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B.P.R.D.
B.P.R.D., Vol. 2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories
This collection of 2003's Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense one-shots kicks of with a goddess imprisoned in a story by Bastard Samurai creative team Miles Gunter and Michael Avon Oeming, joined by series creator Mike Mignola. Guy Davis, artist of the new B.P.R.D. series teams with Brian Augustyn (Gotham by Gaslight). The Flash creative team Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins team for their first Dark Horse work, and Joe Harris, screenwriter of Darkness Falls, and his X-Men collaborator Adam Pollina reunite for Abe Sapien's weirdest adventure yet. Also includes a brand new short story by Mignola and Cameron Stewart.
128 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2004
16 people are currently reading
457 people want to read
About the author
Mike Mignola
1,865 books2,527 followersMike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.
In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.
In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.
Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.
Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.
In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.
In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.
Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.
Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
March 18, 2019
This is probably the weakest volume of the entire BPRD series, mostly because Mike Mignola had very little involvement. None of the stories are bad, but nor do all of them have that vibe you get from a Mignola comic. There's some big time creators involved before they hit the big time like Geoff Johns and Michael Avon Oeming. The stories are all worth a read for some mindless fun but aren't really representative of the BPRD series as a whole.
October 22, 2017
The second volume of BPRD is a collection of short stories, and it's pretty weak, unfortunately. Most stories here aren't written by Mike Mignola, and it just shows how other writers struggle with characterisation and tone. It's not all bad — The Soul of Venice, Dark Waters and Another Day At The Office are all pretty solid. Unfortunately, the rest of them are just not good. Geoff Johns writes a typical big and dumb Geoff Johns comic in Night Train, and Joe Harris's There's Something Under My Bed would be more suitable as a filler episode of Goosebumps or something. The good news is, most of these stories are completely skippable, and aren't at all indicative of the rest of the series. Still, it makes it very obvious how important Mike Mignola's supervision is for a good Hellboy universe story. It's just not the same without him.
First read: November 3, 2015
Rating: ★★★★・
Second read: October 22, 2017
Rating: ★★★・・
First read: November 3, 2015
Rating: ★★★★・
Second read: October 22, 2017
Rating: ★★★・・
April 28, 2013
I came to this book with very little information: this series gets as many raves as Hellboy series (whose Mignola work I've loved). So I pretty much expected more tales by Mignola, expanding the universe that Hellboy can't be everywhere at once in.
Which is mostly true - there's definitely more of the universe and supporting characters here - but only a little of this is written by Mignola, and none of it pencilled by him. Instead this is pretty much an anthology of different creative teams' stories taking little detours into (presumably) uncharted territory on behalf of Mignola.
Once I finally realised what this book is, I was unfortunately haunted by thoughts like "is this canon?", "are any of these tales extensions of existing Mignola thoughts?" and "Who are these creators?" The stories are reasonably enjoyable and sometimes look decent, but somehow this felt like going to the best steakhouse in town and finding out it's all Salisbury steak.
Best surprise? I had no complaints about Geoff Johns' contribution. Actually, flipping back through the book to re-evaluate how it hit me, none of the stories were bad or stupid, and while the art is all over the map, it's still decently done. I'm not usually a fan of anthologies - and whiner that I am, it's because they're so much harder to review. Dumb reason I know - so I'll go out on a limb and actually report that despite my anti-anthology prejudice, it's a good book - good enough I'll try the next one.
Which is mostly true - there's definitely more of the universe and supporting characters here - but only a little of this is written by Mignola, and none of it pencilled by him. Instead this is pretty much an anthology of different creative teams' stories taking little detours into (presumably) uncharted territory on behalf of Mignola.
Once I finally realised what this book is, I was unfortunately haunted by thoughts like "is this canon?", "are any of these tales extensions of existing Mignola thoughts?" and "Who are these creators?" The stories are reasonably enjoyable and sometimes look decent, but somehow this felt like going to the best steakhouse in town and finding out it's all Salisbury steak.
