's his childhood house and he ends it there. I thought the ending was beautiful and I could not possibly imagined anything better. There were long stretches with no dialogue which I really liked as some of the other bits of dialogue were rather boring and unrelated to what was happening.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellboy in Hell was probably not what many of us expected. It's not a vibrant, bustling hell with constant battles going on usurping the hierarchy of hells layers. It's not overtly Machiavellian. It's not Milton, nor Dante. Perhaps a bit Dickensian.

Instead, its a relatively somber, melancholy and dreamlike existence. With Hellboy ultimately finding more rest here, than he ever has had in the past 20 years of publication. Ultimately there's really no big fight, no usurping of the grown (other than a sly reveal). If Hellboy refuses to lead an army (either Satan's or the Arthurian Line) then there is nothing left for him to do.

It's not the epic ending we want, but it's the rest the Hellboy and Mignola have earned. Hellboy is NOT one of my favorite characters, but I understand his importance within the Creator Rights initiative. "I never liked him, but even I have to admit that he ended well". Sometime a creator just feels compelled to cut it off and say "that's that" and having no deeper meaning than the finality.

But I have a feeling the devil will rear his horns and haunches again someday.

[Robert Risher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The finale of one the grandest stories in all of comics doesn't disappoint in scope, even if it all does end a bit too soon. Mignola himself even suggests that it happened much quicker than he meant for it to do, but when he reached the end, he knew it. Without revealing too much, Hellboy turns out to be the fulcrum of worlds no matter where he ends up, and new beginnings arrive across the tilt. This collection is easily the most uncomfortable to read of the entire series, which Mignola likely intended, being that it is set entirely in Hell and populated by demons and the dead. Though I wish the story could have continued, it did have an awkward approach to plot development that saw much of the pivotal action take place off the canvas, in favor of highlighting the emotional repercussions of Hellboy's decisions. While adding gravitas to his development, it also disrupted the established flow of events, making me ask, "Huh?" just a bit too often. The story's final chapter still manages to maintain a firm grasp on its importance to Hellboy's overall mythos, and after pouring myself into the volumes of its runaway rapids, I felt satisfied by the story's eventual end.

[Petra Miocic Mandic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svršetak priče o Hellboyju, najljudskijem od svih demona, nipošto ne i najvećem demonu među ljudskom vrstom, vrlo je vješto zaokružena priča i ne ostavlja prostor nastavku. Bila je to autorova želja i, u umjetničkom smislu, vrlo mudra odluka.
Završnica je, također, dokaz da svaka kraljevska obitelj, pa i ona đavolska, ima posve ljudskih i prizemnih problema.

[Przemysław Skoczyński · Rating 2 out of 5]

W takich odsłonach lubię tę serię najmniej. Mnóstwo przypadkowości w fabule i brak jakiejś sensownie prowadzonej historii. Kolejne postacie z piekieł, w których ciężko się finalnie połapać i w zasadzie nie trzeba, bo wystarczy, że na końcu dostaną łomot. Trochę pustka z mnóstwem pięknych grafik

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful art and tone in this, but the individual stories range from good to so-so.

[Ken Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just...wow.

[Iain Macleod · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ending to a series and character that started as a comic book hero riff with Lovecraftian overtones and then over the years morphed into an epic gothic horror fantasy with a sad, haunting, oblique but hopeful ending.

I could go on and on about how Mignola's return to art duties is looser than before yet still creates moments of epic beauty and horror; gigantic creatures stride across soul and monster filled lakes towards burning castles containing under siege demons, a ghostly court room scene takes place in an empty street which somehow gives way to a giant cat skeleton getting in a fight with Hellboy. Mignola's wrtining also feels looser, forgoing the usual comic book cliches of fight scenes and exposition that in another book would go on for pages and pages, instead coming up with a single small panel that contains a single stark image that explains and displays everything that you need to know carrying yoou on to the next dose of "the good stuff" that Mignola is much more interested in showing you.

