Baltimore:The Curse Bells

[meorsomeone]

I loved this, got the hardcover and devoured it.
So many great moments, those poor nuns!
I've read Blavatski and never got any negative or evil vibes from her writing at all (with the exception of her espousing some outdated racial ideas that everyone of that era from her to H. Rider Haggard seemed to suffer from, not defending it and I disagree with them but it was common of the age), but I have to admit she made a great baddy.
At first I was taken aback by the way she was portrayed, but the more I read the more I dug it, it's all just fun afterall.
Loved how Baltimore dealt with the madman "adolph" character too, wonderful, just using words.

good stuff, can't wait for more!

[thwhtGuardian]

Fantastic!

I just got my copy in today and I devoured it multiple times.

At first I had some of the same misgivings about it that I originally had about the first volume, that I preferred Baltimore to be more of a background character rather than someone in the starring role but the overall mood really won me over. The atmosphere really became larger than life, so that even Baltimore was front in center in the thick of the action he wasn't really the focus which was what I really enjoyed about the original novel.

Also, I loved that Hitler was the villain. I started to suspect his identity when it brought up the art school but I didn't think it was anything more than a passing allusion until the end, very well done.

And as for my earlier question about how this one ranked against the other stories, I'd say very well; it was better than the plague ships(which was too action orientated for my tastes) yet below the free comic book day issue which I really enjoyed as it kept that mysterious feeling about Baltimore's identity...and of course the novel is at the top.

At any rate, I'm so pumped for the next story!

[gdeo]

Aside from the fantastic story,which i loved...once again the sketchbook section was awesome!

[thwhtGuardian]

Yeah, I really loved early sketches for Mignola's covers, seeing his process is always neat.

[Middenway]

There's also an early version of the Russia trade cover in there too. Pretty cool to see that stuff.

[UnravThreads]

I got it yesterday and read it (by 'it' I mean the hardcover) this morning.

I enjoyed it. I thought Baltimore was pretty cool, and the introduction of Madame Blavatsky was cool. I think she'll be an interesting character in the future (if indeed we see her again). I'm not entirely sure what was going on with the Nazi references, though. I don't know if they were an attempt to link Baltimore to the other Mignolaverse titles (in which the Nazis play a fairly big part) or whether something else was implied, but personally I just wasn't sure what was intended.

That said, one thing did annoy me a bit. I'm not sure I found the use of the term "midget" in the sketchbook to be appropriate, considering in both the US and the UK it's often seen as a derogatory term for someone with dwarfism (or another height-impacting condition).