Best surprise? I had no complaints about Geoff Johns' contribution. Actually, flipping back through the book to re-evaluate how it hit me, none of the stories were bad or stupid, and while the art is all over the map, it's still decently done. I'm not usually a fan of anthologies - and whiner that I am, it's because they're so much harder to review. Dumb reason I know - so I'll go out on a limb and actually report that despite my anti-anthology prejudice, it's a good book - good enough I'll try the next one.
September 26, 2017
This is a collection of 5 BPRD short stories and unfortunately only 2 of them are worth reading. The first story was pretty good and the Lobster Johnston story was good, but the other three were just kind of needless prequel stories.
December 6, 2025
This is the weakest BPRD collection, and quite possibly the weakest book in the entire extended line of Hellboy comics and its various spinoffs. Just some truly dire stuff here (and in one case nearly unreadable stuff) from a group of artists and writers who have all done much better work elsewhere.
I’m not going to go through the whole thing story by story, I don’t think it’s worth the time or energy to do so. I’ll just point out that usually when I’m reading something so bad that I’m considering giving it one star I’ll go with the idea that if I can point to even one thing I enjoyed, no matter how minor or incidental, I’ll say the book isn’t a complete failure and give it a second star. So two very shaky stars courtesy of Guy Davis’s art on Dark Waters. Guy Davis is an artist who’s absolutely worth talking about, but he’s also sticking around on this book for a while, so I’ll save my thoughts on him for the next volume, which is a hell of a lot better than this one.
Guy Davis: great work, well done!
Everyone else whose name is on this thing: for shame!
Two stars!
I’m not going to go through the whole thing story by story, I don’t think it’s worth the time or energy to do so. I’ll just point out that usually when I’m reading something so bad that I’m considering giving it one star I’ll go with the idea that if I can point to even one thing I enjoyed, no matter how minor or incidental, I’ll say the book isn’t a complete failure and give it a second star. So two very shaky stars courtesy of Guy Davis’s art on Dark Waters. Guy Davis is an artist who’s absolutely worth talking about, but he’s also sticking around on this book for a while, so I’ll save my thoughts on him for the next volume, which is a hell of a lot better than this one.
Guy Davis: great work, well done!
Everyone else whose name is on this thing: for shame!
Two stars!
June 18, 2021
For a series that deals mostly with monsters, it also takes enough time to explore the main characters' humanity.
January 15, 2019
I knew about Michael Avon Oeming work from his graphic novel, The Powers, and I was familiar with his drawing style. In my opinion here he`s surpassing himself making a great team with the colorist Dave Stewart in the story The soul of Venice that has, in the end, a warm greeting from a Spawn of Hell.
Dark Waters hasn`t such a complex story, but the drawing style looks easy, round and colorful, in short, it`s quite amazing, in a big opposition with the dark & lined style from the usual Mignola series. In short, Guy Davis is certainly a guy to look for, further.
Night Train it has a little of Lobster Johnson in it, but it`s too short and thin on all sides to really impress.
The same thing I could say that happens with the next one in the book, There`s Something Under my Bed. Some kind of an ok story with a regular drawing style.
Another day at the office was quite in the same tone with the last two, short and with not so bad artwork, but nothing to impress, either.
Overall the rating of this one could be between 2.5 and 3 stars.
Dark Waters hasn`t such a complex story, but the drawing style looks easy, round and colorful, in short, it`s quite amazing, in a big opposition with the dark & lined style from the usual Mignola series. In short, Guy Davis is certainly a guy to look for, further.
Night Train it has a little of Lobster Johnson in it, but it`s too short and thin on all sides to really impress.
The same thing I could say that happens with the next one in the book, There`s Something Under my Bed. Some kind of an ok story with a regular drawing style.
Another day at the office was quite in the same tone with the last two, short and with not so bad artwork, but nothing to impress, either.
