Comic Reviews: B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth 1, 2, & 3

New World

    The Plague of Frogs is over…Right?  Everything must be OK, then.  Everything should be getting back to normal, huh?  Of course not.  The Frogs were the beginning, but there’s a whole heck of a lot more trouble on its way.  It is, as the title suggests, a new world.  Humans are adaptable, and they’re gonna have to do some serious adapting.

    This volume sees the return of some old friends, and hints at new dangers on the horizon.  The B.P.R.D. team, now having to deal with being folded into the UN, is still haunted by the loss of Hellboy from their ranks.  Without his spirit at their head, they’ve never quite worked as well.  Abe has become sullen, Liz has wandered off again, Kate is stretched to her limit, Johann is more and more secretive and weird.  The cracks in the team are like the cracks in reality, letting vile darkness creep into the world.

Gods and Monsters

    Monsters are crawling out of the ground, people are loosing their minds, and out of Texas comes a profit, leading the lost and displaced away from danger.  What’s her deal?  Well, someone seems to know, and we get a history lesson in pre-human civilization, and hints of what is to come.  And then there’s Liz’s adventures in trailer park living.  Bad, bad business.

    There is an art shift half way through this volume, with Tyler Crook taking over from Guy Davis.  He does a pretty good job of not making the shift too distracting, and while not as distinct a style as Davis’s, I think it’s perhaps a bit easier on the eyes.  For all the horror contained in this book, it feels like a relatively restful intake of breath, before it all goes down.

Russia

    And so, in this volume, it all starts to go down hill fast.  When Kate takes a trip to Russia, we see that things haven’t been going too well there, either.  The world is breaking down, the rules are being forgotten, and people are learning to live with a lot of things.  A lot of pretty awful things.

    It feels like with the trip to Russia, the new conflict in a post Frog war world is revealed.  Pieces are being put on the board, and the first moves are made.  Kate is forced to finally accept that Hellboy is gone, and what’s up with Abe this time?  No wonder Abe and Hellboy were such good friends.  Both have greatness written in their destiny.  Both want to do good, to be good, to fight for good.  Yet both built for cataclysmic evil.  That’s got to weigh on a person, be they a fish man or a demon.

    The first three volumes of Hell on Earth are steeped in the cosmic dread one expects from Mike Mignola’s world.  For all the fun and excitement of Hellboy and Abe’s pulp flavored adventures, there has always been an underlying doom of growing, rolling, unstoppable horror, and in B.P.R.D., that horror is bursting out of its prison, hungry and wild.  Can the broken and battered investigators and agents of the Bureau save humanity?  Can they at least buy us a few more sunrises?  It’s looking less and less likely.

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: New World
Authors: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artist: Guy Davis
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-707-4

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Gods and Monsters
Authors: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artists: Guy Davis & Tyler Crook
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-822-4

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia
Authors: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artists: Tyler Crook & Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-946-7

-Matt

Comic Review: B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 4

    Another volume of B.P.R.D. another part of the world irrevocably altered.  Actually two parts this time.  Germany and Indonesia…oh, and California.  Three parts.  A lot is revealed in this final volume of the mega-arc Plague of Frogs.  But of course there is more to come.  I don’t know what happens next, but considering how bad this arc has been, I have to think one called “Hell on Earth” is going to get dark before it gets light…if it ever gets light.

    So, this time around, the team is trying to figure out what’s going on with that dream/ghost Liz keeps seeing.  And like me, they’re trying to figure out why Lobster Johnson would hijack Johann’s ectoplasm and shoot it.  On the trail of this Memnan Saa, they also begin to unravel the secret of a sad and unloved occultist from the 1800s who orbited in the same social circles as the team’s new mummy member, Panya.  The quest takes them to Asia, where a member of the team is snatched.  Then to German, where they discover that the Frog threat isn’t as contained as believed and that it has become much more complicated.  And then to the frozen wastes of the Russian-Chinese border.  There is a return of an old enemy and that of an old friend…sort of.  And though I hardly think his tale is done, there is a kind of peace found for the Lobster.

    Abe and Liz go through absolute hell over the course of the volume.  Like Hellboy, Abe has never been comfortable with command, and it is weighing very heavily on him.  Both learn a great deal about themselves, and their place in the cosmic play that is unfolding.  These beings (heroes and villains) seem to be like gravity wells, attracted to each other and causing all sorts of damage as they pass, and massive destruction when the collide.  Even with the best intentions, Liz is a tremendously catastrophic force.  And if Abe found himself uncomfortable with command before, what fate seems to have in store for him will not be improving his outlook.  With Hellboy out of the picture, these two are coming into their own, and it may just spell the end of the world.  And through it all, there’s Kate.  Good, sane, steady Kate.  With all the flash and noise of these weird people it’s easy not to notice Kate, but without her, everything would be falling apart (not just lots of things but everything).

    Though this volume ends a story arc, it is not the end of the story.  And in a way, the Plague of Frogs is all just setting the stage for what comes next.  And by the end of this volume, you’ll have seen a few glimpses into what that may be.  And it’s not good.  Things have changed for our heroes.  Their lives are in constant upheaval, their losses profound and their gains sometimes fleeting.  But they press on, battling against the tidal waves of cosmic horror.  B.P.R.D. is a great series that takes its emotional cue from Lovecraft.  These brave men and women are not fighting for good or justice.  They may not even be fighting to win.  They’re doing everything they can to stop an unstoppable force, to delay it, to give the Earth just one more day of light.  The wave is coming.  And the only thing between us and the end is a team of weirdos who may themselves be the keys to our ultimate destruction.

