This series has inspired me to start saving money to tattoo my body red, get a stone hand, and surgically attach broken horns to my head. Thank you Hellboy.

This collection includes the stories Pancakes, The Nature of the Beast, King Vold, Heads, Goodbye Mister Tod, The Varcolac, The Right Hand of Doom, and Box Full of Evil. There are also several pages of sketches at the end. The artwork is awesome, and the stories are usually pretty good. My favorites were Heads (Hellboy steps into a really freaky Japanese folktale) and Box Full of Evil, which is one of the longer stories of the bunch. Pancakes, one of the shortest, was pretty cute. This probably wasn't the best collection for a beginner like me to start with, but it wasn't bad. The only thing I really missed was a better insight into the characters involved - other than the Hellboy movie, I have absolutely not experience with any of the Hellboy characters, and I'm starting find out how different the movie is from the comics.

"Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is Hellboy at its finest. Like HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, it is in the short story that Mignola really shines with his hell-born characters.

This short story collection contains a host of odd and enjoyable adventures for Anung Un Rama, otherwise known as Hellboy. Making his way through the mythologies and folklore of several countries, he encounters beasties like Japanese vampires, King Vold and Roger. Well-researched, Mignola threads together these various traditionals into a cohesive story, with the Christian God and Devil at the center, and Hellboy bridging the gap.

By far some of the most intelligent and well-written stories in modern comics, Hellboy never disappoints. Non-comics readers as well enjoy Hellboy, and my copy has been well-read by many people. "Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is an excellent starting point, and can be read with no previous knowledge of the characters.

"He has eaten the pancakes. He will never come back to us now."

The Adventures of Hellboy have gone through many different venues, from short stories collected in obscure DHP issues to one shot trials that are oftentimes easy to miss. Still, many of these are important when trying to understand the entirety of the Hellboy saga, and other, less crucial stories are still worth reading. That's why I'm glad to see the Trade Paperbacks The Chain Coffin and Others and The Right Hand of Doom. Between the two, you can find so many things that are nearly impossible to find.
In the Right Hand of Doom, you get:
1) Pancakes, a short comical approach to Hellboy's youth involving pancakes and hell's fate. Also, it appears in color for the first time here.
2) The Nature of the Beast, a DHP story involving the testing of Hellboy, a dilemma with a dragon, and blood that turns into lilies. Definitely good, and in color for the first time.
3) King Vold, a tale meshing many Norwegian tales together into a very entertain story pitting Hellboy against man's great adversary, human greed.
4) Heads, from Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead (a comic you should definately pick up because the Abe Sapien story hasn't been reproduced), involves Hellboy's encounter with Japanese folklore and floating heads. Its really nice looking.
5) Goodbye, Mister Tod, from Gary Gianni's The Monstermen, a tale that meshes more Lovecraftian themeage than normal into Hellboy's life.
6) The Varcolac, a completely redone piece that first appeared in Dark Horse Extra, something nice in its new version but not as good in its original. Here's a tale involving Romanian vampires that, according to Mignola's knowledge of folklore, "eats the sun and the moon and is able to cause eclipses."
7) The Right Hand of Doom, a story leading into a pivotal part in the understanding of just what's going on in Hellboy, mentioning his hand and its origins. It makes its first appearance here in color.
8) Box Full of Evil, a wonderful story that explains the "beast of the apocalypse" connotations floating around Hellboy all the time, complete with an extra four page epilogue to help out with clarity.
This is a wonderful collection of tales, and is really worth reading for the Hellboy fan and newcomer alike. To say it strays from the atypical would be an understatement.

When I first saw this book at the library, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it was going to be another one of those: "lets kill a bunch of people, in-between stupid wise-cracks, because that's what the kids think is cool today." Thank God I was proven wrong. This is one of the best books I have ever read. Hellboy is a paranormal investigator who also happens to be the son of the Devil. In this collection we follow Hellboy's journey, from his earlier days when he first taste of pancakes costs Hell the grip on his soul--to his later years where Hellboy learns that should he ever lose control he will bring about the Apocalypse. All the stories are good, most are modern retellings of old folklore stories ("Heads" for example is an old japanese ghost story about a group of headless ghouls who lure strangers to their home, and then eat them. This story along with many others in collection can be found, in their original form, in Time-Life's Enchanted World series--particularly "Ghosts", "Night Creatures", and "Tales of Terror".) My favorite story is the one about King Void-- The Wild Huntsman who every night rides forth seeking the souls of damned. Less psychotic than John Constantine, more grounded than Fox Maulder, Hellboy is without a doubt one of the most original characters in comics today. The artwork alone by Mike Mignola is worth 5 stars.