Overall the rating of this one could be between 2.5 and 3 stars.
July 1, 2015
A wonderful little collection from many well known industry creators before they were...well...well known.
This second trade is great, it further establishes the Mignolaverse and also with the short little one and done format makes for some fun and creative tales here. This is exactly what I love so much about the BPRD:
World: Art, let's start there, it's mostly amazing. The thing with art, it's fairly subjective and in most cases I found the art awesome. I love Oeming and Guy Davis is one of my all time favs so this just makes it super awesome seeing their early work. World building in terms of narrative here there is only a minor amount. That's not the main point of this trade as there are a lot of small character one shots here so that's fine. The Soul of Venice is of course the highlight, it's fun and made me want to visit Venice!
Story: Geoff Johns is found in one of the stories which made me smile as I find his writing to be good in short bursts and kind of collapses on itself when the world is too big, here the length is perfect. Also of course Mignola is being being Mignola which is super fun. I like that the BPRD opens the door for other creators to dip their feet into this world and make the Mignolaverse so much more dense and rich. The stories found here are all different, tone wise and focus wise. Not to go into spoilers as they are all one and dones, they are all fun and I found that included many small character moments that slowly builds our relatability with the team. Good stuff!
Character: Wonderful! I really enjoy Abe taking a bigger roll in the BPRD and the other cast like Liz, Roger, Johann and Kate (one of my favs) having their moments. These little stories are great because the Plague of Frogs in the next arc and having these character tales here really allows for the reader to empathize with these characters.
I like this series so very much. What's not to like? Monsters fighting monsters! Awesomeness!
Onward to the next book!
This second trade is great, it further establishes the Mignolaverse and also with the short little one and done format makes for some fun and creative tales here. This is exactly what I love so much about the BPRD:
World: Art, let's start there, it's mostly amazing. The thing with art, it's fairly subjective and in most cases I found the art awesome. I love Oeming and Guy Davis is one of my all time favs so this just makes it super awesome seeing their early work. World building in terms of narrative here there is only a minor amount. That's not the main point of this trade as there are a lot of small character one shots here so that's fine. The Soul of Venice is of course the highlight, it's fun and made me want to visit Venice!
Story: Geoff Johns is found in one of the stories which made me smile as I find his writing to be good in short bursts and kind of collapses on itself when the world is too big, here the length is perfect. Also of course Mignola is being being Mignola which is super fun. I like that the BPRD opens the door for other creators to dip their feet into this world and make the Mignolaverse so much more dense and rich. The stories found here are all different, tone wise and focus wise. Not to go into spoilers as they are all one and dones, they are all fun and I found that included many small character moments that slowly builds our relatability with the team. Good stuff!
Character: Wonderful! I really enjoy Abe taking a bigger roll in the BPRD and the other cast like Liz, Roger, Johann and Kate (one of my favs) having their moments. These little stories are great because the Plague of Frogs in the next arc and having these character tales here really allows for the reader to empathize with these characters.
I like this series so very much. What's not to like? Monsters fighting monsters! Awesomeness!
Onward to the next book!
March 3, 2014
Volume 2 of the series gives us five separate short stories. There are vampire in Venice (wasn't that a Doctor Who story?) and an ancient Roman Goddess of the sewers, a Salem Witches story and a quest for redemption for three innocent women condemned to die, a ghost train story featuring Lobster Johnson, a story of monsters under the bed who steal children, and finally zombies in Moldavia. All are investigated and solved in short order by the B.P.R.D. team of Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien, Roger the Homunculus and Johann Krauss.
There's nothing really bad about any of these stories, but nothing really great either. The problem here is that there is no overreaching story to hang these disparate elements onto, just a few quick stories that are over before you really get into them. There's also no real sense of menace in any of these stories, no sense that anything here has consequences. B.P.R.D. needs to add these elements pretty quickly if it is to hold ongoing interest.
