Type: series
Author: Various Authors
Drawings: Various Authors
Publishing house: Free Comics
Format: Paperback
Price: €9.90
Collected Best is an anthology series where some horror-themed stories by the best international authors are collected. Published in the States by Checker Book, it is presented in Italy by Free Comics, publishing department of Free Books, a small Umbrian publisher. Originally the stories were published in the United States by MarvelEpic, until this section of Marvel Comics closed.
The one in question is a monthly series collecting some of the best Short Stories of the past and present. The first volumes are devoted entirely to Clive Barker and his Hellraiser. All the stories presented are completely independent, completely different from each other, but all with one object in common: the lemarchand box. A simple box, a cube with a puzzle to solve. But it is not a game, but one of the most powerful and terrible objects in the world....
Forget the ancient division between good and evil, day and night, heaven and hell. Only pain is real...
The stories, written and drawn by great authors, such as the magnificent John Bolton, the Wachowski brothers (yes, the Matrix brothers), Mike "Hellboy" Mignola, Neil Gaiman and many others, feature absolutely different styles, from the cleanest and most graphically enjoyable to the most visionary and peculiar. All centered in the Hellraiser sub-universe birthed by the fervent mind of Clive Barker. Also of note is the preface, written by the great Pinhead dad himself.
A product for connoisseurs, where one can find really good stories, from the most violent to the most introspective, but all of the highest quality, published in the past by semi-famous publishers and often, unjustly, reposed in oblivion, and now fished out by the small but courageous Umbrian publisher.
Unfortunately, in this case the art is paid dearly, as one has to shell out almost 10 euros for a single volume, however, it is certainly money well spent.
Recommended not only to Barker and Hellraiser lovers, but to lovers of horror and good comics in general.
Article by Fabio Venanzini
