B.P.R.D.: Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense

AUTHOR: Mignola, Mike; Arcudi, John; Augustyn, Brian; Dysart, Joshua; Golden, Christopher; Gunther, Miles; Harris, Joe; Johns, Geoff; Kolins, Scott; McDonald, Brian; Oeming, Michael Avon; Sniegoski, Tom

ARTIST: Jason Shawn Alexander; Paul Azaceta (illustrator); Gabriel Bá (illustrator); Guy Davis (illustrator); Scott Kolins (illustrator); Karl Moline (illustrator); Fábio Moon (illustrator); Michael Avon Oeming (illustrator); Patric Reynolds (illustrator); John Severin (illustrator); Peter Snejbjerg (illustrator); Ben Stenbeck (illustrator); Cameron Stewart (illustrator); Dave Stewart (illustrator); Derek Thompson (illustrator); Herb Trimpe (illustrator); Adam Pollina (penciller and cover artist); Matt Smith (penciller); Ryan Sook (penciller, inker, and cover artist); Curtis P. Arnold (inker); Guillermo Zubiaga (inker); Mike Mignola (inker and cover artist); Nick Filardi (colorist); Bjarne Hansen (colorist); Lee Loughridge (colorist); James Sinclair (colorist); Michelle Madsen (colorist and letterer); Pat Brosseau (letterer); Ken Bruzenak (letterer); Michael Heisler (letterer); Dan Jackson (letterer); Clem Robins (letterer); Dave Johnson (cover artist); Kevin Nowlan (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2002-2010

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2002-2010

Publication History

B.P.R.D. was created in response to Mike Mignola’s desire to expand the Hellboy universe. While Hellboy was part of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), the activities of the organization were usually overshadowed by the adventures of Hellboy, known as the “world’s greatest paranormal investigator.” Following the events of Conqueror Worm (2001), which culminated in the resignation of Hellboy from the B.P.R.D., Mignola considered what to do with both the other characters that populated the B.P.R.D. and the organization itself.

Mignola had expressed an interest in working with artist Ryan Sook after meeting him in 1995 at a convention in California. Mignola’s basic idea for what became the first B.P.R.D. series (Hollow Earth) was turned over to writers Christopher Golden (who wrote the first two prose novels, The Lost Army and The Bones of Giants, about Hellboy) and Tom Sniegoski for expansion. Although Hollow Earth was printed from January to June, 2002, it was preceded by a three-page preview in Dark Horse Extra from December, 2001, to February, 2002, which included an appearance by the ectoplasmic Johann Kraus, who would become a focal member of the core B.P.R.D. team.

While the initial stories of the B.P.R.D. were a series of loose vignettes and stand-alone tales, beginning with Plague of Frogs more focused story arcs were introduced. Most of the core creative team had already collaborated on B.P.R.D. stories, and the collaboration continued on the majority of the B.P.R.D. series. The team included Guy Davis as illustrator, Dave Stewart as colorist, and Clem Robins as letterer.

The following series, The Dead, finalized the team with the addition of John Arcudi as cowriter. With Mignola, this team set the major narrative arcs and codified the aesthetic look of the series (with the exception of the prequel series 1946 and 1947). The collected series, ending with King of Fear, comprises the first movement of what Mignola has identified as an even larger narrative arc, and the second phase of it began with the publication of Hell on Earth—New World, with the Hell on Earth designation identifying this new direction.

Plot

The founding of the B.P.R.D. has been explained in a number of flashback sequences within the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series and receives a fuller treatment in the latter through several prequel stories. The piecemeal revelation of the bureau’s background has underscored its reputation as a quasi-official yet shadowy organization operating at the fringes of society. However, its interaction with the supernatural is taken as a matter of fact within the context of the narrative; the world in which the B.P.R.D. operates is one in which demons, aliens, magic, pagan gods, witchcraft, and characters from folklore and mythology, while not exactly commonplace, are not necessarily out of the ordinary.