I will keep reading, as the four main characters are all interesting and their stories are worth reading, but the series as a whole is not yet catching fire.
3 stars
There's nothing really bad about any of these stories, but nothing really great either. The problem here is that there is no overreaching story to hang these disparate elements onto, just a few quick stories that are over before you really get into them. There's also no real sense of menace in any of these stories, no sense that anything here has consequences. B.P.R.D. needs to add these elements pretty quickly if it is to hold ongoing interest.
I will keep reading, as the four main characters are all interesting and their stories are worth reading, but the series as a whole is not yet catching fire.
3 stars
February 6, 2017
Well...ummm...yeah. After thoroughly enjoying both B.P.R.D. Vol. 1: Hollow Earth, as well as Hellboy Vol. 1: Seed Of Destruction, my Mignola train hit an unfortunate slow spot with B.P.R.D. Vol. 2: The Soul Of Venice. Much sadness ensued.
This is the second of the collected B.P.R.D. comics, containing 5 individual tales of various quality and length. While The Soul Of Venice is the title story, I don't feel that it's necessarily the strongest tale in the collection. But then, I can't really think of which one WOULD be the strongest. For me, they were all just kinda good. Which means none of them were great.
The interesting thing is, reading these tales so many years after they were released, and with supernatural tales being quite popular in the past few years, these particular stories feel a little...familiar. Think about this; B.P.R.D. stories are generally highly procedural, each generally being very self contained, though they do reference other HB and B.P.R.D. occurrences every once in a while. These characters travel all over the place, resolve all manner of supernatural occurrences, and have witty banter in the downtime. Does that sound familiar? CW's Supernatural took that formula and ran with it on a little series called Supernatural, airing only a few years after B.P.R.D. stories started being published by Dark Horse Books. While they are a mix of serialized/procedural stories (with a definite overarching plot, especially in the first few seasons), the Winchester brothers travel all over the place, resolve all manner of supernatural occurrences, and have witty banter in the downtime. So, having seen Supernatural long before reading B.P.R.D., I get a slight sense of deja vu. Which is funny, because I know that B.P.R.D. came out first. Still, I can't help it.
Anyways, the stories in Vol. 2 run the gamut from serious to slightly silly, with reluctant demons, zombies (handled quite handily by the local townspeople), witches, a haunted train...and talking monsters from under the bed. Yes, Dark Horse had their own riff on talking bedroom monsters. I truly enjoyed the tale about witches, was really not terribly interested in the monsters, and just so-so about the rest of them. Well, I actually enjoyed the zombies tale...it was just too damn short! What was fun about it, though, was that the police department were all over the zombie, knowing just what to do to take them down.
However, it must be said that this is the first time I've seen a demon who was summoned to our world and was like "Nah, I'm good. This place sucks. I don't want to serve a ghoul like you." to the baddie who summoned him. Truly priceless.
So yeah, I'm hoping the next B.P.R.D. collected read is more enjoyable than this one was. Cuz...yeah...I already bought it...
This is the second of the collected B.P.R.D. comics, containing 5 individual tales of various quality and length. While The Soul Of Venice is the title story, I don't feel that it's necessarily the strongest tale in the collection. But then, I can't really think of which one WOULD be the strongest. For me, they were all just kinda good. Which means none of them were great.
The interesting thing is, reading these tales so many years after they were released, and with supernatural tales being quite popular in the past few years, these particular stories feel a little...familiar. Think about this; B.P.R.D. stories are generally highly procedural, each generally being very self contained, though they do reference other HB and B.P.R.D. occurrences every once in a while. These characters travel all over the place, resolve all manner of supernatural occurrences, and have witty banter in the downtime. Does that sound familiar? CW's Supernatural took that formula and ran with it on a little series called Supernatural, airing only a few years after B.P.R.D. stories started being published by Dark Horse Books. While they are a mix of serialized/procedural stories (with a definite overarching plot, especially in the first few seasons), the Winchester brothers travel all over the place, resolve all manner of supernatural occurrences, and have witty banter in the downtime. So, having seen Supernatural long before reading B.P.R.D., I get a slight sense of deja vu. Which is funny, because I know that B.P.R.D. came out first. Still, I can't help it.
