Search Worlds Without End

From celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning novelist Christopher Golden comes a work of gothic storytelling like no other. Reminiscent of the illustrated tales of old, here is a lyrical, atmospheric novel of the paranormal-and a chilling allegory for the nature of war.

"Why do dead men rise up to torment the living?" Captain Henry Baltimore asks the malevolent winged creature. The vampire shakes its head. "It was you called us. All of you, with your war. The roar of your cannons shook us from our quiet graves.... You killers. You berserkers.... You will never be rid of us now."

When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlefields of World War I, the world is forever changed. For a virulent plague has been unleashed-a plague that even death cannot end.

Now the lone soldier in an eternal struggle against darkness, Baltimore summons three old friends to a lonely inn-men whose travels and fantastical experiences incline them to fully believe in the evil that is devouring the soul of mankind.

As the men await their old friend, they share their tales of terror and misadventure, and contemplate what part they will play in Baltimore's timeless battle. Before the night is through, they will learn what is required to banish the plague-and the creature who named Baltimore his nemesis-once and for all.

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than thirty feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater. Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance.

Among them are fourteen-year-old Molly McHugh and her friend and employer, Felix Orlov. Once upon a time Orlov the Conjuror was a celebrated stage magician, but now he is an old man, a psychic medium, contacting the spirits of the departed for the grieving loved ones left behind. When a seance goes horribly wrong, Felix Orlov is abducted by strange men wearing gas masks and rubber suits, and Molly soon finds herself on the run.

Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches.

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