The sanctioning of the B.P.R.D. by the U.S. government, in direct response to the summoning of Hellboy to Earth by Rasputin while working for the Third Reich, enabled Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the organization’s founder and first director, to direct Hellboy’s upbringing while continuing to investigate other paranormal activity. Originally housed at a U.S. air base in New Mexico, the headquarters were officially established in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1947.

For the following five years, Bruttenholm spent his time raising Hellboy, leading B.P.R.D. field operations, and lobbying Washington, D.C., for increased government support. Once Hellboy was granted honorary human status by the United Nations in 1952, Bruttenholm promoted him to a B.P.R.D. field agent. Bruttenholm tended to expanding the organization, which eventually grew from the original five agents in 1946 to more than fifty, and establishing training protocols for the members. Bruttenholm resigned in 1958, serving the bureau as an adviser and occasional agent.

Most of the stories of the B.P.R.D. from this point forward are situated within the Hellboy narrative, with Abe Sapien occasionally receiving stand-alone treatment in a few series, focusing on his early days as a field agent. While the B.P.R.D. had originally appeared in the first Hellboy series, Seed of Destruction (1994), changes in the direction of Mignola’s titular character left the supporting members without a leader or a narrative focus. Hellboy’s displeasure at the increasingly impersonal nature of the B.P.R.D. bureaucracy, especially after the death of Professor Bruttenholm, eventually turned to disgust at the bureau’s distrust of the homunculus, Roger, and the revelation that he had been fitted with an incendiary bomb failsafe device that Hellboy was to detonate should Roger grow unstable.

Hellboy’s departure opened up room for a new team member, Johann Kraus, a medium whose body was destroyed in a psychic event; he managed to retain control of his spirit in an ectoplasmic form. Fitted with a containment suit designed by B.P.R.D. researchers, Kraus joined amphibious man Abe Sapien, pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, and folklore and occult expert Dr. Kate Corrigan to form the core constituency of the enhanced-talents task force. Roger was allowed to participate as a provisional team member and was eventually granted full status after several missions.

Hollow Earth, the first team mission under the B.P.R.D. imprint, details a rescue operation to retrieve Liz Sherman, who quit the bureau two years before Hellboy’s departure. The subterranean race that abducted Sherman, in an attempt to harness the living fire within her to power its war machines, are the remnants of the Hyperborean slaves who followed their masters, following the split of the first race of humanity. The remnants of the slaves overthrew their masters while being led by the King of Fear, who forms the focus of the final installment of the first B.P.R.D. story cluster and thus bookends the multiple series spread over many years. Following the retrieval of Sherman from under the Ural Mountains, the team travels to Venice to rescue the Roman goddess Cloacina. The globe-trotting nature of their adventures eventually became a hallmark of the series. Another hallmark was the expansive scope of the narrative, as the seemingly unrelated investigations—vengeful ghosts, haunted houses, and zombies—began to point toward one or more apocalyptic events.

Eventually, the team returns with a sample of a fungus retrieved from Cavendish Hall, the site of the frog creatures, first seen in Seed of Destruction. The fungus eventually grows into a manifestation of Sadu-Hem, escapes from a New Jersey laboratory by reanimating a dead researcher’s body, and begins to infect the town of Crab Point, Michigan, turning the entire population into frog monsters. This event draws the B.P.R.D. into open engagement with this rapidly spreading global plague and creates the protracted “war on frogs” that dominates much of the B.P.R.D. narrative. As the frog monsters are noted as being the “new and final race of men” that will replace humanity, the efforts of the B.P.R.D. require increased financial and logistical support. To that end, the bureau is relocated in October of 2004 to a secret government compound, decommissioned in 1962, in the mountains of Colorado.

The team is joined by Captain Benjamin Daimio, a former special operations soldier, who assumed duties as the new commander, a move which did not sit well with the core team members. However, he quickly gained some respect by helping to defeat a mad German scientist bent on allowing an otherworldly creature into this dimension.

