Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. #4

by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Shawn Martinbrough (Illustrator)

Hellboy encounters unseen predators, strange cases of spontaneous combustion, and a weapon at an Air Force base that is more than it seems.

This volume collects Hellboy And The B.P.R.D.: 1955 Secret Nature, Occult Intelligence #1-#3, Burning Season, the 1955 story from the Hellboy Winter Special, and bonus material!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Comic Book, Supernatural, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2018

About the author

Mike 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.

Reviews

[Artemy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit better than the previous volume, but not by much. Out of the three stories collected here only one (Burning Season) was kinda good. Secret Nature was very similar to the story from the previous volume that was set in the Arctic, only this one was set in the woods, otherwise it was strikingly samey, even down to poor Woody getting some racist comments from an asshole who he's trying to help. And the main and the longest story in the collection, Occult Intelligence, was an absolute snooze — government conspiracies and espionage is not the kind of theme that I think suits the Hellboy universe. Not to say it can't be done, but the way it was handled in this arc, I couldn't bring myself to care about any of it. It was the most forgettable arc in the entire collection, and it looks like this storyline is actually going to be an ongoing theme for Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. in the future! Thanks, but no thanks. Chris Roberson's writing for the Hellboy universe has been hit or miss, and 1955 is one of his weakest efforts, unfortunately.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always good to get new Hellboy stories but Chris Roberson's storytelling moves at a snail's pace. This whole conspiracy angle seems to slowly be headed nowhere. Pretty much the same allusions are made in each of the longer stories for each year without advancing whatsoever. Brian Churilla's art was iffy as well. Some panels looked fine while other were way too cartoony. The Shawn Martinborough and Paolo Rivera one-shots look much better.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another rock solid Hellboy collection featuring three creepy tales of the unexplained. Chris Roberson is doing a great job on this book since he took over the writing duties from John Arcudi. The artwork is really nice too.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just getting a bit bored of these Hellboy comics set in the past. The plot seems to be moving very slowly. The short stories are getting repetitive. The artwork is nothing special, and a bit iffy at times.

[Wing Kee · Rating 4 out of 5]

One and dones and amazing world building.

World: The world building here is phenomenal, I think it takes a fan of the series to see the scope and the history and lore that is being played with here to really appreciate what Mignola is doing here. Sure to a new reader this book offers a look at American history with the Trail of Tears and also with the different Government agencies in the world that’s dealing with the supernatural but for long time readers these world building pieces piece of together something more amazing and grand. We see the Colorado base and we’ve always wondered what happened there before the BPRD moved in, now we know, we wondered about Hellboy and Archie and their story and now we get more of it, there is just so much of the Mignolaverse that gets played with it’s simply exploding my brain.

Story: Some one and dones and a middle section that is all about world building for something greater. I love that this era gets slowly revealed and the Cold War era seeps into the supernatural and Mignola is showing us this. The stuff with the Trail of Tears was heartbreaking and how Hellboy deals with it is beautiful and poetic. I also love the idea of the Colorado branch and what they are doing there and all the pieces in play there. Really solid stories that are tied to the world.

Characters: A lot of interesting small emotions and development here. We get more of Hellboy being young and new to this and the people he’s surrounded with are interesting. There is no shying away from the race issues of that era and I commend Mignola for dealing with these race and gender issues. Xiange is an interesting character and I want more of her and Archie is just endearing. I love this team and this era.

Good if you love comics, great if you are a long time reader of the series.

Onward to the next book!

[Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The various supernatural groups around the world that have been hinted at in previous ‘Hellboy and the BPRD’ volumes are getting closer and closer to some kind of showdown. I really like Woody and Susan, so I hope they don’t get killed any time soon. I mean, they obviously won’t survive until the present time, but still, I want them to retire, not get eaten by some nonsense. Also! Hellboy punches all the things!

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, I found I preferred the final story in this collection, and I wonder if that's coincidence or whether these volumes (with the individual issues originally appearing separately in random order) are arranged intentionally to deliver the best stuff last. Either way, this is another good one, which is great because it was hard to find.

I am really fond of Paolo Rivera's work on these, and it was great to see his name on the cover again. All the artists involved have done an amazing job, and I feel like there's been a greater consistency, not necessarily of quality, but of vision in this series. With the main Hellboy series (granted, much longer than this one) the art was erratic in how it portrayed the characters and the milieu, and here, it's felt very consistent despite the several illustrators involved. Aside from one time back at the beginning, I've never been confused about who a particular image is supposed to represent. Also, I think this cover is my favorite.

