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[QUOTE=seusilva;3596146]I was not really interested about it at first, but this story is amazing!! Loving the art, even better than Baltimore.
I wonder if Hellboy in Hell continued forever as Mike originally intended this tale would be an arc of the series... what do you guys think?[/QUOTE]
I think that might be where the concept of this story was originally conceived. A bunch of the In Hell stories had Hellboy crossing paths with his old enemies (Eligos, his bride, the vampire of Prague) and Koshchei could’ve been a part of this reckoning with the events of his life.
I’m interested to see if the framing story gives us some more context on the more current events of the Mignolaverse in the last issues.
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[QUOTE=seusilva;3596146]I was not really interested about it at first, but this story is amazing!! Loving the art, even better than Baltimore.
I wonder if Hellboy in Hell continued forever as Mike originally intended this tale would be an arc of the series... what do you guys think?[/QUOTE]
I'd imagine, but it would have taken a very different shape.
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I'm surprised this isn't getting talked about more. For me, this book has been a breath of fresh air in the Roberson era. I'm sort of sad there's only one more issue.
Maybe more people will read it when it's collected?
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Mike and Ben are killing it on this book. I can't wait to see how it wraps up, but I'm also sad to see it go.
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#5 may have been the best issue yet. Wow. This is one of best Mignolaverse books ever.
I hope there are more books like this and [I]Frankenstein Underground[/I] planned.
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[QUOTE=LobsterJohnson;3652042]#5 may have been the best issue yet. Wow. This is one of best Mignolaverse books ever.
I hope there are more books like this and [I]Frankenstein Underground[/I] planned.[/QUOTE]
Couldn't agree more. Buying the new Hellboy omnibuses, and I'm putting it, underground and witchfinder between the covers :)
Been long since I read something as imaginative as it. Love the story telling frame. Koschchei telling about a weird slayride to hellboy over a drink in a bar in hell :D
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The final issue is out tomorrow! Unfortunately I have to wait two weeks until my copy arrives :mad:, but I'm very excited to read it.
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This was a wonderful book from the get go. If it were a stand alone story of Koshchei's life told linearly I'd have loved it. Adding in Hellboy, and it taking place in Hell was a wonderful touch. Having the final issue do what it did took it to another place.
I won't get into spoilers, but how this ends up functioning in the chronology of things is so great. I love that it's just sort of elliptical, too.
Surprised there's so little being said about this on here.
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[QUOTE=Joker;3715726]Surprised there's so little being said about this on here.[/QUOTE]
In other places (Twitter, Reddit, Facebook) I've seen nothing but strong positive reactions.
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The positive reactions really have me scratching my head, it started off really well but the whole clip show style ending felt like filler to me. I did love the last conversation between Hellboy and Koshchei had on the beach where Hellboy gave him the lay of the land in Hell before vanishing but the pages before that? Useless. I read those stories before so I didn't need to see them retold again, especially as the summaries added nothing new.
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I liked the recap ending. I don't remember every Hellboy story by rote. I also like how it leads to Hellboy's return in BPRD. (I assume that is what happens)
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[QUOTE=thwhtGuardian;3717386]The positive reactions really have me scratching my head, it started off really well but the whole clip show style ending felt like filler to me. I did love the last conversation between Hellboy and Koshchei had on the beach where Hellboy gave him the lay of the land in Hell before vanishing but the pages before that? Useless. I read those stories before so I didn't need to see them retold again, especially as the summaries added nothing new.[/QUOTE]
To me it seems that the storytelling is not meant to merely flow evenly and neatly, but instead that it aims to be organic and plain graphical at times, for instance how elements from various earlier stories and even titles may prove to become embedded or make sense for the reader as much as the characters not at once but from a later perspective. Like the Pluto and Gamori bits mentioned In Hell both as earlier than that, but when those pop up for Koshchei, they seem only the more speaking, should a reader have picked up on them before already.
Whereas those instances when a character graphically becomes engulfed into a story, or when the story kind of literally becomes fragmented like through a prism becoming rearranged, to signal the flow or feed is gonna end or the story is to turn into imagery more rather, like the pacing changes - as occurring at the end of Hellboy In Hell but also at other occasions - seems done poignantly and purposefully, for me at least.
I truely love how as such Hellboy's stories often remain much like mr Mike's personal creator-owned thing - in the sense that those stories don't always read like traditional comics but like quite particular ones more rather.
Similar to how folkore often seems to reference hard-to-get or startlingly mysterious encounters, which seem only natural or logical as proving not merely logical or easy to get all the time.
Stories like "The Corpse" may appear pretty straightforward but a tale like "The Island" or either "The Iron Shoes" doesn't seem about being straightforward all that much. Graphical and in-the-face very much, but easy or evenly I wouldn't think so. And I'd get it if people like Koshchei for being just as niftily folkloric and startling to read.
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[I]Finally[/I] got my copy yesterday! Geez, what an ending. This and [I]Frankenstein Underground[/I] both seemed like isolated side stories, but at the end they become so much more important. This book was one of the best stories [I]ever[/I] in the Mignolaverse, and I can't wait to see what the creative team does next.
The second half of the book was the real highlight, but it was very cool to see Ben Stenbeck's take on [I]Darkness Calls[/I] and Hellboy's first time meeting the Baba Yaga.
I wonder if we'll ever see Koshchei again.
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I figured I'd skip buying this in regular issues and just wait for a trade collection.
[quote][img]https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/covers/600/28/28872.jpg[/img]
[B]Koshchei the Deathless TPB[/B]
Sent to kill Hellboy by the Baba Yaga in Darkness Calls, Koshchei the Deathless hinted at a long and tragic life before being enslaved to the Russian witch. Now Koshchei relives every horrible act on his road to immortality and beyond, with none other than Hellboy himself--in Hell.
Mignola reunites with one of his favorite collaborators, Ben Stenbeck (Frankenstein Underground, Witchfinder: In The Service of Angels, Baltimore) to explore Koshchei's past. This volume collects the complete six-issue series plus bonus material.
Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Ben Stenbeck
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Mike Mignola
Publication Date: September 19, 2018
Format: FC, 168 pages; TPB; 6 5/8" x 10 3/16"
Price: $19.99[/quote]
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Just finished rereading the trade, and I would pay damn good money for an occasional Koshchei In Hell miniseries. What a stunning book.