Comics Review: HELLRAISER MASTERPIECES, VOLUME TWO

HELLRAISER MASTERPIECES, VOLUME TWO by Jan Strnad, D.G. Chichester, Erik Saltzgaber, Scott Hampton, Faye Perozich, John Rozum, C.J. Henderson, Vincent Cecolini, Sholly Fisch, McNally Sagal, Clive Barker, Anna Miller, Malcolm Smith, Fred Vicarel, Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator), Kyle Baker (Illustrator), Mike Zeck (Illustrator), Phil Zimelman (Illustrator), John Van Fleet (Illustrator), Gerry Talaoc (Illustrator), Mark Texeira (Illustrator), Jimmy Palmiotti (Illustrator), Bo Hampton (Illustrator), Mike Hoffman (Illustrator), Rod Whigham (Illustrator), Colleen Doran (Illustrator), Shawn Martinbrough (Illustrator), Tristan Schane (Illustrator)  (BOOM! Studios, September 2012) Trade paperback, 192 pages. ISBN #1608862747 / 9781608862740  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

The master of horror returns with a second offering of truly poetic gore, blurring the line between pleasure and pain. The greatest creators in Comics find themselves stitched together in Clive Barker's Cenobite sandbox with a hellishly delightful host of classic HELLRAISER tales. 

Dive deep into the lands of Leviathan with: Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing), Kyle Baker (Nat Turner), Mike Zeck (Spider-Man, Punisher), John Rozum (Xombi), Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil). Walk deeper into the bowels of Hell as Pinhead, Face, and the rest of the Cenobites welcome you with open arms...they have such sights to show you. 

My Three-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

           Like Volume One, this collection reprints short stories from the HELLRAISER comics anthology series of the 1990's from Epic/Marvel Comics. 

        Almost all of these thirteen stories by various creative teams stay true to the Hellraiser universe created by author Clive Barker. They capture the fear, creepiness and overall uneasy atmosphere that began with Barker's short story The Hellbound Heart and later transferred to the series of Hellraiser movies. 

     However, nothing here matches the magic and shock value of the films, including "The Harrowing, Part Two: Insurrection" - - the story that Clive Barker wrote for this series.

     The best story in the bunch is also the most disturbing - - "The Tontine" with story by Scott Hampton and art by Scott Hampton and John Van Fleet. Other stand-outs include "Babycakes" by Faye Perozich and Gerry Talaoc; "With My Lips"any John Rozum and Rod Whigham; and "Later" by C.J. Hendersonand Vincent Cecolini.