Daimio directs an increasingly aggressive campaign against the frogs, with the assistance of a growing roster of paramilitary forces mixed in with the B.P.R.D. special agents. At the same time in 2005, the Zinco Corporation begins researching the frog monsters, eventually adapting them to human control under Landis Pope, chief executive officer (CEO) of Zinco, who utilizes a special armor that transforms him into the Black Flame.

A year later, another major player is introduced, Memnan Saa, who originally was Martin Gilfryd, a Victorian-era magician who transformed himself into an amazingly powerful sorcerer. Saa is an enigmatic character, appearing to Sherman in a dream, abducting her, and eventually controlling her telepathically as a way to use her pyrokinetic powers against the frog monsters and the manifestation of the Katha-Hem, a sort of elder god.

The war on frogs, which ends in what has become known as the Scorched Earth Trilogy, creates enormous casualties, both across the Earth and within the B.P.R.D.: Roger is destroyed in a battle with the Black Flame, Daimio is driven into self-imposed exile, Kraus begins plotting secretly to kill Daimio, and Sherman loses her pyrokinetic abilities. The campaign against the frog monsters does bring attention to the B.P.R.D., which initially was blamed for the situation but eventually was empowered by the United Nations to function as an international agency reporting directly to the U.N.’s security council. Newly empowered, the B.P.R.D. moves into its next phase of operations, unfolding in the Hell on Earth stories.

Volumes

•B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth and Other Stories (2002). Collects selections from Hellboy: Box Full of Evil, Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead, B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth, and Dark Horse Extra, featuring the B.P.R.D. team’s first adventure without Hellboy, an Abe Sapien solo mission that highlights his fight with the B.P.R.D. to reanimate Roger and includes an appearance by the adventurer Lobster Johnson, whose ghost sometimes appears on B.P.R.D. missions.

•B.P.R.D.: The Soul of Venice and Other Stories (2004). Collects the B.P.R.D. one-shots The Soul of Venice, Dark Waters, Night Train, and There’s Something Under My Bed, featuring a collection of stories from a number of different writers. The titular story is a B.P.R.D. team mission, while the other stories focus on a few team members on smaller assignments, such as investigating a ghostly train of soldiers, looking for a Nazi collaborator, or stopping a possessed psychic in control of zombies.

•B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs (2005). Collects B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs, issues 1-5. This volume showcases the first major engagement of the team with the frog monsters and Rasputin’s revenge against Abe Sapien for Rasputin’s murder in Cavendish Hall, during which Sapien has a flashback to his life as the nineteenth century human Langdon Everett Caul.

•B.P.R.D.: The Dead (2005). Collects B.P.R.D.: The Dead, issues 1-5, and “B.P.R.D. Born Again” from the Hellboy Premiere Edition. As Sapien continues to investigate his past, the B.P.R.D. headquarters is moved to Colorado, and Captain Daimio assumes command, bringing his combination of military prowess as a Marine and status as a mysteriously reanimated man following three days of death. The team defeats Dr. Gunter Eiss by summoning a dimensional seraphim with the aid of Kraus, who has been possessed by the ghosts of other German scientists.

•B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame (2006). Collects B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame, issues 1-6. As the plague of frogs sweeps across the American heartland, Sherman becomes haunted by visions of a mysterious magician and the Zinco Corporation enacts its own plans for the frog monsters. Trying hard to emulate Daimio, Roger the homunculus is killed by the Black Flame.

•B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine (2007). Collects B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine, issues 1-5. This series is a bit more somber after the loss of Roger, focusing on expanding character backgrounds and relationships among team members. Dr. Corrigan is abducted by a mysterious collector who wants either to acquire the remnants of Roger or to give Corrigan the secret of his reanimation in return for Abe Sapien. Kraus learns the fate of Roger in the afterlife, a coda that was highly regarded for its emotional content. This series also introduces Daryl, the wendigo, a mythical creature of the Algonquian tribes of North America.

