Clive Barker's Hellraiser Omnibus Vol. 1 (Volume 1) Paperback – 2 Nov. 2017

This omnibus is a fantastic collection of the first run of the Clive Barker comics. The quality of the book is great and the story itself is a must read for fans of Hellraiser!

This omnibus is a fantastic collection of the first run of the Clive Barker comics. The quality of the book is fantastic and the story itself is a must read for any fans of Hellraiser or Pinhead.

As a fan of the original Hellbound Heart novella, and the first and second Hellraiser films, I had hopes that Clive Barker could take the reins of the franchise he spawned and steer it back to it’s once beautifully horrific glory.The book starts out very promising; Kirsty Cotton, survivor of the first two Hellraiser films, has teamed up with others who have encountered the Cenobites and survived. This groups mission is now to track down and destroy the devices used to summon the demons.The original Cenobites, both in the films, and even more so in the novella, walk a sinister line between extremely tortured forms, and twisted bondage fantasies, an air of sexuality coupled with unspoken horror. To paraphrase, they had such sights to show us. This is translated well into the artwork, being quite dark and suitably visceral. It does not shy away from the more graphic scenes, and renders the visual horror, exactly how I would imagine Barker to depict it, if he was doing this on film.My problem, with the book comes about the third the way through, and from there goes downhill. The story makes quite a drastic change, as far as the characters go, specifically Kirsty and “Pinhead” (I won’t spoil too much here); this in itself is not a bad thing, although the change is rather sudden. This could have opened the story up to whole new perspectives and avenues, and for me, seemed potentially very promising. And then it just veers right off track; the book becomes an over the top action movie, with the world in peril, the military ready to strike, and the heroes trying to stop total Armageddon.The story moves so far away from the original material, and most of the cast act so out of character, everything about it just feels wrong. You could be forgiven for thinking a different writer came on halfway through and just decided to ignore what had come before.I think Barker has had his time with this series and should move on. I read his introduction to “Books of Blood” written in the last few years, where he states that he is no longer the person that wrote those stories, that his life has changed so much, and the inspiration and beliefs that shaped these stories are no longer there. It made me think of Matt Smiths speech at the end of his run in Doctor Who:“We are all different people all through our lives and that's okay, that's good, you've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.”Clive Barker acknowledges this, but has still tried, nevertheless, to develop a story that he has little more than memories of; that passion and drive for this particular creation is gone, and unfortunately it shows in this work.If you are curious, I would recommend trying to pick up cheap, or if the digital edition is ever on sale. It is a far from a fulfilling read, and is not worth the expense of buying at full price.I would personally recommend skipping this and picking up “Hellbound Hearts” a collection of stories inspired by the original work/movies. It is far more satisfying read than this.

Barker came up with a good story here but as usual he always has a hard time coming up with a good ending. I'm still not exactly sure what happens at the end of the story. The art is really good and if he'd been able to decide if there really is or is not a heaven he could maybe have ended it better.

Great bloody artwork, awesome and epic plot continuation of one of the best horror series from the man who created it. This is the Hellraiser we have always wanted.

I enjoyed this, but the story makes no sense whatsoever. But the movies don't make much sense either, so that's forgivable. The art is fantastic, especially the Tim Bradstreet covers. Gruesome, grotesque, imaginative, and awesome. I wish volume two was out, because this ends on a cliffhanger.

Tres bon.....mais je m'attendais a plus !Le livre est supposement une suite au deuxieme film, mais il y a trop de non expliqué et l'histoire se deroule trop vite !Sinon bonne reliure et bon paperback solide !Recommander au fan de hellraiser !

The Hellraiser series is always a great horror to visit. This collects a large bit of the comics in all their glory. Don't let other volumes trick you into thinking about the size of this though, it's got some thickness and heft to it.