Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best III Summary and Reviews

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best III
by Various

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best III
List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $20.99
You Save: $5.96 (22%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.37 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Various
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-08-01
ISBN: 097538080X
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Checker Book Publishing Group

Book Reviews of Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best III

Book Review: A COLLECTION OF DEPRAVITY AND DESPAIR
Summary: 5 Stars

I first became aware of Clive Barker back in the late 1980's when a friend turned me onto his Books of Blood series. Barker was really unlike anyone at the time as we went right for the throat with a raw, visceral, and yes quite graphic style. Barker's had several of his stories turned into film but the most famous was the Hellraiser films. Barker actually directed the first film and wrote the screenplay. In the 90's Marvel Comics Epic line had a Hellraiser comic series and Checker Books has been doing a fantastic job of collecting these fantastic stories into trade paperback format. This is the third collection and includes fifteen stories from some of the top artists and writers in the world of comics including: Jan Strnad, John Bolton, Berni Wrightson, Scott Hampton, and many more. This massive trade also includes dozens of full page illustrations, darkly complementing the stories within.

Among the stories in this volume that rank as standouts:

"To Prepare a Face" by Jan Strnad and Mark Chiarello is a silent film era story about (although never mentioned by name) silent horror star Lon Chaney Sr., the "Man of a Thousand Faces". We'll find that it takes more than just great make-up to turn Chaney into the memorable characters like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom of the Opera".

"The Warm Red" by Strnad and Berni Wrightson concerns a middle-aged con-woman who looks to bilk a country hick out of his home because she knows that a development country will be soon building a theme park in the area. The temptress soon finds herself making another deal for her very life...with a Cenobite!

Larry Wachowski of Matrix fame provides the story for "Closets" about an abusive mother who locks up her young son in a basement closet, all alone with nothing...except a lamentation puzzle box.

"Under the Knife" by Ron Wolfe and Bill Reinhold ties in the Jack the Ripper legend with a modern day serial slayer with a reporter caught in the middle between the two bloody fiends.

An obvious Donald Trump-like character in "I in the Pyramid" has become the world's first trillionaire but can only maintain his status as a recruiter for hell with the largest pyramid scheme ever perpetrated.

"The Tontine" by Scott Hampton. Several friends enter into a tontine, a pact in which the last survivor will gain the jackpot. The friends meet year after year to play a deadly game of Russian Roulette until the last survivor gets his just rewards.

"The Sweet Science" The heavyweight boxing champion is bored as he seeks a real challenge. When he unknowingly unlocks a puzzle cube within the boxing ring, he's faced with a greater challenge than he could ever imagine.

As you would expect, this is a book aimed at mature audiences due to the subject matter as well as the grisly illustrations. These stories represent an expansion of the Hellraiser mythos that is even better than all but the first couple of films. They provide some great background on the motivations of these demons, particularly Pinhead, who takes a starring role in a few of the tales, including one where he is placed on trial by his rivals in hell. The art is uniformly great throughout and it's quite interesting to see different artist's interpretations of the Cenobites. A definite must have item for fans of Clive Barker or the Hellraiser films.


Reviewed by Tim Janson

Horror Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Horror Books
X-Men: Schism ImageX-Men: Schism
by Jason Aaron
Marvel; Published: 2012-01-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops: $24.99
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures - The Complete Edition ImageAnita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures - The Complete Edition
by Laurell K. Hamilton, Jessica Ruffner, Stacie Ritchie
Marvel; Published: 2009-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.04
Price in other shops: $34.99
The Stand 1: Captain Trips ImageThe Stand 1: Captain Trips
by Stephen (creator); Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto King
Marvel Enterprises; Published: 2011; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Haunt of Horror ImageHaunt of Horror
by Richard Corben
Marvel; Published: 2009-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.83
Price in other shops: $29.99
Ghost Rider, Vol. 2: The Last Stand ImageGhost Rider, Vol. 2: The Last Stand
by Jason Aaron
Marvel; Marvel; Published: 2009-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.16
Price in other shops: $16.99
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death ImageAnita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death
by Laurell K. Hamilton, Jonathan Green, Brett Booth
Marvel; Published: 2008-02-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $19.99
From Hell ImageFrom Hell
by Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell
Turtleback Books; Published: 2000-04; School & Library Binding; Book
Price in other shops: $18.40
Dread ImageDread
by Clive Barker
Harpercollins; Published: 1993; Paperback; Book
Black Hole ImageBlack Hole
by Charles Burns
Pantheon; Published: 2005-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.75
Price in other shops: $29.95
Parasyte 2 ImageParasyte 2
by Hitoshi Iwaaki
Del Rey; Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: $12.95
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Hellraiser [Blu-ray] ImageHellraiser [Blu-ray]
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2011-09-06; Blu-ray
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $17.97
Clive Barkers Age of Desire ImageClive Barkers Age of Desire
by Clive Barker, P. Craig Russell, Tim Bradstreet
Desperado Publishing; Desperado Publishing; Published: 2009-05-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.75
Price in other shops: $14.99
Abarat: Absolute Midnight ImageAbarat: Absolute Midnight
by Clive Barker
HarperCollins; Published: 2011-09-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops: $24.99
The Hellbound Heart: A Novel ImageThe Hellbound Heart: A Novel
by Clive Barker
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: $11.99
Clive Barker's Tapping the Vein ImageClive Barker's Tapping the Vein
by Clive Barker, Various
Checker Book Publishing Group; Published: 2002-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: $24.95
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Vol. 2 ImageClive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Vol. 2
by John Bolton, Clive Barker, Dave Dorman
Checker Book Publishing Group; Published: 2003-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.98
Price in other shops: $19.95
Clive Barker's Hellraiser Vol. 2 ImageClive Barker's Hellraiser Vol. 2
by Clive Barker, Christopher Monfette
BOOM! Studios; Published: 2012-02-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.74
Price in other shops: $14.99
Clive Barker's Hellraiser Vol. 1 ImageClive Barker's Hellraiser Vol. 1
by Clive Barker, Christopher Monfette
BOOM! Studios; Published: 2011-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.67
Price in other shops: $9.99
Hellbound Hearts ImageHellbound Hearts
by Paul Kane, Marie O'Regan
Gallery Books; Published: 2009-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $16.00
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Vol. 1 ImageClive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Vol. 1
by Alex Ross, Dwayne McDuffie, Gary Morrow
Checker Book Publishing Group; Published: 2002-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $22.95