Anyways, the stories in Vol. 2 run the gamut from serious to slightly silly, with reluctant demons, zombies (handled quite handily by the local townspeople), witches, a haunted train...and talking monsters from under the bed. Yes, Dark Horse had their own riff on talking bedroom monsters. I truly enjoyed the tale about witches, was really not terribly interested in the monsters, and just so-so about the rest of them. Well, I actually enjoyed the zombies tale...it was just too damn short! What was fun about it, though, was that the police department were all over the zombie, knowing just what to do to take them down.
However, it must be said that this is the first time I've seen a demon who was summoned to our world and was like "Nah, I'm good. This place sucks. I don't want to serve a ghoul like you." to the baddie who summoned him. Truly priceless.
So yeah, I'm hoping the next B.P.R.D. collected read is more enjoyable than this one was. Cuz...yeah...I already bought it...
October 16, 2013
Short stories, not all created equal. The Soul of Venice and Dark Water are solid stories that could easily end up on "favorite BPRD stories" lists. The others are mostly meh. Nothing terrible, mind you, they're just decent.
August 17, 2015
Meh. That's all I've got for this. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good either. I feel like a lot of the stories in here has good idea's behind them, but there's never enough time to explore those ideas with only a few pages of story. The entire thing just comes off feeling shallow.
May 29, 2016
Υπάρχει ένας λόγος να διαβάσει κανείς Hellboy κι αυτός είναι ο Μινιολα. Χωρίς το ταλέντο του καταληγεις να διαβαζεις άλλη μία συλλογη supernatural adventure. Ωραία συλλογη, αλλά άλλη μία...
October 28, 2020
Worst Mignola book I have read till now and it has the minimum amount of Mignola. Some of the short stories here are really bad and some are below average and only a few are meh. I don't really have much to say except SKIP SKIP SKIP
Ranking:
SKIP ALL OF THEM
1.The Soul of Venice(the art doesn't suit the Hellboy mood for me, it's too comic but it's readable and brisk I guess)
2.Night Train(the man I thought would be the worst presents a passable story)
3.Another Day at the Office(Nothing of note happens but at least it's mercifully short)
4.There's Something Under My Bed(What the fuck even happened here, the dialogue is incomprehensible, the art is also very ugly to look at)
5.Dark Waters(so so amateurish. Just constantly stuffs into our faces how woke it is with feminism and feminazi and all that bullshit. Please stop)
Ranking:
SKIP ALL OF THEM
1.The Soul of Venice(the art doesn't suit the Hellboy mood for me, it's too comic but it's readable and brisk I guess)
2.Night Train(the man I thought would be the worst presents a passable story)
3.Another Day at the Office(Nothing of note happens but at least it's mercifully short)
4.There's Something Under My Bed(What the fuck even happened here, the dialogue is incomprehensible, the art is also very ugly to look at)
5.Dark Waters(so so amateurish. Just constantly stuffs into our faces how woke it is with feminism and feminazi and all that bullshit. Please stop)
March 1, 2019
Дуже різна за стилістикою малюнку, бо, зрештою, у форматі "монстра тижня". Хоча, із досвіду "Геллбоя", ті "монстри тижня" у результаті можуть виявитися кимось важливим на рівні цілого світу. До того формату все і велося, бо ж зав’язку у минулому волумі дали, тепер тримайте вже історії в дусі "хе-файлів" та "супернечуралу", яких БПРО заслуговує як організація.
Перонажі у другому волумі вже не такі випуклі, але самі історії непогані.
Є і але: попри те, що омнібас містить томи з 1-3 та зветься "Жаб’ячою чумою", самі жаби та всі елементи глобалки якось оминаються.