•B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls (2008). Collects B.P.R.D.: Garden of Souls, issues 1-5. Sapien’s quest to discover more about his origins puts him farther away from the team, as he journeys to Indonesia and is reunited with his former associates from the Oannes Society, who have survived using steampunk exoskeletons. They plan to preserve humanity against the coming apocalypse by unleashing seismic destruction and absorbing the souls of the deceased into specially engineered bodies. Meanwhile, Sherman continues to receive prophetic visions. This series also introduces Panya, a reanimated Egyptian mummy.

•B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground (2008). Collects B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground, issues 1-5. The mystery of Daimio’s resurrection is revealed to be the work of a Bolivian jaguar god, who has made Daimio an “emissary,” half human and half demon. Sherman slips further into her visions, only to be rescued by the ghost of Lobster Johnson. Panya is returned to B.P.R.D. headquarters, as is a body from the Oannes Society’s project; this is commandeered by Kraus, who finally has a human body to inhabit for the first time in years, and he indulges in all manner of hedonism.

•B.P.R.D.: 1946 (2008). Collects B.P.R.D.: 1946, issues 1-5, and “Bishop Olek’s Devil” from Free Comic Book Day 2008. This prequel series recounts the first adventures of the fledgling B.P.R.D. team in post-World War II Berlin as they investigate the Nazi’s Project Vampir Sturm. Bruttenholm and his team must join forces with the Soviet Committee for Arcane Studies and Esoteric Teachings, headed by Vavara, a demon summoned by Czar Peter in 1709 and currently masquerading as a little blond girl. During the mission, the teams encounter Nazi scientist Herman von Klempt, who has resurrected the Nazi space program to send a rocket full of vampires to infect the United States.

•B.P.R.D.: The Warning (2009). Collects B.P.R.D.: The Warning, issues 1-5, and the story “Out of Reach” from Free Comic Book Day 2008. As part 1 of the Scorched Earth Trilogy, this series shifts the focus of the team to tracking down Sherman’s mysterious magician, Memnan Saa, as a number of old enemies—frog monsters, the Hyperborean troglodytes, and the Black Flame—reappear with renewed vengeance. Kraus’s hatred for Daimio grows, as it was the transformed Captain who “killed” Kraus’s new body. Panya becomes more involved with the B.P.R.D. as her psychic abilities grow in power. Saa kidnaps Sherman to use as a weapon against the frogs.

•B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess (2009). Collects B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess, issues 1-5. As part 2 of the Scorched Earth Trilogy, Saa steps up his campaign against the frogs, using Sherman to harness the power of the Black Goddess. The B.P.R.D. hunts for Saa, contacting an old teammate of Lobster Johnson for information that leads them to Saa’s fortress, which also comes under siege by frog monsters. Eventually Sherman destroys Saa with the very power he sought to control and frees herself, or so she thinks.

•B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs (2010). Collects B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs, issues 1-4, and “Revival” from MySpace Dark Horse Presents, issues 8 and 9. This anthology series is a set of five different stories from earlier in the chronology of the war against the frogs. Fan-favorite Roger returns for an adventure set at Cavendish Hall. Daimio is showcased in another tale about frogs infiltrating a prayer revival. Kraus helps some frog souls make the transition to the afterlife. Sherman shows a female rookie how to survive, and in perhaps the most interesting entry, a group of regular B.P.R.D. operatives must fight one determined frog monster.

•B.P.R.D.: 1947 (2010). Collects B.P.R.D.: 1947, issues 1-5, and “And What Shall I Find There” from MySpace Dark Horse Presents, issue 23. Trying to recover after the harsh events of 1946, Bruttenholm assembles another team of agents to investigate lingering concerns over vampires, one of whom has a particularly nefarious agenda, eventually requiring Bruttenholm to seek the services of an old exorcist.

