Continuing with my deeper review of the Hellboy universe of stories, I return to the Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. series with a second posting.
After the main Hellboy series ended and the B.P.R.D. series had its focus, we started to get a series of comics about Hellboy starting from the point where he had joined the B.P.R.D. in 1952.
As each set came out, it would be collected, moving from 1952 on. I figured this would continue until maybe we moved up to when the main Hellboy storyline started in 1994 with Seed of Destruction. But then it seems things changed after we got to 1956, things jumped around. And then issues got dragged out during the pandemic, and I didn’t know what was going on.
Then everything came back together, and we got stuff set in 1957. But at this point, I again don’t know what’s going on going forward. We had uncollected comics at that point, and there are no new comics on the schedule beyond the last of the ones set in 1957.
So for balance, I did the first four volumes in a prior posting: 1952-55. With this one, I’m doing the five subsequent volumes: 1956 and 1957, along with The Beast of Vargu and Others, The Return of Effie Kolb and Others, and The Secret of Chesbro House and Others, which have stories that skip around. As the first four were collected in an omnibus volume, I suspect these five will get a similar treatment.
Overall in these stories, we see Hellboy working with agents who are new to us, which makes sense. Some of these agents have special abilities. You wonder whether they died or retired between this time period and the ’90s.
We will also see agents of the Soviet Special Sciences Service group headed by Varvara in the 1950s. As it’s the Cold War, they won’t be allies.
And we’ll see hints of the building in Colorado that the B.P.R.D. would later move to, which at this point is used by a hidden government agency.
I am sadden that they stopped with the chronological stories after 1957, as there were several storylines with secondary characters that we probably will not see finished.
1956 gives us a single story with multiple storylines going on. We have Hellboy going off and eventually showing up in Mexico where he’ll spend some time there. We see Varvara get contained. Professor Bruttenholm is following up on his research into Enkeladite that had been showing up in the past few volumes. This leads him into a dangerous path to that group in Colorado. And Agent Xiang is looking into her abilities. I don’t think we ever got her final story.
1957 gives us five separate stories. In chronological order, we have “Fearful Symmetry” set in January, which takes Hellboy to India. There he deals with a weretiger. I don’t recall if we ever saw Virginia Payne again. Next is (I think) “Forgotten Lives,” where the Professor and Hellboy slay a ghost who has appeared in a potter’s field in New York. It seems to have a strange connection to The Lobster.
Set in March, we have “Falling Sky,” where Agent Woody, who appeared previously, is working with Hellboy. Woody is frustrated that as a cryptozoologist, he has yet to deal with a cryptid. Well, be careful what you wish for. In July, we have “Family Ties,” where Agent Xiang is helping Hellboy with a possession case tied to the paperback publication of Gustav Strobe‘s book. You see more of him in the Abe Sapien series. And finally in December, we have “From Below,” where Hellboy, the Professor, and another agent head to Oregon to look into an apparent haunted sawmill. What they find is tied to a branch of our old pals the Helioptic Brotherhood of Ra.
The Beast of Vargu and Others has the title story, set in Romania in 1962, where Hellboy confronts a hellish beast in the Castle Vargu but is wounded. A pair of gypsies is able to help him, using animated puppets. It’s kind of a different type of story.
“The Return of Saturn” is set in New Hampshire in 1975. In the lower levels of an abandoned mill, a group of bodies dating back decades is discovered. Hellboy and another agent show up. And there seems to be someone or something in the woods still killing. Why is it doing so? Is it connected to what happened in the far past? A secondary storyline involves Liz.
I think most know who, or what, Krampus is. In “Krampusnacht,” Hellboy confronts him in Austria in 1975. It’s a weird sort of Christmas story.
Hellboy is with Professor Bruttenholm in England in 1960 in “Return of the Lampton Worm,” where they confront a resurrected worm, or dragon, which is something a little different.
The Return of Effie Kolb and Others has the title story, which is set in 1967 and is a direct sequel to “The Crooked Man,” one of my favorite stand-alone Hellboy story largely due to its clear Manly Wade Wellman elements. Tom Ferrell is still alive and an old man. Others from the story, like Cora Fisher and the Rev. Watts have passed on. A new character is introduced in Sara May Blackburn (who will get her own miniseries). As the title implies, the witch Effie Kolb has returned with a couple of other sinister characters. Hellboy is able to put an end to it. As for Sara, she gets her own mini-series, which I’ll review elsewhere.
“Long Night at Goloski Station” is also set in 1967, but in Russia. At a lonely station, Hellboy meets Yad Tovich, who hunts werewolves. We met him in an adventure with Edward Gray. But he can’t be over 100 years old, right?
“Her Fatal Hour” is set in 1979 and is a sequel to “The Beast of Vargu.” Hellboy has an adventure to help save a girl from marrying the wrong one.
In “The Sending,” set in England in 1991, Hellboy is helping with a strange encounter with a creature looking for something. But with some help, he is able to do so — in an interesting way.
“The Seven Wives Club” is set in Savannah, Ga., in 1992. Hellboy and another agent are there after a couple visited a reputed haunted house, and one shot the other. Hellboy and the agent look into it and find out that the owner had seven wives that he brought to the house and killed. There ghosts are still trapped there. Can Hellboy put them to rest?
The Secret of Chesbro House and Others first gives us “Night of the Cyclops,” set in Greece in 1962. I think this is the first time Hellboy has to deal with Greek mythology. Here he is summoned to help a group of fawns lift a curse from Aphrodite. Too bad we never see Agent Dryades again.
Our title story, “The Secret of Chesbro House,” is your basic cursed/haunted house with a varied group of characters. Set in 1983, Hellboy is there to help lift the curse on the house so it can be sold. Well, he does succeed, but not everyone comes out okay.
“Old Man Whittier” is a sequel to “The Whittier Legacy.” Set in 1986, he is helping a woman who is part of another branch of that family deal with the old house she grew up in. He does but in his own way. I wonder who the boy is that gave him some info?
Then we have two connected stories: the short “The Miser’s Gift” and “Time is a River.” Both are set in 1989 Budapest. In the first, Hellboy and a couple of others wind up in a bizarre other world. Hellboy is able to get back to reality, but only one of his companions does. In the follow-up, he returns for the other, though it’s not easy. But he does get assistance.
As I finish this, there are no other Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. comics on the schedule. So I don’t know if this series is finished, but suspect so.