Пи. Си.: Бадьоро, саме те, що треба для моєї проблеми нечитання, що тягнеться з від початку року. Ще в грудні зарікався читати у 2019 менше коміксів та більше прозових товстячків, але маємо шо маємо, і ліпше ве так, аніж зовсім нічого.
Перонажі у другому волумі вже не такі випуклі, але самі історії непогані.
Є і але: попри те, що омнібас містить томи з 1-3 та зветься "Жаб’ячою чумою", самі жаби та всі елементи глобалки якось оминаються.
Пи. Си.: Бадьоро, саме те, що треба для моєї проблеми нечитання, що тягнеться з від початку року. Ще в грудні зарікався читати у 2019 менше коміксів та більше прозових товстячків, але маємо шо маємо, і ліпше ве так, аніж зовсім нічого.
March 17, 2019
Lepší než předchozí.
Z povídek se mi nejvíce líbila povídka "Temné vody".
Z povídek se mi nejvíce líbila povídka "Temné vody".
April 14, 2022
The titular story was pretty good!
December 15, 2024
When it takes time to pause it’s surprisingly heartwarming and a cute fable of self discovery but clunky dialog made it feel more disjointed than it should have been. So close to being really good.
February 27, 2014
Wow, this was kind of awful. The stories here were all really bad attempts to cram the BPRD into some other genre, like X-Files paranormal investigation (which seems like it would be a good focus for the BPRD, but ends up working less well than the apocalyptic threats and mythological forces that Hellboy fights) or lame superhero angst. I would say that it has become obvious that Mike Mignola needs to be the main creative force behind the Hellboy-verse, but even the stories he wrote or co-wrote here are kind of weak, nowhere near the quality of his average Hellboy short. The others range from poor (a thing about drowned 17th-century witches turning into mud monsters that are then taken over by a religious nut) to wretched (a Geoff Johns-written story in which a Nazi saboteur is haunted by a ghost train that not only features a stupid, square-jawed superhero take on Lobster Johnson but clumsily also tries to wring emotion out of some BPRD agents being mean to Roger the Homunculus and turns Liz Sherman into a damsel to be rescued, yet again). The only thing redeeming the volume in the slightest is some nice art by Guy Davis and Cameron Stewart. The main problem here seems to be a lack of focus, with little purpose or stakes in anything that happens. Mignola and company might have been trying to move away from the type of threats that Hellboy regularly faced, but what they end up with here (ghosts, zombies, toys that come alive via the power of children's nightmares(?), mud monster witch ghosts powered by the shame of the town that killed them) are pretty vaguely defined and uninteresting. I'd recommend skipping these first two volumes, although I haven't yet read the third, so I don't know how good that one is. However, Mignola is the sole writer of that one, with Guy Davis on art, so I expect it's at least more consistent than this. Plus, it seems to be where the series goes for its own apocalyptic threat that's related to the Hellboy mythos, so I'm hoping things take a turn for the better. It's gotta be better than this.
January 15, 2012
The stories in the second volume of B.P.R.D. definitely are not as solid as in The Hollow Earth. You can tell that the team is still putting out its feelers, trying to find the right artist to helm the series. This volume has ups and downs, but the best story in my opinion is by the artist who they will ultimately choose to draw the series. You could actually skip this volume if you wanted and head straight for the spectacular Plague of Frogs.
November 16, 2016
Like volume 1 of these collection I found the stories and plots really interesting but I thought more time could have been spent on each story, some could have filled a whole collection just on its own. Amazing art, and experimentation with other writers makes these collections worth a read.
July 31, 2012
Really enjoy the art style, but a couple of the shorter stories didn't do much for me. I know it kicks into gear with the next volume.
August 25, 2016
This wasn't as good as the first volume, the stories seemed quite lazily written, although I did enjoy quite a bit of the art!