•B.P.R.D.: King of Fear (2010). Collects B.P.R.D.: King of Fear, issues 1-5. As part 3 of the Scorched Earth Trilogy, the agents move to permanently eradicate the frog monsters. A confrontation with the King of Fear reveals that, despite their best intentions, they are actually the agents of the upcoming apocalypse. Speaking from beyond the grave, Saa still taunts Sherman with visions of the future, even as she seemingly expends all of her powers to finally stop the frog plague.

Characters

•Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the founder of the bureau, was born in England in 1918. He studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford before taking a civilian post with intelligence services during World War II. Bruttenholm’s eccentric uncle, who was a friend of occult detective Sir Edward Grey, piqued Bruttenholm’s interest in the supernatural, and Bruttenholm became more deeply involved with such issues, eventually appearing at the East Bromwich church to witness the summoning of Hellboy on Earth. Adopting the child and moving to the United States, Bruttenholm first worked with the U.S. military, and later the U.S. government, to establish the B.P.R.D. and help guide its growth. Ultimately, it was his interest in the occult that cost him his life at the hands of the frog monsters.

•Abe Sapien, after the departure of Hellboy, becomes the de facto leader of the B.P.R.D. special-talents team, even though he does not necessarily want the job. Beginning his life with the B.P.R.D. as an amphibious man discovered after being hidden under a hospital in Washington, D.C., Sapien comes to understand that he once was nineteenth century scientist and occult investigator Langdon Everett Caul, an identity that he comes to reject. Sapien does develop as a team leader and becomes a competent tactician, even as he wonders about the future of the bureau.

•Liz Sherman had her pyrokinetic abilities first manifest at the age of eleven, when she accidentally immolated her family. The guilt over their deaths has been a driving force in her life. Befriended by Hellboy, Sherman eventually comes out of her shell and seeks to control her abilities, even as others seek to control her. Her relationship with the bureau is a rocky one; she quits the organization thirteen times in twenty-three years but always returns.

•Dr. Kate Corrigan joined the B.P.R.D., first as a consultant for a decade, before moving on to serve as a special liaison to the special-member team. As a former New York University professor, she developed expertise in the areas of folklore and the occult. Her work for the bureau was initially research oriented, but eventually she graduated to field work, became less introverted, and began growing as a person, while dealing with often unimaginable scenarios.

•Roger, a homunculus made from human blood and herbs, was first discovered in Romania and reanimated by accidentally stealing Sherman’s pyrokinetic life force. Given his name by Hellboy, Roger voluntarily returned Sherman’s power to her, regressing to a dormant state before being reanimated by electrical energy and running off a generator in his chest. Roger sought to understand and emulate humanity, even though he was often in the company of nonhumans. Roger was amazingly strong and practically indestructible, yet he was ultimately vulnerable to the power of the Black Flame, perishing in an attack.

•Johann Kraus is a German psychic who served as a medium and learned to let the dead manifest through his ectoplasm. During a séance in 2002, a release of psychic energy in Sichuan Province, China, sends a blast through the etheric plane, destroying Kraus’s physical body but not his spiritual form. A German B.P.R.D. agent, Izar Hoffman, detected Kraus’s spirit and managed to communicate the existence of an ectoplasmic containment suit to him. Kraus was able to enter the suit, which stabilized his essence, and he then traveled to the United States to join the bureau. While Kraus can infuse the deceased with his ectoplasm to learn what they have known, he also is subject to possession, which has happened on multiple occasions, sometimes for extended periods, during B.P.R.D. missions. The long separation from a physical form seems to strain Kraus, and his motivations become increasingly suspect.

•Benjamin Daimio, a career military man, had a promising career, being promoted to the rank of captain during the Persian Gulf War (1991), before his sudden death in 2001 in the jungles of Bolivia during a rescue operation. Technically dead for three days, Daimio returns to life with no explanation. His face, permanently shredded by a reanimated corpse during the fight that killed him, is an imposing one even among the ranks of the B.P.R.D.; because of that, coupled with his military bearing and experience, he is put in charge of the team and institutes changes that cause friction among its members. Wracked by guilt over the death of Roger, Daimio eventually loses control of the jaguar demon that inhabits his body and kills a number of B.P.R.D. personnel. Daimio then disappears into the wilderness and is later discovered by Sapien, who cannot persuade the captain to return.