[K De · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filling in the early years of Hellboy and B.P.R.D. with Mignola and friends. Some Cold War background that hints at more to come in the years afterwards. I enjoyed the story arc and how Hellboy is maturing. Worth reading to see how complete the Hellboyverse is reaching towards "dotting the 'i's' and crossing the 't's'".

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bam! Another slam-dunk from Mignola & Co. Good characterizations and fun, interesting stories. All the titles featuring Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are all part of vast tapestry that just seems to get richer and more fascinating with each new volume. Yes, this is a prequel volume but it just adds more flavor and texture to what it already a great set of characters and an amazingly entertaining world. I simply can not get enough of Hellboy and company.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a reason I waited 3 years before I bothered to read this one. Unimaginative tinkering on the margins of the Hellboy universe; never actively stupid, attractive looking in places, but so dull. The most exciting thing in the whole 5 issues is a page where it looks like Professor Bruttenholm might be doing a spot of cottaging.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, always nice to come back to a Hellboy story, but I think when I read them again I'll have to do so in an order that makes sense to the story. As is this was pretty fine, the first and last stories here are shortest and best, kind of lessons about acceptance and remembrance that was pretty cool.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weaker collection of stories and art that doesn’t fit the brooding darkness of Hellboy- a little too POP. There are other BPRD like organizations around the world but many are put in place to monitor the others themselves. Lots of espionage.

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're starting to see some more of the conspiracies and shadow powers in this volume, as Bruttenholm explores the British supernatural scene to see what happened to his peers, and to try to recruit allies. That is juxtaposed with Hellboy and BPRD investigators dealing with E-Bombs and mutated turtles (which is a lot more disturbing than I would have expected) in some of the better action I've seen in the series. The first story here, "Secret Nature" doesn't do a whole lot story-wise, but it does develop Woodrow Farrier a bit, and give a little insight into racism in the 1950's. "Occult Intelligence" is the big story of the volume, as described above. But my favorite was "Burning Season" which approaches things normally but resolves in a different way. It's got some great action too, but punching ends up not being the solution. The art style has gotten a bit too cartoonish for my tastes, but it still portrays the story well. All told, the three stories here are interesting and fun and powerful in various ways, and also move the larger narrative along in a palpable manner, which I appreciate.

[Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret Nature - 5*

Hellboy is on assignment with Woody, the black cryptozoologist from Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1954 - The Unreasoning Beast. As this series is set in 1955 we ONCE again are exposed to the casual racism the caller displays towards Woody. I was gratified to see Hellboy stand up for Woody, who decides to be the bigger guy and just turns a blind eye to it (like most Asians have been told to do by their parents). One page later Hellboy asks Woody if he's bothered and I almost cry realizing how bad it is when Woody says "the fact that people are more accepting of a big red guy with horns and a tail than they are a black man". He hates it but welcome to the real world, then details how his parents wanted him to take up a trade as academia rejected him outright for any jobs, just on the basis of his race.

This ... this hit so close to home I almost teared up as I have experienced the same job discrimination in real life. Those who haven't ever been discriminated against can never understand, although, when one gets older they'll face age discrimination the one type of discrimination that's never talked about but yet is the MOST real. All this dialogue from a comic published in 2017 subtly hammers home the black lives matter issue in a sensitive yet restrained manner without taking away any of the emotional impact. Kudos.

Woody is excited to find a NEW species, but Hellboy scoffs saying it's probably another animal mutated by Enkeladite. Woody retorts that "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" and they make a bet that the loser buys drinks. In the end, Woody uses his smarts to save the day although it is a team effort. The problem is not what either of them expected so Hellboy buys drinks. It is rather ominous that the last panel shows Woody clutching the copy of the demon summoning book. Ulp.

Occult Intelligence - 3*

Wow. What a beautiful cover on the first issue of Occult Intelligence. The second, third and inside didn't live up to the cover. Pity. Hellboy is returning from Australia with his team, including Woody, the black cryptozoologist from Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1954 - The Unreasoning Beast and Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955 - Secret Nature, when some suspicious activities start occurring at their pacific island refueling spot. What bigger cold war conspiracy is afoot in England, Russia and the USA? Will scientists never "leave well alone" the powers that should not be messed with?

