First, I have to begin this by saying that I am a bit bias when it comes to Mike Mignola. I do enjoy his Hellboy work, and recommend it to anyone who likes Lovecraftian influences meshed with Nazi conspiracies and other, even more bizarre, tidbits of folklore.
With The Chained Coffin and Others, I had read the reviews here and had noticed the gaps left in the questioning mind. For instance, I couldn't find a complete listing of what was compiled here, nor did the reviews truly state how good some of the stories, especially the Baba Yaga only printed here, actually were. So, here's a brief listing of the stories a few notes:
1) The Corpse: A baby goes missing and a deal has to be struck to return it. And how hard is it to bury a corpse anyway?
2) The Iron Shoes: This seemed more like filler, actually, but is still not all that bad.
3) The Baba Yaga: I like this story a lot, and had to have it. Unfortunately, it was only available in this TPB. If you read Wake the Devil, you'll want this side story, because references made are gaps to be filled in order to complete the entire Hellboy picture.
4) Christmas Underground: Spirits looming, a castle under siege by some strange curse, and Hellboy Claus? Besides being creepy, it also provides a little laughter.
5) The Chained Coffin: A true gem, presenting the origins of Hellboy (not to be confused with "how Hellboy arrive on Earth") in a most interesting format. Even people who have the original presentation of this should check it out, because the first page has been revamped a bit. Beautiful.
6) Wolves of Saint August: All the pieces of this tale needed to be collected somewhere, so I'm happy for this. As the name implies, something Lupine plagues a town and Hellboy has to investigate. The backgrounding to this story is nice, in addition to the normal Mignola features.
7) Almost Colossus: Another needed piece if you want to understand the inner workings of the BPRD. Here, an addition is made to the cast, and "he" almost ends to life of two field agents right from the get-go. It is referenced to a lot, and is definitely worth checking out.
Anyway, like I said, I am biased. Still, if you like Hellboy, even a little, this is a nice collection that is extremely inclusive. The only problem is finding a copy of it.