B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: New World (Dark Horse)
Written by Mike Mignola & John Arcudi, drawn by Guy Davis
Collects B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: New World #1-5 & B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Seattle Ashcan

A month or two back I caught up on a bunch of B.P.R.D. trades. I had some extra cash from my birthday I believe and three of the volumes were cheap on Amazon, so I bought them. After tearing through those, I happened upon another sale, this one on Thwipster, that had the first two Hell on Earth volumes. I originally intended to write about the three previous volumes I read, but too much time elapsed, it stopped being fresh and I didn’t want to sully my good memories of that reading experience by trying to slog back through so soon after a first reading.

But, I read these books far more recently and would love to tell you about them. If you’re not caught up on what went on before this new storytelling volume, but a giant monster thing appeared in the middle of the U.S. and started releasing a kind of fog that’s been changing people. The B.P.R.D. are now not only far more well known to the average person because everyone saw this monster on TV, but also a part of the U.N. which puts them in charge of a much larger area with a lot more manpower.

This first volume finds entire Canadian towns disappearing and Abe Sapien heading up north to find out what’s going on. While there he runs into a familiar face SPOILER Captain Ben Daimio! I was so glad to see his return because he’s not only still fighting the good fight, but he also is just a fun, badass character who deserves more page time. The two men do their best to find the monster and put a stop to it, which winds up being a pretty sad story all around. Meanwhile, Panya keeps doing suspicious things, Devon continues to not trust Abe and Johann seems to be becoming obsessed with a potential new physical body all of which leads right into the next volume!

B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Gods and Monsters (Dark Horse)
Written by Mike Mignola & John Arcudi, drawn by Guy Davis & Tyler Crook
Collects B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Gods #1-3 & B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth: Monsters #1-2

The first story in this collection focuses on a group of people on the run from monsters with a future-seeing girl at the center. Abe and Devon’s tensions also come to a head with Kate forcing them to sit down and try to get through their issues. With it’s shorter issue count, this one stays very taunt and has an insane ending I won’t spoil here. I must say, I was shocked by that ending–literally open-mouthed shock–but even more so by the person who witnessed it and how they react. What is happening?! That’s the kind of ending I like!

The second story here is a two parter that took me a little more time to grasp on to. This one’s about Liz Sherman, former fire-starter and B.P.R.D. who seemingly used up all of her fire powers to kill every frog demon on earth. Now she’s apparently living in a trailer park with her husband? This is the part that threw me. Maybe I read through too quickly and didn’t catch something, but I had no idea Liz was with this guy or why she was living where she was. As you’d expect, she stumbles on a murderous cult and has to figure out how to get out of it using her training. This one ends on a double cliffhanger, the first leaving Liz in the wind, the second relating back to the previous story’s ending. I haven’t read past this book, so I have no idea what happened, but as with all Hellboy/B.P.R.D. comics, I can’t wait to see where it goes. I should also note that Monsters featured art by Tyler Crook instead of Guy Davis. I believe Davis has left the series for good (or at least for now). Not sure what happened there, but he will be missed. Crook brings a cartoonier style to the proceedings, but still keeps things in line with Davis and Mignola’s artistic vision.