Ten Thousand Years in Hell marks a sharp departure from the moody, urban detective style of Fantagraphics's previous Gil Jordan graphic novel by Tillieux, Murder By High Tide. Instead, the title story is a rollicking prison-escape yarn set in South America. The second story, "Boom and Bust," features one of Tillieux's patented spectacular car crashes. Tillieux's masterful graphics remind the reader why he was considered one of the top Franco-Belgian cartoonists of his time and, indeed, of any time.