December 10, 2020
None of the stories in this volume grabbed me. You can easily skip this and you won't be missing a thing.
February 8, 2020
A solid follow up, although like the second volume of Hellboy more or less consists of a series of one shots and less of an overall story. These aren't bad by any means, and in fact I think there's a power in showing short stories to develop certain character attributes in ways that we don't usually get.
I have few slight criticisms though that I feel I need to address here -- the first and least important is that the actual short story "Soul of Venice" kinda ends on a rather anti-climactic note. Also, is the whole city just empty? I know that the city is kinda ... rotting ... but I have a hard time imaging that literally EVERYONE in the city is just gone during the incident.
More importantly is the character of Roger. Introduced in "Wake the Devil," fleshed out a little more in "Almost Colossus" and "Conqueror Worm," I can't honestly figure out what his intelligence level is supposed to be. I get that he's essentially a child in some ways, but there are other times where he showed remarkable intelligence and maturity. The two don't always balance each other super well and I have to wonder if Mignola and friends knew exactly what they were doing with him at first. Also, come on guys, time do give him some pants.
Finally there's the art. It's not bad, please understand. It's just ... different. There are five different artists for the five different stories contained herein, and while some are definitely better than others (I distinctly DID NOT like the art in "Dark Waters"), I really just like the old school art style of Hellboy and Hollow Earth. I realize that new art styles and an evolution of what I know and love is bound to happen, but it's something that made this universe unique and I kind of hope they stick closer to it in the future.
I have few slight criticisms though that I feel I need to address here -- the first and least important is that the actual short story "Soul of Venice" kinda ends on a rather anti-climactic note. Also, is the whole city just empty? I know that the city is kinda ... rotting ... but I have a hard time imaging that literally EVERYONE in the city is just gone during the incident.
More importantly is the character of Roger. Introduced in "Wake the Devil," fleshed out a little more in "Almost Colossus" and "Conqueror Worm," I can't honestly figure out what his intelligence level is supposed to be. I get that he's essentially a child in some ways, but there are other times where he showed remarkable intelligence and maturity. The two don't always balance each other super well and I have to wonder if Mignola and friends knew exactly what they were doing with him at first. Also, come on guys, time do give him some pants.
Finally there's the art. It's not bad, please understand. It's just ... different. There are five different artists for the five different stories contained herein, and while some are definitely better than others (I distinctly DID NOT like the art in "Dark Waters"), I really just like the old school art style of Hellboy and Hollow Earth. I realize that new art styles and an evolution of what I know and love is bound to happen, but it's something that made this universe unique and I kind of hope they stick closer to it in the future.
April 14, 2019
Eu costumo gostar muito das aventuras relacionadas ao Hellboy e ao Bureau de Defesa Paranormal. Contudo este volume não me agradou em nada. o anterior que eu tinha lido, Inferno na Terra era tão tão, mas tão bom que neste aqui acabei me decepcionando feio. Um dos motivos talvez seja por que ele não possui uma unidade. São muitas histórias diferentes feitas, também, por diversos criadores diferentes. Ou seja, isso faz com que algumas dessas histórias sejam mais boas e outras sejam mais ruins. também faz com que os enredos e desenhos sejam irregulares em estilos bem diferentes, nem todos os estilos utilizados em Hellboy - B.P.D.P. - A Alma de Veneza e Outras Histórias - Volume 2 servem aos estilos regularmente usados nesse universo. Um exemplo é o de Scott Kollins, que funciona exageradamente bem nos quadrinhos de super-heróis, mas não serve muito para as histórias sobrenaturais do universo Hellboy. Talvez por isso ele tenha desenhado a história do super-herói dos anos 1940 deste universo, o Lagosta Johnston. Enfim, muito provavelmente não vou ficar com esse volume na minha coleção e vai ir para vendas.
June 25, 2020
This trade paperback consists of 4 stories, of varying levels of excellence.
The soul of Venice - fantastic mythology and story, even had a very sweet ending.
