Customer Reviews

B.P.R.D. Volume 3: Plague of Frogs

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the third outing for the BPRD without Hellboy. This is the first collection with one long story arc rather than a grouping of short stories. As creator Mike Mignola describes in the afterword, he and his editor at Dark Horse Comics were considering doing a regular line of comics, similar to the Hellboy series.

In order to achieve this, Mignola used this series to tie off loose ends. The return of Sadu-Hem and the frog monsters from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. Rasputin's threat of vengeance and the fulfillment of the prophecy in Hellboy: Wake the Devil. And most importantly the origin of Abe Sapien.

The artwork by Guy Davis. His figure drawing immitates Mignola's, but there are almost no solid blacks. The backgrounds and colors are significantly more detailed than Mignola's, so it's a bit different of an esthetic. But when taken on its own it's still very good. His action is fluid, his characters are easily distinguished from each other. There's a background in alomst every panel (just figures with no background is a personal pet peeve of mine).

The only thing that holds this book back is the dialogue. They're too self-aware of the surreality of the frog monsters, the Sadu-Hem fungus creature. There are moments where it feels like the characters don't take their own world seriously. It breaks the fantasy of the story.

Aside from that it's a very good story. The characters are all used well. The artwork is very good. The monsters are all creepy. And, though we find out more about Abraham Sapien, the answers we get just lead to more questions. Exactly what a good comics' story should be.

The third collection has the team in a lot of trouble. Those nasty frog monsters are back, and spreading all around the world. The team finally traces them back to a cult in New England. Rasputin also lurks.

This volume also gives up the origin of Abe Sapien, and it is somewhat stranger than you think.

This is the first B.P.R.D. trade paperback containing one long story, rather than a collection of stories. These are the issues that got B.P.R.D. its own continuing series, much like the Hellboy collections. It is also a great story with some important revelations for the Hellboy universe and its characters.

Be aware that although Mike Mignola drew the cover and wrote the story, the pencils were done by Guy Davis. In my opinion, if Mignola wasn't able to draw it, Guy Davis would be my next choice for anything Hellboy-related. However, Davis's art style is fairly different from Mignola's, so keep that in mind.

The Highlights: Great story, great art, and lots of tie-ins to the Hellboy storyline. The origin of Abraham Sapien is revealed! (though of course it raises many more questions). This story features the frog monsters and Rasputin from the first Hellboy story (Seed of Destruction). It also has an afterword by Mike Mignola and an eight page sketchbook of Davis's work and some of Mignola's notes.

Things to Consider: The story comes to a close, but it doesn't tie all of the loose ends up. This is because the story of the B.P.R.D. continues in other volumes. It left me wanting more, but not disappointed. There is also a little bit of recapping Hellboy stories that relate to this story. It didn't bother me in the slightest, but some people are bugged by that sort of thing. I felt like those parts added context to the story and didn't take up much space.

This is my favorite B.P.R.D. collection so far (out of 1-3), and it left me excited to read more! If you are worried about prior knowledge, this one takes care of that for you, and whether or not you know a lot about the B.P.R.D. it is a fun read! There should be more comics with giant fungus creatures and evil frog men!

"Plague of Frogs" begins the main BPRD storyline that continues up to the present book, Vol 13 "King of Fear". The plot is that some eggs found at the site of Cavendish Hall (from Hellboy Vol 1) are taken back and studied. The result is a large plant like creature developing the lab, taking seed in a human body, and spawning humanoid frogs. Thus the plague of frogs is unleashed and it's up to the BPRD (minus Hellboy) to bring these frogs down.

The book features a great script from Mignola but Guy Davis takes over illustrating duties on this and many other BPRD books. There is also the origin story of Abe Sapien included at the end and it is quite... different than you'd have thought. I won't give it away, but it does give you and insight into Abe's personality at times. It's a nice addition after the beginning of the main storyline.

It's a good place to start and explains a lot of what happens in the following books. A good read and great supernatural fun (especially for this time of year!), join the BPRD saga!

Issue #1

The first issue (March 3, 2004) featured a cover by Guy Davis.

The BPRD's enhanced talents taskforce are called in to investigate when Professor Derby infiltrates a classified research facility in New Jersey and shoots dead Dr. Platt who has been working on scientific research into fungi and has grown a giant specimen in the lab.

Issue #2

The second issue (April 7, 2004) featured a cover by Guy Davis.

Abe, Kate, Liz, Roger and Johann have returned to B.P.R.D. headquarters with a captured frog monster and Director Manning reveals that the spore Dr. Platt had based his experiments on had recently been recovered from the ruins of Cavendish Hall and belong to the monstrous Sadu-Hem.


Issue #3

The third issue (May 5, 2004) featured a cover by Guy Davis.[7][8]

The team crash at Crab Point, Michigan Roger is strung up by a frog monster and Johann is dispersed leaving Kate to search for help whilst Abe and Liz face the demonic priest of Sadu-Hem who has summoned forth the frog monsters.


Issue #4

The fourth issue (June 2, 2004) featured a cover by Guy Davis.[9][10]

The entire town of Crab Point, Michigan has been converted into frog monsters and it is left to Liz to rescue Kate from a graveyard of revenants whilst Sapien faces execution at the behest of Rasputin who seeks revenge for Abe Sapien's involvement in his own death at Cavendish Hall years before.


Issue #5

The fifth issue (July 7, 2004) featured a cover by Guy Davis.[11][12]

Kate, Liz and Johann (temporarily inhabiting the rotting corpse of a dead dog) rush to save Abe whilst he hovers between life and death experiencing a mystical vision in which he witnesses his own origins as an undersea explorer called Caul caught up in the assassination of Abe Lincoln.


Collected edition

The five issues were compiled and reprinted in the trade paperback B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs (February 23, 2005, ISBN 978-1-59307-288-9), which also included an eight-page sketchbook with art from Davis and one page of thumbnails and scripts by Mignola.

When I got the BPRD series, I took them to work and shared them with those of my co-workers who read Hellboy and BPRD. Everyone liked them. Of course, I like them, too.