•Lobster Johnson, a masked crime fighter from the 1930’s and 1940’s, tangled with Memnan Saa before perishing in the assault to stop the Nazi space program at Hunte Castle in Austria. Death could not quell his thirst for justice, and in death, his spirit has continued to roam, often helping the B.P.R.D. complete its missions. Armed with his trusty .45 and a glove that burns claw-shaped symbols into the foreheads of his victims, Johnson often manifests during the most desperate events. At the conclusion of the war on frogs, Dr. Corrigan made an effort to put Johnson’s spirit to rest, returning him to Hunte Castle. After releasing Kraus, whom he had possessed for a notably long time, Johnson seemed to be finally at peace.

•Panya, an Egyptian mummy who was reanimated during the nineteenth century, was long a prisoner of various clandestine societies that sought to learn her secrets. Eventually succumbing to weakness through her long incarceration, she was rescued from the Oannes Society by the bureau and moved to its headquarters. Panya has demonstrated psychic ability, including telepathy and mind control. Her motivations, at first benign, have possibly taken a more nefarious turn.

•Andrew Devon, the later-edition high-profile member of the B.P.R.D., was a skeptic of the occult who attempted to use his doctorate in modern and medieval languages to debunk a report by Dr. Corrigan concerning demonic possession. Attracted to a world beyond anything he once knew, Devon has moved from a bookish intellectual to an active, if somewhat trepidatious, field agent.

•The Black Flame is one of the major antagonists of the B.P.R.D., but his intentions are not completely malicious. Landis Pope, the CEO of Zinco Industries, created the Black Flame armor to control the frog monsters, and ultimately the Katha-Hem, but his plans were thwarted when the frogs began to control him, as Katha-Hem manifested and grew in power. Seemingly defeated by Sherman and unable to remove his armor, the Black Flame is dragged away by the frog monsters. Eventually, the eldritch energy burns away his physical form, leaving only an animated skeleton, but he continues to plot on behalf of the frog monsters. He appears to have been permanently destroyed during a second confrontation with Sherman, but at the expense of her powers.

•Memnan Saa, once a minor, almost charlatan sort of parlor-trick magician named Martin Gilfryd, became a complex antagonist for the bureau. After searching the world for true magic, Gilfryd evidently found a source, using it to transform himself into a powerful sorcerer, vexing even the formidable Lobster Johnson. Understanding the frog apocalypse at a level beyond human comprehension, Saa sought to use the living fire within Liz Sherman to prevent this particular calamity from transpiring even while other events were in motion. Saa’s ultimate intentions and motivations remain unclear, and even after his death at the hands of Sherman, his ghost continues to haunt her.

Artistic Style

Because Mignola’s writing style, drawing style, and subject matter are so distinct, finding an artist to provide a similarly distinctive look became important. Sometimes the visual content is influenced by Mignola as he provides a notable amount of conceptual sketches and additional notes on the drawings. While a number of illustrators have worked on the B.P.R.D. books, the one dominant contributor has been Davis. His style has largely become synonymous with the aesthetic of B.P.R.D., which is rather different from Mignola’s Hellboy, and helped to give the series its own strong identity.

Davis is a self-taught illustrator and tries for a sense of realism that suggests only what is necessary and allows the fantastic content of the stories to unfold in the reader’s imagination. Often large panels are used to give a sense of the enormity of the task that the B.P.R.D. encounters in the face of a planetary apocalypse, but Davis also likes employing close-ups of characters’ faces to give the reader a way to understand how these larger issues in the books are playing out in personal ways for the people involved. Much of the attention for Davis’s work is directed at his depiction of monsters, particularly their grotesque quality. The depictions of the monsters often have a messiness to their organic structure: Limbs bend at improbable junctures, tissues are not always cleanly joined, and components from different species are jammed together. This contributes to the sense that the characters in B.P.R.D. live in the same world as the reader, albeit one that is slightly disturbing.

