Off The Cape – BPRD

Off The Cape: proper noun – an article series created by website Multiversity Comics in order to highlight books that do not feature traditional superheroes in an effort to spotlight less known creator-owned ongoings and graphic novels.

BPRD: proper noun – an incredibly well known comic book series spawned from one of the most successful creator-owned character titles of our time that still meets the base criteria of this column in that it is, in fact, “off the cape.”

Find out more after the jump.

For whatever reason that I still to this second can not define (outside of “I’m an idiot”), I had never read BPRD before this weekend. It is a curiosity to me that I can not quite explain; I’m an avid Mike Mignola and Hellboy fan. I have every issue of Hellboy either in trade or in single issues, as well as the various spin-offs with Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson and Edward Grey, Witchfinder. Yet I had never picked up the BPRD ongoing. Perhaps it was that there were over ten trades worth of material available, or perhaps it was fellow MC writer David Harper advising me not to just jump into BPRD at any random point as I did with Hellboy. Either way, I had not touched BPRD, despite coming to it many times tentatively and thinking, “Maybe today? No.. no, not today.”

Yet now, one weekend and eighty-something issues later, here we are.

In many ways, Mike Mignola gave birth to a brand new form of comic book. When Hellboy began, it started briefly as a concept infused in a short story, which was then developed into a character who could sustain his own story in his own ongoing, which in turn was set up as a series of minis which were all connected, yet could generally be picked up and read individually at any time. Hellboy was a character that existed in a universe infused with so much absorbed mythology and folklore that a story starring Hellboy and his associates could simply be told; a great Hellboy adventure can be condensed to a single issue, and sometimes (quite frequently, really) is. Hellboy wasn’t lacking for cohesiveness certainly, but there was never any grand issue when it came to hopping in and riding along (except maybe after 2007, to some extent, when Darkness Calls came out).

However, as much as Hellboy was a unique kind of character in that he could just have an adventure, Mignola had filled his world with a wide cast of characters, most of whom were somewhat under utilized in the traditional sense. In any comic book, you’ll certainly have characters who exist in tandem with the main character, yet never fully take center stage outside of a random story here or there; the main character of a Wolverine book will always be Wolverine, and the main character of a Batman book will always (one way or another) be Batman. Such is the case for Hellboy — despite having a wide cast of characters enough to make a team-centric book, it was always ultimately about Hellboy.

This is where BPRD was born from. In the wake of “Conqueror Worm,” Hellboy quits the BPRD, and it is up to the rest of the group to continue on without him. Picking up leftover threads from the first ever Hellboy story (“Seed of Destruction”), the book found the BPRD investigating threats in the center of the Earth, a battle against Lovecraftian gods and frog monsters in what is perhaps one of the most thrilling team books of the past decade. Starring Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, newcomer Johann Krauss and Roger the Homonculus, the team would grow and expand over the years with characters like Daimio the soldier, Panya the mummy and Kate Corrigan, their human liaison, yet the book never lost what ultimately made this title matter: the visceral human connection somewhat absent from Hellboy.

This is the inherent difference between the two titles: in Hellboy, you have a central character embarking on a mythological odyssey of epic proportions as he is faced with a fate he refuses to submit to. In BPRD, you have a group of outcasts attempting to cope with that which makes them different for the betterment of humanity. The cast of BPRD ostensibly exhibits one of the key elements that has always made for an interesting super-comic, with stories of great power resulting in great responsibility. These characters are faced with nightmares and antagonists of epic proportion who lay waste to the world to the same extent that a child kicks over a block castle he just built (the body count in BPRD is insurmountable), yet these heroes working somewhat beneath their means always rise to the challenge to try and topple armies single handedly, or take down a mad god. Through it all, however, it is ultimately the emotional core that resonates the most.