Hellboy is and was a great character. A mythic creature with a working joe attitude. One who ignored the call for action for a great reason that puts a neat spin on that old cliche. And this is an ending that is much stranger and poetic than you could expect in any other mainstream comic book. If your only exposure to this character is through the films then please check out the books, the story here goes off creating it's own tone with hints of William Hope Hodgson and Clark Ashton Smith and the spin off books carry the apocalyptic horror scenario to their own epic, catastrophic destinations. It's all great. It's sad to see Hellboy go but at the same time it's great to see him end so well. A great series with an ending that harks back to the classics of weird horror that can easily take place beside them.

[Jinji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellboy in Hell Library Edition! Hellboy died! No spoiler there, that’s why he’s in hell. Anyway, unlike the first and ultimate story twist in the world (Jesus Christ), he doesn’t come back into the world of the living after 3 days. This is one of those rare events in comics where a character stays dead. Instead, the great, and awesome, Mike Mignola treated this like Alighieri’s Inferno! We follow Hellboy through his journey in Hell. Several spirits guide him through his journey, ala Christmas Carol, and in lieu of waking up at the end, Hellboy could treat this as a new beginning into an existence in the new world. Fortunately, most denizens of the afterworld fled because the big red guy came. Unfortunately, the gnarliest, stubborn, and butt-fuckingly evil demons remained. It seems like Hellboy still gonna do a lot of fighting in Hell, much like in life, and that he did. Family matters also come up, from his father’s side, to settle the oldest of scores.

This time, we see Hellboy, not just as a badass, but also a person exhausted and someone who just wants some peace and quiet. Might as well make the most of your time in Hell, right? A good end to an awesome series. Awesome story, and gorgeous art, by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart. Good thing I also bought the Artist Edition of this, way way back. Mignola’s art is really something to behold.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this collection since watching this video analyzing the tenth, and final, issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Xd-....

Mike Mignola's Hellboy is a character steeped in folklore and mythology, and this collected volume contains his final adventure and the summation of his legend. Mignola's art throughout this work is not the standard illustrations that I am used to seeing in comics. The typical photo-realistic is not present here, but Mignola's style offers a dark and spare aesthetic which compliments the narrative while focusing on the ideas of the proceedings rather than the intricate details. The heavy use of black and beautiful colors by Dave Stewart make each page pop out at the reader, and I found myself just sitting and staring at page after page caught up in the layout and pacing. The story is jam-packed with references to folklore and classics (esp. Paradise Lost and Russian/Slavic tales) which peaked my interest and will certainly inspire future readings. It's funny to start reading Hellboy at the end, but this story arc is so well done and truly breathtaking that I want to read the series form the beginning just so I can re-read this work with full understanding of the foundation and overall story.

[Arun · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5

I rarely like the endings of the stories I admire. Mostly it just doesn't live upto the expectations, I find my self disappointed almost every time. And so finishing Hellboy with this volume, leaving things where they were left, stories told the way they were I find myself in euphoria, finally an ending I like. 


Volume 7 of the library editions is in my opinion hands down the best one of the bunch. This is my preconception of the story I hoped hellboy would be, and it was for the most part but this volume did it for me. Couldn't have asked for a better way to end things. This is the kind of story I'm into, deep and ruminating, jumping from one scene to another so abrupt but that it blends the line like in a dream. In this final volume Mike is truly in his element doing what he loves, doing what he does best , like Scott Allie said in the intro.

His rendition of "Hell" is amazing, suits his style or rather he made it play to his strengths. Decrepit and grotesque statues, rivers of blood, ghosts, ghouls and demons and the whole lot, drawn in the style of Mignola, crisp and simple and conveying the depths of evil elegantly. I am sad that there aren't any more stories in the main continuity and that is my only gripe with this run.

[Rafa Frisby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the whole "Hellboy in Hell" collection, but the last 2 tiny fables were my favorites.

[Patrick Sambiasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few things in life that I immediately fell in love with...and Hellboy was one of them. I still remember watching the first adaptation, I must have been 10 back then. I remember the beautiful creatures in the Golden Army. I remember discovering the comics for the first time at uni, I remember the fact that i never needed to read a lot of Hellboy stories to love him and Mignola’s work. There is something that speaks to me. Something that reaches to the darkest corners of my soul and plugs out absolute awe. The colours, the landscapes, the characters, the silence that reigns and yet speaks so loudly. Even just the fact that I don’t understand most of what is happening here...it brings me back to being 8 years old and my dad telling me stories to make me fall asleep. So much darkness, hopelessness and yet there is always light...and Hellboy keeps going. Because he can’t die, will not die, because no one ever truly dies.

