B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs volume 1


By Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Brian McDonald, Miles Gunther, Brian Augustyn, Geoff Johns, Joe Harris, Guy Davis, Ryan Sook, Matt Smith, Derek Thompson, Michael Avon Oeming, Scott Kolins, Adam Pollina, Cameron Stewart & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-5958-2675-6

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Epic Eldritch Entertainment… 9/10

Hellboy is a creature of vast depth and innate mystery; a demonic baby summoned to Earth by Nazi occultists at the end of Word War II but subsequently raised, educated and trained by parapsychologist Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters as the lead agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

After decades of unfailing, faithful service he became mortally tired and resigned. Itinerantly roaming the world, he still managed to encounter weird happenstances but could never escape trouble or his sense of duty. This book is not about him.

The massive collection under review here instead features his trusty comrades and other assorted spin-off characters from Mike Mignola’s legendary franchise: valiant champions who also deal with those occult occasions which typically fall under the remit of the Enhanced Talents task force established in Fairfield, Connecticut as the baby imp grew to monster-mangling manhood.

If you’re having trouble with the concept think of a government-sanctioned and internationally co-sponsored Ghostbusters dealing with Buffy-style threats to humanity.

As discussed in Scott Allie’s Introduction, the B.P.R.D. soon established itself as a viable premise in its own right and, through a succession of interlinked miniseries, went on to battle an ancient and arcane amphibian menace to the world in an immense epic which spanned eight years of publication.

Periodically released as a series of trade paperbacks during that time, the entire supernatural saga dubbed Plague of Frogs has been remastered and will be now be collected as a quartet of monumental volumes, of which this is the fearsome first. Gathering material from Hellboy: Box full of Evil, one-shots Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead, B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth, B.P.R.D.: The Soul of Venice, B.P.R.D.: Dark Waters, B.P.R.D.: Night Train, B.P.R.D.: There’s Something Under My Bed, 5-issue miniseries B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs and choice snippets from the publisher’s trade flyer Dark Horse Extra, this macabre triumvirate of terror opens with ‘Hollow Earth’ written by Mignola, Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski and illustrated by Ryan Sook with additional inking from Curtis Arnold, letters from Clem Robins and magical colours from the himself-legendary Dave Stewart.

After the events of Hellboy: Conqueror Worm, the horned hero quit the B.P.R.D. which had been his only home since he was rescued from those Fascist sorcerers on December 23rd 1944, and our tale begins with the remaining investigators questioning their own validity in and responsibilities to an organisation which clearly does not fully trust or appreciate them.

Such ponderings are sidelined however when on-sabbatical pyrokinetic Liz Sherman sends a spectacular distress call to amphibious Abe Sapien. Since she has been missing for two years nobody downplays it and a scratch team is promptly dispatched to her last known location, a temple in the Ural Mountains, on the Arctic Circle.

The squad comprises conflicted, lonely Abe, disgruntled artificial warrior Roger the Homunculus (still peeved by the discovery that his bosses planted a bomb inside him to ensure he remained controllable) and new recruit Johann Krauss, a recently disembodied psychic, led by reluctantly promoted psychologist/ field commander Kate Corrigan …

When they arrive they find all the priests of Agartha slaughtered and Liz’s body cold and empty… but not dead. Also scattered about are the bodies of dead monsters and a great big hole leading down through the mountain into untrammelled subterranean depths…

Realising that Liz’s animating energy has been stolen, Abe and the team plunge into the darkness, determined to rescue their comrade and solve the mystery…

And so begins a ponderously oppressive, doom-laden classic adventure of sub-Terrene lost civilisations, ancient races, infernal entities and imminent threat of world conquest, all dealt with in blockbusting fashion by moodily charismatic heroes in the supremely entertaining action-packed, tension-filled nick-of-time.

Crafted by the same creative team and lettered by Dan Jackson, the under-Earth escapade is followed by ‘Hollow Earth, Dark Horse Extra’ which offers the tragic origin of bodiless spiritualist Johann Kraus, after which ‘The Killer in My Skull’ (written by Mignola, drawn by Matt Smith, inked by Sook and coloured by Stewart, introduces 1930’s masked ghost-breaker Lobster Johnson in a splendid weird-science shocker, whilst ‘Abe Sapien versus Science’ chills through an intimate glimpse at the fabulous manphibian’s early days as a guinea pig of the B.P.R.D.’s research division, with Mignola replacing Smith as inker. Pat Brosseau is the under-appreciated letterer in both cases, which both originally appeared as back-up strips from the miniseries Hellboy: Box Full of Evil.

