Search Worlds Without End

In 525 B.C., the Persian king Cambyses sent fifty thousand soldiers across the conquered Egyptian desert to take an oasis city not far from where the Libyan border stands today. According to Greek history, a hurricane-force sandstorm struck near the end of their six-hundred-mile trek. The army - all fifty thousand men - vanished without a single trace. Fast forward to 1986. A British archaeological team, sent to the edge of the Great Sand Sea to exhume evidence of the incident, has also gone missing. It's up to Hellboy to find the missing Brits and to discover what became of The Lost Army. This illustrated novel is written by Christopher Golden, best-selling author of the book Of Saints and Shadows. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has done sixty-eight black-and-white illustrations for the story.

On the frozen shores of Sweden, lightning strikes from a clear sky. The skeleton of a huge man is revealed, its fingers clutched around the handle of an iron hammer. No one who comes to see this marvel from Norse mythology can lift it -- no one but Hellboy, who lifts the hammer just in time for lightning to strike again, welding it to his hand and leading him towards a bizarre series of visions and encounters.

Hellboy, a bloodred, cloven-hoofed demon raised by the United States government, is a top field agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. He questions the unknown -- then beats it into submission. In the upper reaches of the Himalayas, Hellboy's ex-girlfriend, archaeologist Anastasia Bransfield, believes she has found the location of the legendary "Dragon King Pool" -- thought to be the ancient dwelling of an evil dragon who inflicted horrific devastation on the land and its people. Every year the villagers would sacrifice a child to placate the beast, until one day an unlikely hero fought the dragon and won, bringing peace and prosperity to the land.

But Anastasia's triumph at her discovery is short-lived. Soon unearthly creatures are seen lurking around the dig site, someone is sabotaging the excavation with dire results, and the young daughter of one of the dig leaders goes missing. It looks like a job for Hellboy -- but his toughest challenge might be putting his past with Anastasia behind him...

Following the success of the 1996 illustrated novel Hellboy: The Lost Army, Dark Horse commissioned writer Christopher Golden to gather some of the brightest creative lights in horror and mystery fiction -- Brian Hodge, Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy A. Collins, Greg Rucka, Chet Williamson, legendary horror/humor cartoonist Gahan Wilson, and many more -- to produce a prose anthology of Hellboy short stories, presenting original tales of the world's greatest paranormal investigator. Illustrated by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

Table of Contents:

• Hellboy: Odd Jobs - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• A Mother Cries At Midnight - shortfiction by Philip Nutman
• Medusa's Revenge - shortfiction by Yvonne Navarro
• Introduction (Hellboy: Odd Jobs) - essay by Mike Mignola
• Cartoon - interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
• Jigsaw - shortfiction by Stephen R. Bissette
• Delivered - shortfiction by Greg Rucka
• Folie á deux - shortfiction by Nancy Holder
• Demon Politics - shortfiction by Craig Shaw Gardner
• A Grim Fairy Tale - shortfiction by Nancy A. Collins
• Scared Crows - novelette by Rick Hautala and Jim Connolly
• Where Their Fire is not Quenched - shortfiction by Chet Williamson
• I Had Bigfoot's Baby! - shortfiction by Max Allan Collins
• The Nuckelavee - shortfiction by Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola
• A Night at the Beach - shortfiction by Matthew J. Costello
• Burn, Baby, Burn - shortfiction by Poppy Z. Brite
• Far Flew the Boast of Him - shortstory by Brian Hodge

Mike Mignola's award-winning series Hellboy has earned fans all over the world, among them some of the most respected horror, fantasy, and mystery novelists in the field, and some of Hollywood's most talented writers and directors. Now a who's who list of these writers are drawn together to tell their own tales of Hellboy, to play with the characters and worlds Mignola has created. As part of Dark Horse's celebration of Hellboy in 2004, Christopher Golden (author of the Hellboy novels The Lost Army and The Bones of Giants) has brought together a stellar array of talents including filmmakers Frank Darabont and Hellboy movie director Guillermo del Toro, and novelists Charles de Lint, Graham Joyce, and Sharyn McCrumb, as well as many others. Lavishly illustrated by creator Mike Mignola.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Hellboy: Odder Jobs) - essay by Frank Darabont
• The Brotherhood of the Gun - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Brotherhood of the Gun - shortfiction by Frank Darabont
• From an Enchanter Fleeing - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• From an Enchanter Fleeing - shortfiction by Peter Crowther
• Down in the Flood - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Down in the Flood - shortfiction by Scott Allie
• Newford Spook Squad - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Newford Spook Squad - [Newford] - shortfiction by Charles de Lint
• Water Music - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Water Music - shortfiction by David J. Schow
• The Vampire Brief - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Vampire Brief - shortfiction by James L. Cambias
• Unfinished Business - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Unfinished Business - shortfiction by Ed Gorman and Richard Dean Starr
• Hellboy - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Saint Hellboy - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Saint Hellboy - shortfiction by Tom Piccirilli
• Sleepless in Manhattan - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Sleepless in Manhattan - shortfiction by Nancy Kilpatrick
• The Wish Hounds - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Wish Hounds - shortfiction by Sharyn McCrumb
• Acts of Mercy - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Act of Mercy - shortfiction by Thomas E. Sniegoski
• The Thrice-Named Hill - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Thrice-Named Hill - shortfiction by Graham Joyce
• Of Blood, of Clay - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Of Blood, of Clay - shortfiction by James A. Moore
• A Full and Satisfying Life - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• A Full and Satisfying Life - shortfiction by Ray Garton
• The Glass Road - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• The Glass Road - shortfiction by Tim Lebbon
• Tasty Teeth - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Tasty Teeth - shortfiction by Guillermo Del Toro and Matthew Robbins

And you thought Hell was weird... Longtime contributor to the Hellboy mythos Christopher Golden brings together a crew of luminaries including Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba HoTep) and China Miéville (King Rat), crossgenre sensation Barbara Hambly (The Windrose Chronicles), celebrated mystery writer Ken Bruen (The Dramatist), bestselling science fiction and fantasy novelist Tad Williams (Otherland), and a bevy of other skilled storytellers eager to spin a tale or two about the world's greatest paranormal detective, as some of the biggest names in horror, mystery, and fantasy come together to pay homage to Mike Mignola's Hellboy.

Table of Contents:

• Hellboy: Oddest Jobs - interior artwork by Mike Mignola
• Introduction (Hellboy: Oddest Jobs) - essay by Christopher Golden
• Jiving with Shadows and Dragons and Long, Black Trains - shortfiction by Joe R. Lansdale
• Straight, No Chaser - shortfiction by Mark Chadbourn
• Second Honeymoon - shortfiction by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow
• Danny Boy - shortfiction by Ken Bruen
• Strange Fishing in the Western Highlands - shortstory by Garth Nix
• Salamander Blues - shortfiction by Brian Keene
• The Thursday Men - shortfiction by Tad Williams
• Produce - shortfiction by Amber Benson
• Repossession - shortfiction by Barbara Hambly
• In Cupboards and Bookshelves - shortfiction by Gary A. Braunbeck
• Feet of Sciron - shortfiction by Rhys Hughes
• Monster Boy - shortfiction by Stephen Volk
• Evolution and Hellhole Canyon - shortfiction by Don Winslow
• A Room of One's Own - shortfiction by China Miéville