[Jacob Betts · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, bitter-sweet ending to the Hellboy series!

[C. Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bittersweet and beautiful. Atmospheric and epic. A fitting and gorgeous conclusion to one of the greatest graphic novel series ever.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

An undeniably haunting, beautiful work of art that also feels unfinished and intentionally avoidant when it comes to its characters and themes. This was Mignola's triumphant return to Hellboy, meant to be a final sendoff for the character drawn by the master behind it from the beginning, but I couldn't help but wonder as I read this if he sort of just didn't want to be drawing it anymore. When Mignola talks about his time drawing Hellboy in "The Island," one of the last arcs he drew before picking it back up here, he talks about how difficult the process was, and how long it took him, and how lost he got in the process. If returning for "In Hell" had any echoes of that for him, I wouldn't blame him. He even mentions in the Afterword of this book that he had a ton more ideas, but just decided to end it when he did because it "felt right." It didn't feel right at all to me, but I have to respect the artist's choice.

Still, gorgeous as everything here is, there's a certain almost laziness to the writing here that bugged me. There are multiple major moments that felt like they should've been explicitly depicted, but Mignola instead opts to only draw around them, making these impactful turns of events happen off screen in such a way that it sometimes wasn't even clear if they really happened at all, sometimes for many pages. I understand that the tone is dreamlike and somber, bordering on depressing, but these are textual things that are actually happening, not dream logic. Drawing random drawings of buildings and statues and observing demons and then cutting to some unknown character saying "Here's what Hellboy did when you weren't looking" kind of saps of it of energy and makes this occasionally frustrating to read.

And the finale really, really does not work for me. The story just stops. It doesn't stop in a way that leaves you feeling empty, or haunted, or longing for more. It's just all of a sudden over. I can't imagine thinking that was a satisfying place to end things. It feels like Mignola just kind of gives up. It's the saddest thing about this very sad book.

Still, it's nice to see Hellboy drawn by his creator one last time, and the imagery here is the real star of the show. I will definitely re-read this just to look at it again. But I wish Mignola had had someone pushing him a little harder to nail the script. With a little more emotional or story meat, this could've easily been a masterpiece.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chciałoby się rzec, że to już koniec (ale już wiemy, że nie) historii Hellboy'a, któremu wyrwano serce i który spadł do piekła, aby wypełnić swoje przeznaczenie. Tyle, że w tym diable jeszcze wiele tkwi i wątpię, by Mignola ukatrupił serię, która daje mu krocie. I szkoda tylko, że zamiast nastrojowej, pełnej dziwności drogi po pandemonium, mamy tu zlepek średnio pasujących do siebie historii, które kończą się tak samo. Wielkim mordobiciem. Autor pokazywał nieraz, że można inaczej (zresztą dlatego ta seria jest tak dobra), tutaj idąc chyba na łatwiznę i grając nieco na sentymencie starych czytelników.

W "końcowej" wędrówce bohatera powraca wiele wątków z serii, co wiąże się ze spotkaniem kilku znajomych twarzy, które w lwiej większości mają jakąś zadrę z bohaterem, co przekłada się na częste wyjaśnianie sobie spraw za pomocą pięści. Zresztą cała ta podróż postaci to swoiste katharsis, które ma doprowadzić Hellboy'a do podjęcia finalnej decyzji o swoim przeznaczeniu. A jest on zniszczeniem, więc jak tylko włodarze Piekła się skapnęli się kto do nich zawitał, to pozostał po nich kurz. W piekle mamy bezkrólewie i totalny chaos. I o dziwo nie ma chętnego na objęcie tego bałaganu na nowe rządy.

