Hellraiser: Bestiary #1 and #2 Review

Title: Hell Raiser: Bestiary  Contributors: Mark Miller Ben Meares Christopher Taylor Victor LaValle Conor Nola Colin Lorimer Carlos Magno Jason Shawn Alexander Amancay Nahuelpan Publisher: Boom Studios Issue #: 1 & 2 Year: 2005 - 2006 Pages: 32 Pages each Age Rating: 18 (Language, Violence, Gore, Nudity, Sexuality and Adult Themes) Story Grade: B+ Art Grade: B+

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Bestiary is a comic book that tells three separate tales per book with six books in total. And each of the stories does the original movie complete justice. The writer's and artists involved in this collaborative effort definitely wanted to show the readers such sights. And boy howdy, did they.

We get treated to a total of five stories in these two books as one the stories crosses over multiple books. The first story, "Symphony in Red", takes us on a tour of Hell from a Cenobite's point of view. "Desert Fathers" takes us down the path two thieves follow when they steal the cube, called 'The Lament Configuration'. In "The Hunted", Pinhead finds himself in a bad place, in the midst of a gang war. And that's issue #1.

Each of these stories are deeply disturbing, grotesque and morbidly fascinating. Anyone who is the fan of the original movie will want to own this book.

The second book give us "Old Hat to the Devil" which is a twisted retelling of the story of blues legend Robert Johnson. It also give us Hellbound Desires", a story of a webcam girl who has a one time appearance. And finally we get to part two of "The Hunted".

Each of the five stories is unique, but all are tied to a theme of sorts. It is your job to figure out what that theme is.

It is important to note that these books are for mature audiences only. If you wouldn't let your kid watch the movie, you shouldn't let them read these books.

Another important note is that these stories are deeply rooted in human degenerate behaviors. Isn't that the lesson of Hellraiser in the first place; those that sin get punished? I thought so. But in the case of these books, like the movie, the punishment is pretty extreme, gory and in my opinion, the punishment in these books is taken to the next level when compared to the movie.

And the artwork truly helps take that horror to the next level. The artwork is grisly, dark, twisted and depraved and all of the stories have their own artistic styles which is nice. Everything you would come to expect from something with Clive Barker's name on it is in the artwork of these stories.

But what I found it surprising is that the artists did not hold much of anything back. Truly they did not. The artists don't pull away. They don't give the reader a break. Just when you think they won't take it any further, there is the next panel. The point of view and camera angles are always right there where the action is. There may be times when you want it to pull away, or look away, just for a second. But it won't happen.

All in all I grade these books a solid B+. They are both well worth the read and I will definitely be picking up the last four issues as a result of these first two. If you were a fan of the terrifying original Hellraiser movie, you will want to pick these books up.

Until next time... Remember that if you cheat them they will tear your soul apart.