While Mignola developed the grand movements of the story in advance, he has also allowed other writers to contribute B.P.R.D. stories. His longtime collaborator on the series, Arcudi, who has long worked on graphic novels based on films and has written comic books that have been turned into films, gives the plotting of the B.P.R.D. series a sense of the cinematic in terms of how the character arcs rise and fall, where moments of action and exposition are, and when the adventure elements give way to emotional resonance in the character relationships. Juggling the large cast of characters requires shifting the narrative focus while staying true to the larger thematic points of the series.

Themes

B.P.R.D. explores several notable themes over the course of its frog-war arc. Perhaps one of the most pervasive is identity and how identity is internally and externally defined. The major members of the team all find themselves dealing with secrets from their pasts, and their decisions to face these mysteries, along with their methods of revelation, change their relationships within the story and affect readers’ perceptions of them. For example, Captain Daimio’s introduction was as abrupt and shocking as his gruff demeanor, and the reaction of the characters within the story could be a parallel to readers’ reactions to the introduction of an unknown character suddenly taking a major section of the narrative focus.

Over the development of the story, the revelation of Daimio’s background made him a more sympathetic character, and his regret at the loss of Roger—and indeed many of the men who died under his command—helped to humanize his character. Roger’s death strains the relationship between Daimio and Kraus, and Kraus grows increasingly resentful toward the captain, becoming fixated on murdering him if the opportunity presents itself.

Unlike mainstream ensemble superhero books in which the teammates often have little internal conflict, the members of the B.P.R.D. show that, despite their unusual circumstance and powers, they still have many of the vices and weaknesses of regular humans. In the midst of an apocalyptic situation, the vulnerability of the characters helps to underscore their efforts to retain their humanity, the definition of which certainly interests Mignola. For example, he has cited the Nathaniel Hawthorne story “Feathertop” (1852)—about a scarecrow turned into a man who, upon seeing his true self reflected in a mirror, decides that he cannot live under an illusion—as some inspiration for Sapien’s investigation into his background as Caul and what it means to no longer be that person.

Related to this, B.P.R.D. does not specifically define what is monstrous, but it seems that either the loss of identity or the imposition of identity from outside forces is what makes for a truly horrific situation. The frog monsters are grotesque, but are they because they used to be humans or because they represent a future for Earth after humanity? Is Memnan Saa’s control of Liz Sherman monstrous because of the latter’s loss of free will, or is it a calculated decision born of Saa’s analysis of the war and thus somehow permissible?

These types of questions, while not immediately on the surface of the story, build over the course of the series and challenge readers to evaluate their own perception of the characters and how protagonists and antagonists are defined. The acquisition of knowledge, unfolding for the characters in the story as well as for the readers, is also questioned, for the act itself can fundamentally change an individual. This reinforces B.P.R.D.’s supposition that identity is one of the most basic horrors that a person can face.

Impact

As the largest independent American comic book publisher, Dark Horse Comics has built its reputation on several strong creator-owned titles under its Legend comic book imprint, which featured Mignola and several other important artists, such as Frank Miller and John Byrne. As a spin-off of Mignola’s Hellboy title, B.P.R.D. expanded the Hellboy universe and helped to build a large market for Hellboy and B.P.R.D. merchandise.

By collaborating with other artists on the B.P.R.D. run, the book grew in notoriety for deepening the internal mythology of the series and offering intricately expansive plot development, encouraging readers to reread entire volumes to better understand the story, which had been unfolding over many years. This sort of protracted, multithreaded narrative elaboration puts B.P.R.D. in the same category as works such as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (1989-1996) or Kurt Busiek’s Astro City (1995- ) in using the serialized medium of comic books to tell stories that are scaled up beyond the range of other monthly titles but that nevertheless appeal to the deep reading and encyclopedic attention to detail of many comic book fans.