Burning Season - 4*

These new artists, Paolo and Joe Rivera, deserve a clap on the back for the cover and the art of this story about people mysteriously spontaneously combusting in a part of Florida. The art actually elevated this 3* story to 4* and showed that with enough bad stuff happening, even an area can become haunted.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hellboy was one of my favorite comic book characters. I have some Hellboy figurines and my first interview with a comic book creator was with Mignola. It's a shame to see how, during the last few years, Mike Mignola has been been more concerned with quantity rather than quality, with everything getting even worse since Jon Arcudi left as a writer for the B.P.R.D.-series. Most of the time the latest output doesn't deserve to be labeled as mediocre. This trade paperback doesn't make me enthusiastic about future releases... So boring, so badly written,....

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy to see that the central plot is picking up.

[Joseph R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects three stories from Hellboy's earlier years at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

Secret Nature--Hellboy visits a midwest farm with Woodrow Farrier, a black B.P.R.D. agent with a Ph.D. and an interest in cryptozoology. The local farmers have lost livestock to some vicious night predatory. One farmer is racist toward Dr. Farrier, a weirdness that's flagged up by Hellboy who asks if Farrier is annoyed that a red-skinned, horned and tailed demon guy gets a pass but not an African-American. They don't get too deep into the issue because they find a cabin in the woods with some torn up teenagers, a chalk pentagram, and a book of witchcraft. A little translating by Farrier draws the summoned hellspawn back to the cabin. Hellboy does hand-to-hand combat while Farrier figures out from the book how to despawn the demon. A mostly happy ending ensues.

Occult Intelligence--Hellboy and a crew of B.P.R.D. agents stop off for refueling on the Marshall Islands, only to discover a covert agency is working on some new type of weapon. All they find is a bunch of mutated animals who attack the base and a mysterious Soviet agent who claims to have run into Hellboy several times before. Meanwhile, Prof. Bruttenholm discovers a British covert agency that is tracking occult activities in other countries, including the USA, so he is not welcome. B.P.R.D. Agent Susan Xiang does get help with her paranormal abilities (mostly visions of the future) while in England, inspiring Bruttenholm to get more resources from the Feds since it looks like they'll be dealing with a lot more paranormal stuff in the future. This story has a couple of action sequences; the plot just seems like set-up for future stories and is not that interesting in and of itself.

Burning Season--Hellboy, Susan, and Bruttenholm investigate the latest in a long series of spontaneous human combustions in Port Orange, Florida. The debate over whether the fires are supernaturally or scientifically caused ends pretty quickly when psychic Susan uses her powers to see what's causing the problem--the long history of violence and horror in the area. The story was surprisingly short to me, consequently lacking any real depth or excitement.

The first story has the most Mignola-esque art, with black shadows giving a menacing feeling to the story. The other stories have the more cartoony B.P.R.D. style which works well enough. The stories are a bit disjointed, more of a random set of adventures than an overall story arc, which is unfortunate since Occult Intelligence really suggests a bigger story arc that doesn't get developed. Maybe in future stories.

Recommended for Hellboy fans.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hellboy prequels are like a picture of a picture. They contain the same elements we love, but they feel derivative instead of inspired.

Part of the flatness is simply knowing how the story ends. Only Hellboy's supporting cast have any real stakes, as the big red guy has to make it to his preordained finale.

Mignola and his partners do provide a certain baseline of quality. The art, here by Brian Churilla, Shawn Martinbrough and Paolo Rivera, is generally quite good, with dark shadows, spooky monsters and well-drafted supporting characters.

The writing and plotting is always clear, but co-writer Chris Roberson lacks the subtlety of former Mignola collaborator John Arcudi. Roberson is often blunt and on the nose while the classic B.P.R.D. tales were spooky and subtle, stuffed with memorable voices and surprising twists.

The storytelling here is serviceable, but it doesn't feel like it's adding anything to the canon.

[Lacee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed with this volume and I'm starting to worry that this series is on the decline. 1955 collects three stories. The first, Secret Nature, and the third, Burning Season, seemed typical in tone to most Hellboy comics. More like one-shots that don't really provide a lot to the storyline but are entertaining enough. The second, Occult Intelligence, is where this volume lacks. It was a bit of a slog to get through. I didn't like B.P.R.D. 1948 and this issue follows some of its plot points with a bit of government conspiracy sprinkled throughout. It reminded me of Witchfinder, a little too wordy with overly explained plot points and no end in sight. I can't say I really care about this story arc, which is unfortunate since it's going to be a continuous storyline for this series.