Next up is a full-length Abe Sapien solo thriller, courtesy of writer Brian McDonald, illustrator Derek Thompson, colourist James Sinclair and Brosseau. ‘Drums of the Dead’ is a splendidly spooky sea-faring thriller involving voodoo, sharks and the unhappy unburied as Abe and apprentice Bureau psychic Garrett investigate uncanny and lethal transatlantic phenomena in the seas where once slave traders sailed…

The second book in this mammoth compilation is ‘The Soul of Venice and Other Stories’ commencing with that eponymous yarn by Miles Gunther & Michael Avon Oeming with a little help from Mignola, colours by Stewart and letters by Ken Bruzenak.

It all kicks off as amphibian Abe, bodiless Johann, lonely Roger and newly reinstated firestarter Liz are dispatched to Venice (that other one in Italy) to solve a literally nauseating crisis.

To fix the problem they have to invade a haunted palazzo, battle a debauched ghost-vampire and liberate an ancient Roman Goddess, incurring along the way the extremely polite disinterest of archdevil Lord Shax of Hell. However, in the triumphant aftermath Roger and the liberated deity Cloacina strike up an unlikely relationship…

Brian Augustyn, Guy Davis, Stewart and Michelle Madsen then pit Sapien and Roger against religious zealotry and misunderstood arcane forces in ‘Dark Waters’.

When the corpses of three women branded as witches centuries earlier are pulled, inert, unchanged and smelling of roses, from a 300-year interment at the bottom of a duck pond in Shiloh (near Salem), Massachusetts the duo reluctantly investigate, but things go nastily awry when fire-and-brimstone preacher Pastor Blackwood steals the bodies.

Happily the agents and a more piously forgiving man of god are able to thwart the witch-hunting loon before he unleashes forces nothing could stop…

‘Night Train’ (Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Stewart & Brosseau) give the old “ghost locomotive” plot an effective tweak when Liz and Roger meet the unquiet spirit of Lobster Johnson. The bombastic mystery man has returned to help stop the aged Nazi maniac who killed him and slaughtered a convoy of Manhattan Project scientists in 1939…

The entire team are on hand to solve the mystery of disappearing babies in ‘There’s Something Under My Bed’ by Joe Harris, Adam Pollina, Guillermo Zubiaga, Lee Loughridge & Brosseau, leaving the “Enhanced Talents” (at least) wondering if they should revise their definition of the term “monster”, after which ‘Another Day at the Office’ (Mignola, Cameron Stewart, Madsen & Michael Heisler) raucously recounts the fate of a resurrected Balkan necromancer who thought his zombie legions a match for Abe, Johann and a squad of well-armed, well-trained B.P.R.D. regulars…

The third and final Book reprints the monstrously chilling opening sally in the epic ‘Plague of Frogs’ (by Mignola, Davis, Stewart & Robins) storyline as the supernatural riot squad faces off against some of their oldest enemies, allowing the author to tie up a number of loose ends and plot threads which encompass the entire publishing history of Hellboy…

The challengers of the extremely unknown are called in when a spore monster escapes from a B.P.R.D. storage facility and Abe, Liz, Johann, Roger and Kate Corrigan have their work cut out trying to stop the granddaddy of all elder gods from turning Earth into a charnel pit and breeding ground for giant frog demons.

Amongst all that mood, mystery, carnage and catastrophe Mignola and the unbelievably underrated and unique Guy Davis even manage to give us an origin of sorts for Abe Sapien in such a way as to tell everything and still leave us all none the wiser…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this astoundingly absorbing tome is a portentous Afterword by Mignola, who also contribute extensively to the trio of Sketchbook Sections for Hollow Earth (mostly Sook), Soul of Venice by Avon Oeming, Davis, Kolins, Pollina and Cameron Stewart and finally Plague of Frogs by Davis. Also included are a gallery of covers, character recaps and other eerie art treats.

With the tides of TV fashion once again shifting towards the fantastic, this bunch must be the first choice option for every production company out there. Until then why not get ahead of the rush by reading these truly magical tales?
© 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014 Mike Mignola. All rights reserved. B.P.R.D., all key and prominently featured characters ™ Mike Mignola.