B.P.R.D. also draws upon many sources from folklore and mythology known by Mignola and other contributors. This blend associates B.P.R.D. with weird fiction more than standard horror and fantasy genres, particularly in the way that it combines the supernatural with the scientific. The sense of otherworldly dread that is a mark of weird fiction is certainly present in the series, and the seriousness of the subject and the real-world setting infuse a sense of realism into a realm populated by magic and experimental technologies.

Films

Hellboy. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Revolution Studios, 2004. This film stars Ron Perlman as Hellboy, John Hurt as Professor Bruttenholm, Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien. Using some elements from Seed of Destruction, the film features B.P.R.D. and its agents, with some differences from the B.P.R.D. series. For example, Abe Sapien is psychic, and Liz and Hellboy become romantically linked. B.P.R.D. director Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) replaces Buttenholm. Roger the Homunculus can be briefly seen as a gray humanoid statue in the background at the B.P.R.D. headquarters.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Relativity Media, 2008. This film stars Perlman as Hellboy, Blair as Liz Sherman, Jones as Abe Sapien, and John Alexander as Johann Krauss. Introducing Krauss from the B.P.R.D. series is the most direct link to the books, although Krauss’s ectoplasm is more like smoke, and his containment suit looks more like a deep-sea diver’s suit than the sleeker version featured in the comics. Mignola contributed concept art for the film.

Television Series

The B.P.R.D. Declassified. Directed by Ben Rock. Visible Man Productions, 2004. This television special aired on FX Network to promote the first Hellboy film. It was done in the style of a fake documentary, mixing information about the film with scenes of B.P.R.D. agents, including Liz Sherman (Kristina Varvais) as a young child.

Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms. Directed by Phil Weinstein and Tad Stones. IDT Entertainment, 2006. This animated, made-for-television film features the voice acting of Perlman as Hellboy, Peri Gilpin as Professor Kate Corrigan, Blair as Liz Sherman, and Jones as Abe Sapien. The B.P.R.D. is enlisted to help contain the Japanese demons Thunder and Lightning after a professor of folklore opens a forbidden scroll. Another B.P.R.D. agent, a psychic named Russell Thorne, is introduced. The story was written by Mignola and Stones. Visually, Mignola wanted the film to look different from both the comics and the live-action film. Furthermore, while all three movie productions are rooted in some of the same basic narrative elements, Mignola has stated that each is its own distinct narrative universe.

Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron. Directed by Victor Cook and Tad Stones. IDT Entertainment, 2007. This animated, made-for-television film features the voice acting of Perlman as Hellboy, Hurt as Professor Bruttenholm, Gilpin as Professor Kate Corrigan, Blair as Liz Sherman, and Jones as Abe Sapien. The story was written by Mignola and Stones. Bruttenholm decides to accompany the B.P.R.D. agents as they investigate a haunting perpetrated by a vampire countess that Bruttenholm had encountered in his younger days before the formation of the bureau. The film also features agent Sydney Leach, who discovered Roger’s body in the Wake the Devil series.

Further Reading

Davis, Guy. The Marquis: Inferno (2010).

Dorkin, Evan, and Jill Thompson. Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites (2010).

Hester, Phil, and Mike Huddleston. The Coffin (2000).

Powell, Eric. The Goon (1998- ).

Bibliography

O’Connor, Laura. “The Corpse on Hellboy’s Back.” Journal of Popular Culture 43, no. 3 (June, 2010): 540-563.

Szumskyj, Benjamin. Right Hand of Doom: A Critical Study of Michael Mignola’s “Hellboy.” Winchester, Va.: Wild Cat Books, 2006.

Weiner, Stephen, Jason Hall, and Victoria Blake. Hellboy: The Companion. Milwaukie, Ore. Dark Horse Books, 2008.