B.P.R.D. vol 2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories

B.P.R.D. vol 2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories 

By various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 1-84023-931-X

This second collection of one-shots again features spin-off characters from Mike Mignola’s excellent Hellboy series and deals with the spooky jobs that typically befall the Enhanced Talents task force of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

It all kicks off with amphibian Abe Sapien, bodiless psychic Johann Kraus, Roger the Homunculus and flame-casting Liz Sherman dispatched to Venice (that other one in Italy) to battle a vampire and liberate an ancient Goddess. The creative team is Miles Gunther and Michael Avon Oeming with a little help from Mignola himself. Brian Augustyn and Guy Davis pit Sapien and Roger against religious zealotry and arcane forces when the bodies of three witches are pulled unchanged from a 300 year interment at the bottom of a duck pond near Salem, Massachusetts in the competent ‘Dark Waters’.

In ‘Night Train’ Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins and Dave Stewart give the old ‘ghost locomotive’ plot an effective tweak for Liz and Roger and the reprinted comic strips conclude with the team solving the mystery of disappearing babies in ‘There’s Something Under My Bed’ by Joe Harris and Adam Pollina.

The volume finishes with a fascinating look at the construction and sketches of the all new adventure ‘Another Day at the Office’ by Mignola and Cameron Stewart which is the sweetener for an already rollickin’ good read.

© 2004 Mike Mignola. All Rights Reserved.