Hellboy Library editions...

[slink]

I am interested in getting in reading Hellboy, having only ever watched the film, and stumbled on the new library edition. Does this contain everything that was in the tpb? I am a bit of a completist when it comes to these kind of things and i know once i start reading i will want to read everything so i am not sure which to buy. the library edition looks amazing but would i be better off with the tpb?

[parrish]

The Library Edition contains both Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil TPBs. Its well worth getting, IMHO.

[Holden]

Get the library edition.
It's huge and amazing at the same time.
It looks good on a shelf too.

Ebay and Amazon both have it for 30 bucks or so.
At that price, it's way more than worth it.

[slink]

Thanks for the advice guys. i bought the library edition and the art of hellboy too - both absolutely beautiful. I know i am probably a bit late to the party but it feels nice to discover something new. I am not a huge comic book reader (although i love and collect a lot of Chris Ware works) but i will definitely be getting more of Mike's stuff from now on.

[hellboyone]

Mike Mignola and Chris Ware? That's practically all you need. :)

[Scott Allie]

We're putting Vol. 2 to bed now. It contains the entire contents of Right Hand of Doom and The Chained Coffin and Others, reshuffled so all stories appear in chronological order, with a huge sketchbook section. So everything from the two trade paperbacks—except some sketchbook material that we already recycled into Library Vol. 1. Plus a very nice afterword from Mike on writing.

—Scott
Solomon Kane on Myspace
http://myspace.com/darkhorsepresents...=11&storynum=2

[jackups]

Im really going to try hard to pick these up, just so much damn crap needs be brought first : P
These libarry editions are just great to have , really last for ahell of alogn time, and that totally worth it.

[Juno Reactor]

We're putting Vol. 2 to bed now. It contains the entire contents of Right Hand of Doom and The Chained Coffin and Others, reshuffled so all stories appear in chronological order, with a huge sketchbook section. So everything from the two trade paperbacks—except some sketchbook material that we already recycled into Library Vol. 1. Plus a very nice afterword from Mike on writing.
Could you list the stories in said chronological order? Or am I gonna have to bust open the TPBs and/or The Companion? :smile:

Also, do you mean to say the sketchbook in Library Vol. 2 will be the same as Library Vol. 1?

Finally, I'd like to close this mini-Q&A by mentioning that you can put the book to bed at my house. I have a nice comfy bed. It'll be happy here.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[Scott Allie]

It's all the contents of RHOD and Chained Coffin.

No—I meant that all the material originally in the RHOD sketchbook will appear here, except a few images that we already used in Library Vol. 1, because it corresponded to stories in that book. Library Vol. 2 will have most of the sketch material from RHOD and Chained Coffin, plus a lot more—no overlap with the Vol. 1 sketchbook.

Thanks for the invite, but the book is too young to travel without a parent.

—Scott
Solomon Kane on Myspace
http://myspace.com/darkhorsepresents...=11&storynum=2

[Rachel Edidin]

Could you list the stories in said chronological order?

Yeah. And 'cause I'm cutting and pasting from the file where I was organizing 'em, you get the years, too. BONUS!

Pancakes – 1947
The Nature of the Beast – 1954
King Vold – 1956
The Corpse – 1959
The Iron Shoes – 1961
The Baba Yaga – 1964
Heads – 1967
Goodbye, Mr. Tod – 1979
The Vârcolac – 1982
A Christmas Underground – 1989
The Chained Coffin – 1994
The Wolves of Saint August – 1994
Almost Colossus – 1997
The Right Hand of Doom – 1998
Box Full of Evil – 1999

[patrick r]

Nice! Between the Hellboy Library Editions and the Starman Omnibuses this year is shaping up quite nicely.

It will be interesting to read the stories in chronological order.

[Juno Reactor]

I love you Rachel. That's exactly what I was hoping somebody would post.

It's neat how the story order pinballs so evenly between one trade and the other. Three for RHOD, three for TCC, three for RHOD, three for TCC, and then the one-shots and up. It's probably just a happy coincidence that the chronology worked out so... symmetrically between the two trades, but I'll continue to entertain the notion that Mignola planned it that way from the start.

To me, this is easily the DEFINITIVE Hellboy book. I love long-format stories, but the Hellboy shorts are paramount, and this book combines my two favorite trades into one everlasting tome. This is the book to loan to people you want to get hooked on Hellboy.

So I'm guessing Library Vol. 3 will be Conqueror Worm and Strange Places, another great combination since those two stories are Hellboy's transition from the BPRD to the world at large.

What I'm wondering about, though, are Volumes 4 and up. Will "The Troll Witch and Others" be combined with another, yet-to-be-released short story collection? I'd hope so, since thematically it'd seem weird to put "The Troll Witch and Others" together with "Darkness Calls" in a hardcover. It sounds like DC is the first of four arcs, so between those four arcs there should be two hardcovers. Then "The Troll Witch" will go in another Vol. 2-style short story compilation with another short story trade, containing "The Mole," "They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships," "In the Chapel of Moloch," "The Crooked Man," et al. Overall, that's another three hardcovers, making for six hardcovers overall.

So Rachel, Scott, is that how it's going to shake out? I hope so.

[Scott Allie]

That's pretty close to the plan for now, but you know how it changes around here.


—Scott
Solomon Kane on Myspace
http://myspace.com/darkhorsepresents...=11&storynum=2

[Jankenstein]

I can't wait for Volume 2. I'm a huge fan of oversized hardcovers, and Volume 1 was superbly done. :smile:

[Kees_L]

I love you Rachel.

Yeah, same here :redface:.
Mr. Scott is way nice too, in a Senior Managing sort of way :smile:.

[chiaroscuros]

Yeah, same here :redface:.
Mr. Scott is way nice too, in a Senior Managing sort of way :smile:.

If you had seen him in person, you might change your opinion. I know I did a double take when I saw that spoof film with him and Eric Powell.

Thanks again, Scott for all your hard work! And God bless your choice in hair style....

[Kees_L]

If you had seen him in person, you might change your opinion. I know I did a double take when I saw that spoof film with him and Eric Powell.

Thanks again, Scott for all your hard work! And God bless your choice in hair style....

If I had seen him in person I would know more on his hair style too. Oh chiaroscuros, if you could grasp the profundity of my ignorance...