This isn’t something that makes itself readily apparent, but the statement still stands true. Despite being flush with characters of odd origin and odder appearance, BPRD in many ways is a rather interesting look at perception of identity. The book, as it stands, has probably one of the most unique casts of characters to date: Abe Sapien, the fish-man found in a basement who has no clue from whence he came (which, by the way, becomes a major plot point with an astounding resolution); Liz Sherman, the girl who more than played with fire, who burned her neighborhood down as a young girl and spent years in isolation due to her inability to control her ability; Johann Krauss, the medium trapped between life and death, longing only for one or the other, yet too afraid to die and too brazen to truly live; Roger, the being made of manure and spice looking for a role model so he can understand what it means to be a man. Despite these varying elements frequently pushing them away from some semblance of humanity, the series chronicles not only their adventures from event to event, but their evolution as monsters who learn to be people. This is the tale of the outsider in its most refined form, plotted with expert precision to create an epic saga of quite colossal proportions.

And oh, what an adventure to be had! The first major story of the book, the Plague of Frogs, follows our team through highs and lows of rather astounding proportion. If any comic could conceivably be read as a big budget action film, it would be BPRD. Bouncing from locale to locale (both real and ethereal) and featuring some of the most mind boggling villains and chaos, BPRD is an intertwined web woven by masters of the craft. While Hellboy certainly has that aspect of instant initiation, the aforementioned element of BPRD — that to truly experience it, it should be read in order (not including the 1940’s stories) — is ultimately true. Building from “Hollow Earth” all the way through “King of Fear” is perhaps one of the most exciting and action-packed paranormal horror/action stories of the past decade, and the only way to experience it is right at the starting point. However, fans intimidated by the current size of the series shouldn’t fear the dedication that comes to the 70 or so issue storyline; if comics could be equated to drugs, BPRD is easily crack cocaine with no fear of overdosing — and Hell On Earth, the new BPRD storyline, is only just beginning.

Of course, what ultimately makes BPRD different from Hellboy is the active hand of John Arcudi. Mike Mignola is very much the captain of the general ship when it comes to the expanded Mignolaverse, but John Arcudi is the first officer. When BPRD‘s third major storyline comes around with “The Dead” (not including the one-shots from 2003), the main reigns of the series are handed to Arcudi, who does a fantastic job of focusing the book in a singular forward direction that solidifies BPRD‘s greatness. Hellboy has always been a fantastic book, but the title relies heavily in its own mythology, which in turn is mythology and folklore that has been combined and coalesced by Mignola for the purposes of integrating Hellboy to “our universe”. BPRD on the other hand, while still absorbing classic horror elements and various forms of mythology, forges its own path ahead, really telling the stories which feature the characters interacting with their universe, as opposed to simply being part of a larger world.

On top of that, you could not have the Plague of Frogs saga in as wonderful shape and form as we do if it weren’t for the incredibly talented Guy Davis. Davis’ art manages to uniquely straddle the line between epic and personal, bringing to life some of the most beautifully rendered sequences in comics to date — from the grandiose battles of giant robots against dragons to the smaller and poignant moments that really stick in the memory. Throughout all of the series, Davis creates life in all aspects of BPRD with a clear vision and terrific structure where others might fail, as he is very much an unmatched talent. If Mignola and Arcudi are the brains and blood of BPRD, Davis is very much the heart.

Leaving the book with “New World”, he certainly left rather audacious shoes to fill. However, Tyler Crook joined the book three arcs ago, and as “Hell On Earth: Russia” comes to a close, things are already shaping up quite well for the next era of BPRD.

Ultimately, after spending a weekend with my nose in books, I ultimately have come to a singular conclusion: the fact that I hadn’t read all of BPRD before this weekend makes me an awful comic fan. As someone who likes to pretend that I am on the “up and up” when it comes to what is good and what is not, to have ignored such a gem of a series for so long feels like a cardinal sin at this point. What Mignola, Arcudi and Davis, as well as many others, have put together with this ongoing saga is tremendous, and beyond staggering. In no short terms will 2012 be the year of BPRD, with five different stories being told throughout the year starting in February. If there ever was a time to take a weekend away from reality to become acquainted with a new one, now would be that time.