[Benjamin Barham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stories here. First being a throw away one-shot with the sole agenda of addressing racism (which needs to be addressed but maybe not through a poorly paced and hamfisted Hellboy tale). Second is a 3-part story shoehorning in a worldwide event that would have been talked about throughout the rest of the Hellboy stories. I feel like Roberson really shit the bed on this one. It injects something into the canon that doesn't really follow in my opinion. Also, a gross amount of exposition. The third story is actually a pretty good Hellboy romp.

Really unhappy with Roberson as the main writer. Where once we were allowed to have fun figuring things out via context and clues, we now have over explaining.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has two stories that are basically standard X-Files stories where Hellboy and his colleagues hunt down the weird creatures and phenomena.

But true meat of this book is Occult Intelligence series - in it professor Bruttenholm comes across the evidence that there is parallel occult Cold War going on and that B.P.R.D's place in it is not what he expects because it is not only enemies behind the Iron Curtain that B.P.R.D gets in conflict with.

Very interesting story-line that makes the history of B.P.R.D that much more interesting.

Recommended to all fans of Hellboy universe.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun addition to what is a comparatively lightweight section of the Mignolaverse. We all know there can't be any higher stakes than what has already been laid out in Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and so on, but like, say Lobster Johnson, Hellboy and the BPRD inhabit a smaller stage that is nevertheless enjoyable. These stories further the relationship between Hellboy and his early BPRD comrades, and the more we learn, the more se understand that Trevor Bruttenholm's backstory isn't one without its own struggles, and that Hellboy's early education as a field agent will inevitably take a tragic turn. After all, BPRD agents don't make it to retirement age very often...

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun X-Files-esk collection of tales featuring Hellboy.
The tales themselves, although formulaic, were perfectly enjoyable with good artwork. However the overarching arc of the series was a problem. When I picked this up from the library (this is my first Hellboy read) there was nothing on the volume to say this was book 4. So reading this, I didn't know who anyone was, what the ongoing saga was (which only popped up occasionally) so I was taken out of the story with random scenes of "Why should I care about this?"
Put a large 4 on this somewhere so I know that there's required reading to be done first (not that the library had the preceding volumes available).

[Óscar López · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is going downhill, I'm afraid. Both artwork and writing are so-so and "Occult Intelligence", the longest story in the volume, is a spy tale that doesn't suit the horror/mystery tone of Hellboy.

At least there seems to be something interesting cooking for future issues, but so far this has been the weakest and most disappointing Hellboy saga. I kinda liked "Secret Nature", that's about the right tone I expect in this comic, even though it's unoriginal and lacking the polish of Mignola's best writings.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three stories from the Hellboy universe, that fill in the background of the series.

Secret Nature - Has Hellboy looking a series of cattle mutilations in rural America, only to discover it is due to a botched demonic summoning.

Occult Intelligence - this is the longest story and fits into what the series has been building up for some time: the revelation of other paranormal agencies working for other governments and a sort of shadow war between them.

Burning Season - Hellboy looks into a spontaneous human combustion in Florida

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection. Hellboy and a black agent deal with racism and demons. Hellboy and Susan investigate spontaneous human combustion. And in the central story, Hellboy and a collection of pretty much every agent of this area investigate monstrous goings on in the Marshall Islands where they discover Russia and the UK have occult programs of their own (as Trevor, talking with old colleagues in England, likewise learns). Solid.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The deep lore and mythology, as well as the amazing artwork, of Mike Mignola are missing in this era of Hellboy. The stories and characters are the same, and this is fun comic book stuff, but its just not as grand. Kind of seems fitting, then, that this art/writing team should be tackling Hellboy's early years on the B.P.R.D. Everything is a bit simpler and more surface level. Not bad, but not mind-blowing either.

[Etain · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was better than I expected. The first story was the weakest of the three but it's art style was my favorite of them.
Occult intelligence felt like a firm step forward in progression rather than just "setting up future stuff"
And I quite liked burning season, it uses the "past oppression as haunting" theme that is prevalent in Roberson's run but it's not as heavy handed as usual and actually had some emotional resonance.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was fun. A little cold war seeping into the Hellboy world. The British are being dumb and stubborn and the Americans have a million bureaucratic fiefdoms not talking to each other. Both ignoring the B.P.R.D. and that is just stupid not just on the characters in the story but for the author. Anyway much better than the other reviews I read lead me to believe.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after I started it, I realized it was 4th in a series, but I read it anyway. I like the artwork, but they jump around a lot. I feel like they've done that in other Hellby series & it gets tiring after a while. Not sure if it was because it was 4th in a series or not, but a bit more coherence would've been nice. Liked the overall story though.