Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best III

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best #3

by John Bolton, Lana Wachowski, Miran Kim (Illustrator)

Comics' greatest talent unleashed on Barker's horrifying world of warring order and chaos. The third Hellraiser collection features over 320 pages (14 stories) in jaw-dropping full color, including the complete poster art galleries from the original publications. Stories include: "In These Blue Depths Lie Hell" by Lurene Haines & Ray Lago; "The Sweet Science" by Erik Saltzgaber, Mike Zeck, and Phil Zimelman; "Later" by C.J. Henderson, Vincent Cecolini, and Colleen Doran; "Lingerings" by James Robert Smith & Jamie Tolagson, "Firetrap" by James Robert Smith & Mike Hoffman; "Birth Rite"; "Angels to Some, Demons to Others" by John Bolton; "Closets" by Matrix co-creator Larry Wachowski and Miran Kim; "Under the Knife"; "I in the Pyramid"; "Glitter and Go" by Ron Wolfe & Dan Spiegle; "The Tontine" by Scott Hampton & John Van Fleet; and "To Prepare a Face" by Jan Strnad & Mark Chiarello.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I was only pretty lukewarm on the big story arc, liking the concept of order vs chaos more than it's less-than-scary execution.

BUT, there were a couple of interesting additions to this volume worth note: Lana Wachowski (of much later Matrix fame) wrote an issue that was pretty interesting, and Neil Gaiman (with Dave McKean, and Mike Mignola (Hellboy).

It's easy to forget that Hellraiser influenced a HELL of a lot of folks. No more cheesy teen flicks for our horror viewing pleasure, please. :)

[TAP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone else excited for the Hellraiser reboot?

[Orrin Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the stories in the previous volumes I've been reading, the comics collected here all tread pretty familiar ground, though they do so with occasionally brilliant ideas or striking art. This volume has "To Prepare a Face," one of the stories I originally started digging back into these in search of, but I had already found it elsewhere, too. The Bernie Wrightson story is in here, too, as is "The Tontine" by Scott Hampton, one of the best stories to come out of my re-reading of these old Hellraiser comics so far. The best part about this volume, though, may be that it also contains pages and pages of pin-up work, which is often more fun than the stories themselves.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was reading the stories which on their own were good stories and some had amazing art, I could not help getting to the point that I was being told knock knock jokes in reverse order, like every story ends the same way, knock knock. Maybe I am the only one that feels that way and I hope it is the case, but if all of Stephen kings books ended the same way I think he would have a few best sellers and then people would kind of lose interest. I can still say this is a good read but I would not recommend this to kids before high school, much adult content, which by the way is a personal pet peeve I have about comics, but that I will save as a rant for another day.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

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