Dark Waters - I could believe this actually happened as there are historical ties of the same things happening in an area not too far from where the story is set.
Night Train - this one contains a flashback and cameo by the famous Lobster Johnson! Thoroughly enjoyable.
There's Something Under My Bed - This came out of left field and was THE best story of the lot, even making up for how mediocre the last story is. Actually teared up on the last 2 pages as it brought all my childhood love for toys full circle, I could feel "toy story" type vibes coming from this even though it's supposed to be a darker story. I still have my favorite childhood stuffed toy which is now 43 years old, it's not in great condition but I love that plushie to death. The main kid in the story actually tugged at my heartstrings so if they ever animated a BPRD story I hope it would be this one. It's what is responsible for the 5 star rating of this comic.
Another day at the Office - fairly run of the mill average story, the weakest of all 5 stories.
The soul of Venice - fantastic mythology and story, even had a very sweet ending.
Dark Waters - I could believe this actually happened as there are historical ties of the same things happening in an area not too far from where the story is set.
Night Train - this one contains a flashback and cameo by the famous Lobster Johnson! Thoroughly enjoyable.
There's Something Under My Bed - This came out of left field and was THE best story of the lot, even making up for how mediocre the last story is. Actually teared up on the last 2 pages as it brought all my childhood love for toys full circle, I could feel "toy story" type vibes coming from this even though it's supposed to be a darker story. I still have my favorite childhood stuffed toy which is now 43 years old, it's not in great condition but I love that plushie to death. The main kid in the story actually tugged at my heartstrings so if they ever animated a BPRD story I hope it would be this one. It's what is responsible for the 5 star rating of this comic.
Another day at the Office - fairly run of the mill average story, the weakest of all 5 stories.
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May 28, 2024How? Book #2 of the BPRD bundle I got and wanted something light. (I'm not getting enough sleep.)
What? More semi-random BPRD stories -- the team saves Venice from a vampire by releasing a Roman goddess of sewers, who Roger falls in love with; the team helps a small Massachusetts town with a cursed witch-hunting past (when the real monster is self-righteousness); an old Nazi tries to escape justice from a ghost train; some monster toys are abducting kids; the team faces an undead spirit (shortly dispatched).
Yeah, so? Still very light, but it's interesting to me that the depths in all these stories come from the characters (over-and-over again) dealing with their monstrousness vis-a-vis their job protecting humans who can't tell who the good guys are. So, in "Night Train," Roger gets ribbed by some normal-ish humans about his past, while in "There's Something Under My Bed," Abe deals with kids who are scared of monsters while he tries to save them from monsters.
Still: slight.
What? More semi-random BPRD stories -- the team saves Venice from a vampire by releasing a Roman goddess of sewers, who Roger falls in love with; the team helps a small Massachusetts town with a cursed witch-hunting past (when the real monster is self-righteousness); an old Nazi tries to escape justice from a ghost train; some monster toys are abducting kids; the team faces an undead spirit (shortly dispatched).
Yeah, so? Still very light, but it's interesting to me that the depths in all these stories come from the characters (over-and-over again) dealing with their monstrousness vis-a-vis their job protecting humans who can't tell who the good guys are. So, in "Night Train," Roger gets ribbed by some normal-ish humans about his past, while in "There's Something Under My Bed," Abe deals with kids who are scared of monsters while he tries to save them from monsters.
Still: slight.
August 22, 2022
This is the first Hellboy universe volume I felt was a bit weak. The first story, actually penned by Mignola, is excellent. But the rest are quite the mixed bag, and the story about living toys was just plain bad. The art was very inconsistent in quality, with the first story again drastically outperforming the rest. It's unreasonable to expect every story in this universe to reach the stellar heights we've come to expect, but it's nonetheless disappointing when they don't. Still, even the worst BPRD volume is better than most comics out there. This may be a lackluster volume, but it is certainly only a brief dip.
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