Uwielbiam dzieła Mike'a, a seria z Hellboy'em to fenomen w dziedzinie komiksu, który sprawnie łączy dawne wierzenia ze sporą dozą Lovecrafta i miesza to w unikalny miszmasz tylko dla dorosłych czytelników. Siódmy tom jest jednak bez tej mocy co poprzednicy, co może wskazywać na zmęczenie materiału. Chaos w domenie diabła równa się tu z nieuporządkowaną fabułą, która lubi pokluczyć w dziwne kierunki. Kreska jest niezmiennie świetna i same kadry nadają się na wydrukowanie na ścianę. To unikat, tyle że czasami nawet obłędna kreska nie starczy, aby dane dzieło uznać za takowe.

Reasumując, najgorsza odsłona z serii, co nie znaczy, że to nie jest nadal dobry tytuł. Jest, ale w porównaniu do tego, co dane było mi czytać wcześniej spod pióra tego pana - imo krok wstecz. Mały, ale zawsze.

[Ange · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started the first Hellboy library nearly a year ago whhhattttt! And I finally the last one Hellboy in Hell a week or two ago!
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What a journey! I’m so sad it’s now over because boy did I have a great time with it! It’s simple and bold and really is a stand out for me!
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Also thanks to my #bookduds buddy @c for tackling this with me and also for trying to make me understand the reading order which we may have talked about more than the actual reads 😂
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Here’s a little run down about who Hellboy is..
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Hellboy, AKA ‘Anung Un Rama’, AKA Right Hand Of Doom is, as his name implies, a boy... who is from Hell.
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Well to be more specific he is a big red humanoid half demon, with a tail and horns (which he files down to circular stumps which sit above his brow). Despite his gruff appearance, at times brusque nature, and questionable lineage, Hellboy is a surprisingly charming and loveable character. Ahhhh I just love him so damn much 🥰
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He was summoned to Earth by Nazi occultists towards the end of WWII to ensure the victory of the Third Reich. Hellboy was seized from the Nazis during an allied forces raid involving professor Trevor Bruttenholm, founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development, who goes on to raise Hellboy as a normal boy (or as normal as possible).
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As he grows up we get to see Hellboy commences work for the B.P.R.D fighting against dark forces such as Nazis, occultists, and a slew of mythical creatures in a series of stories which have roots in folklore and fairytale which I loved getting to see!
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It’s a wonderful mix of horror, fantasy and well it’s a thing all on its own that I have no idea how to describe!!
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Highly recommend giving this one a go 😊

[Melinda Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way that Hell is imagined in this series is beautiful, unique, compelling, evocative, and just plain fun. I adore all the architecture that is crammed into Hell. Grandiose and rambling ramshackle places coexist in this world and we see old friends like English seaside towns, lofty towering buildings in Pandemonium, and incredible, grotesque sculptures that could only be conjured up here.

Having a story set in Hell itself gives so much more scope to the imagination. The stories are both grand and small, the stories of individuals and an entire system that has existed far longer than you could imagine. We got to meet individuals from all different times, which as a Historian, always pleases me. There was a story with some army deserters that reminded me a bit in tone and amazingness of the book Brief Candles. This is yet another whacky favorite of mine.

The worst thing about this story is that it ends. Now, where else I am going to find such profoundly beautiful dark fairytales with such a charmingly weary everyman? I had really hoped for more adventures with a character I came to love. I suppose all good things must come to an end at some point. I'm still going to pout a little though.

[Cramped Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what to call this. A meta-contextual ending chapter? The end to the main series with symbolism only really making sense with another story outside of the Hellboy franchise and an understanding of the creator?

It’s weird. I really like it. It’s sombre and big parts don’t even have dialogue, taking in the environments the artist had drawn. A version of Hell the artist wanted to make. He hated drawing cars and aeroplanes and many other things. Hell — in a weird way — is what Mike wants to draw. Crooked grey empty buildings with loads of skeletons.

Its ending is confusing and weird, but I wouldn’t want it to end any other way. Hellboy had his narrative on the world’s surface, in hell, it seems as though it’s a symbolic goodbye from the creator, and also a reflection on what decisions he had made to come to this point as an artist.

There is so much Hellboy stuff out there. Added short stories and spinoffs. I simply do not care for that. Why would I ever interact with Hellboy when it ends this beautifully?