B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 4
Authors: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artists: Guy Davis & Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-974-0

-Matt

Dork Art: The Devil's Backbone by Guy Davis

A little while ago Criterion announced the titles of their July releases:  The Life of Oharu, Lord of the Flies, Babbette's Feast, The Ice Storm, and spine # 666 The Devil's Backbone.  Special Features include new & old documentaries, the typical commentary track (no word yet if this is the same one from the previous release), some deleted scenes, & the essay booklet.  But, personally, the most exciting speical feature is Guy Davis' cover art.  I really loved monster-mentor Mike Mignola's cover for the Cronos disc, but this is just an absolute killer piece.  The Devil's Backbone remains my all time favorite ghost story - to the point where I really have no patience for other interpretations.  This style of spook story cannot be done better.  Bold words?  Nah.  Fact.

--Brad

Comic Review: B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 3

    In the aftermath of the rather climactic and dramatic events of volume 2, those still standing try to come to terms with the loss of a key team member as well as the nearly unfathomable devastation.  The volume as a whole feels like a lull in the storm, even though some pretty major things happen.  The steamroller of the Frogs has backed off, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more danger out there.  The art is still pretty hideous, but it somehow works with the series.

    The first story, The Universal Machine, feels more like a traditional Hellboy story, with a couple agents in a spooky European town and a sinister figure of mystery looking to take something important.  In the meantime, Daimio, Abe, Liz, and Johan sit around and swap stories about their experiences with death.  Abe’s story, about an adventure he once had with Hellboy, introduces one of the most pathetic monsters I’ve ever seen, Daryl.  He's so, so sad.  With his blood beard.

    Garden of Souls, the second story, features more of Abe’s forgotten past and introduces a very strange and interesting character, Panya.  The stuff with Abe’s pre-fish man friends and their plans to save elements of humanity is great.  Their mad science, from blended creatures to mechanical life support bodies, is awesome.

    And then Killing Ground kicks the team in the teeth, and stomps on its nick while it’s down.  Betrayal of self, of emotion, of body.  Whom do you trust?  When the dust settles from this, the team will once again have a new shape.  Some things can’t be fixed.  There are, of course, still questions.  There are always questions, I suppose.  Like, what was up with Lobster Johnson’s ghost showing up and magic-shooting Liz’s bad dreams away with his ether pistols?

    The apocalyptic dread still hangs about the series.  It’s interesting that both Hellboy and B.P.R.D. seem to be building to some kind of world changing Armageddon, but the shape of each appears to be different.  Will Hellboy become the Beast of the Apocalypse, or will the gods perch upon the rubble of human society while the frogs crawl beneath.  Can the end be thwarted, even in part?  Or is the end inevitable?

B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 3
Authors: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi
Artist: Guy Davis
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-860-6

-Matt

Comic Review: B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 1

    As anyone who has read pretty much anything I’ve written about comics will know, Hellboy is right up there at the top of my list of favorites.  So, the idea of a spin-off series based around the organization he belonged to was certainly interesting.  Would it work?  With Mignola mostly taking a back seat?  Who could say?

    A couple years back, I acquired the first paperback volume or two of the series, and I enjoyed it, but wasn’t especially blown away.  I thought the idea of Abe kind of taking on the leadership after Hellboy bailed was intriguing, and the rest of the cast is cool.  Even the first couple stories, with their X-Files meets Hellboy vibe were fun, but didn’t grab me.  Still, I had (have) it on good authority that the series took a few trades worth to really get going.  And now, having read the first hardcover volume of Plague of Frogs, which collects the first three trade paperbacks, I can already see that it’s true.  “Book Three,” originally the third trade paperback stops futzing around and gets into some serious, good stuff. 

    Book One, The Hollow Earth and other stories, is a mixed bag.  The actual, Hollow Earth story is quite good, and totally feels like some classic Hellboy, only with Red missing.  His absence hangs like a cloud over the whole story, giving it just that extra bit of menace.  But the other stories are kind of ‘meh.’  The Killer in my Skull, is a pretty good Lobster Johnson story.  Still…eh. 

    Book Two, The Soul of Venice and other stories is another mixed bag.  Again the title story is pretty good, but the others are only so-so.  I genuinely didn’t like There’s Something Under my Bed.  But Dark Waters and Another Day at the Office were solid.  The art is kind of all over the place, as is the tone.  And I can’t help but feel, again in that X-Files sort of way, that most of what happens doesn’t really mean anything.  Where I want a larger mythos to develop, I’m getting ‘monster of the week.’ 

    This all changes with Book Three, Plague of Frogs.  Going back into the Seed of Destruction (the first trade of Hellboy), this connects with the core concepts of the world Mignola has created.  Getting down to brass tacks, the story grabs hold and doesn’t let up.  Not a bunch of shorts, this whole section is one continuous, driving story.  And here we have the writers getting back to Hellboy basics: mad science, strange history, Lovecraftian horror, and a growing sense of inevitable doom.  The art is consistent, and while Guy Davis has a very different style from Mike Mignola, his style seems to fit the series quite well.

    Of course, the book comes with plenty of cool sketchbook pages with commentary from various creators, and a couple explanatory/introductory essays to give the reader a bit of a handle on where the creators were coming from.  And overall, the volume is pretty good, if uneven.  The third part, the actual, serious beginning of the Plague of Frogs arc (which apparently goes on for quite some time) is the best part, and left me wanting to pick up and read Plague of Frogs 2 ASAP.  While not as handsome or classy as the Hellboy Library Editions, this is still a pretty good hardcover, and a nice amount of reading for the price.

B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs 1
Authors: Mike Mignola, etc.
Artists: Guy Davis, etc.
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
ISBN: 978-1-59582-609-1
Pages: 406

-Matt