{"id":633,"date":"2008-08-09T21:57:16","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T01:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=633"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T00:37:56","slug":"hellboy-vol-3-the-chained-coffin-and-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/633","title":{"rendered":"Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hellboy<\/a> Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others<\/a><\/em> (1998) Mike Mignola<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Unlike the previous two volumes, which were along the lines of novellas, The Chained Coffin and Others<\/em> is a collection of Hellboy short stories. As I’m a big fan of short stories, I really enjoyed this collection.<\/p>\n

And as a fan of folktales and folk lore, the fact that many of the stories were based on folktales or creatures of folk lore was icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

The stories appear in chronological order, the first set in 1959 and the last set immediately after the events of Vol 1: Seeds of Destruction<\/em>. The first story, “The Corpse”, is a retelling of an Irish folk tale, and the second story, “Iron Shoes”, also has the feel of an Irish folktale. Both are brief and fun. <\/p>\n

The third tale, “Baba Yaga”, is referred to in Wake the Devil<\/em>. What I particularly liked about this tale was that Baba Yaga is neither good nor evil here, but simply a creature of Russian folklore. I don’t think I explained that well, but in folklore Baba Yaga isn’t necessarily a creature of evil, she simply is. And this story does a good job (for me) of matching the tone of some of the Baba Yaga stories. <\/p>\n

“The Chained Coffin” (the story for which this collection was named) is an origin story for Hellboy, and isn’t a very happy one (even though I knew how things had to turn out, I still felt bad.)<\/p>\n

“Almost Colossus” is the closing tale for the volume, and describes how Liz got her powers back (and didn’t die, despite the initial wishes of Mike Mignola.) I particularly enjoy this story, and seeing the homunculus on his own terms, instead of as simply a creature of doom and destruction. <\/p>\n

This volume brings to mind a question though: Why is Hellboy always so willing to assume the worst in others? In both “Baba Yaga” and “Almost Colossus” Hellboy has a shoot first ask questions second mentality. I find it interesting that he does not ever seem to give others the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

If you have not previously read Hellboy, you could easily start at this volume, although I always recommend starting at the beginning of any series. If you’ve seen the movies, then you should know enough of his history that you can easily understand the stories (Specifically, “The Chained Coffin”) and the other stories are mostly out of time and easily read on their own.<\/p>\n

I think the quality of Vol 3 is much higher than Volume 2, and I’m hoping there are more short stories in the following volumes, because Hellboy seems to work very well on that level.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hellboy Vol 3: The Chained Coffin and Others (1998) Mike Mignola Unlike the previous two volumes, which were along the lines of novellas, The Chained Coffin and Others is a collection of Hellboy short stories. As I’m a big fan of short stories, I really enjoyed this collection. And as a fan of folktales and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,9,291,16],"tags":[277,849],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-graphic-novels","category-paper","category-supernatural","tag-hellboy","tag-mike-mignola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-ad","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":646,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/646","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":0},"title":"Hellboy Vol 4: The Right Hand of Doom","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 4: The Right Hand of Doom (2000) Mike Mignola Have I mentioned that I am really enjoying the Hellboy books? I am. They're a lot of fun. Like The Chained Coffin and Others, The Right Hand of Doom is also a collection of short stories centered on Hellboy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/Hellboy-Right-Hand-Doom.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":796,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/796","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":1},"title":"Hellboy Vol 7: The Troll Witch and Others","author":"Michelle","date":"November 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 7: The Troll With and Others (2007) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, P. Craig Russell This is another collection of shorter stories, and as usual, these collections tend to be my favorites. Though I do have to admit, that from reading Mike Mignola's introductions to the various Hellboy short\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Hellboy-Troll-Witch.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/704","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":2},"title":"B.P.R.D. Vol 1: Hollow Earth and Other Stories","author":"Michelle","date":"October 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"BPRD Vol 1: Hollow Earth and Other Stories (2003) Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Tim Sniegoski, Ryan Sook, Curtis Arnold, Brian McDonald, Derek Thompson, Matt Smith I've been enjoying the Hellboy comics, so I thought I'd branch out and check out the B.P.R.D. series. Hollow Earth & Other Stories takes place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/BPRD-Hollow-Earth.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1872,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1872","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":3},"title":"Hellboy Vol 10: The Crooked Man and Others","author":"Michelle","date":"July 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 10: The Crooked Man and Others (2010) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben Frustratingly, Helloboy Vol 10 does not continue the story arc of Vol 9, but instead is another collection of stories, all set in Hellboy's past. Mind you, I tend to prefer the \"short story\" Hellboy collections, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Hellboy-Crooked-Man.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3070,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3070","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":4},"title":"Hellboy Vol 11: The Bride of Hell and Others","author":"Michelle","date":"August 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 11: The Bride of Hell and Others (2011) Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Kevin Nowlan, Scott Hampton By all rights, I shouldn't like the Hellboy comics at all. Except, how can I not love a story containing dialog like this? HEY EMILE! Cut it out. You're making the dead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Hellboy-Bride-Hell.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3091,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3091","url_meta":{"origin":633,"position":5},"title":"Hellboy Vol 12: The Storm and the Fury","author":"Michelle","date":"August 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy Vol 12: The Storm and the Fury (2012) Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo Oh. Wow. I wasn't expecting that at all. The Hellboy series has typically alternated volumes of short stories with volumes of the ongoing series. I generally tend to prefer the short story collections, but have read the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Hellboy-Storm-Fury.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}