One of the best comics of the last ten years is finally receiving the luxury treatment. In January, the first three paperback volumes of Mike Mignola and Guy Davis' (Arcudi joins later) B.P.R.D. will be recollected in a big ol' hardcover.
What was once the Hellboy book without Hellboy has grown into one of the strongest team books around, a rich, ongoing chronicle of brooding fish-guy Abe Sapien, government operative Kate Corrigan, fire-starter Liz Sherman, bodiless ghost-whisperer Johann Kraus and a revolving cast of mummies, were-jaguars, wendigos, and sweet homunculi.
This first hardcover volume see the intrepid B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) facing off against its most enduring threat, a biblical plague of demonic frog-creatures. It collects "Hollow Earth and Other Stories", "The Soul of Venice and Other Stories" and "A Plague of Frogs."
While these stories predate the formation of the regular creative team of Mignola, Arcudi, and Davis, you'll find great stories from Mignola, Christopher Golden, Geoff Johns, Tom Sniegoski, Michael Avon Oeming and more with art from Ryan Sook, Cameron Stewart, Scott Kolins, Oeming and Guy Davis. Did you know Geoff Johns wrote a B.P.R.D. story? Well, it's in here. And that first story drawn by Ryan Sook is one of the best looking Hellboy stories of all time.
It's also important to note that the B.P.R.D. trade paperbacks are going out of print, replaced by these hefty hardcovers. From the looks of it, they're doing things right. I'll definitely be upgrading.
Here's a preview, featuring interior art and character designs from Guy Davis:
The book hits the shops on January 12, 2011 and will run you $34.99 for 408 glorious pages.
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Incredible. Just in time for my birthday.
An amazing collection of some of the best comics of the past ten years. I’m seriously considering a double-dip on this.
As Paul said the creative team wasn’t locked at this stage, but the third tpb “A Plague Of Frogs,” written by Mignola and drawn by Davis, is a good sign of where the book goes in future volumes. Only Arcudi is missing as co-writer, but his style stays very close to Mignola’s in future volumes.
YESSS
I was just thinking that I need to finally take the plunge and get the Hellboy/ BPRD trades. There are just so many of them. This will make it easier. I will be picking this up.
When Dark Horse announced they’d be doing a B.P.R.D. omnibus, I thought they were going to go with their paperback omnibus format. I jumped all over this when it was solicited a few months ago. It’s no library edition, but it should still be great.
That will be an awesome book to spend some of my Christmas money on, I have never read BPRD but have always wanted to so this will be a great way to jump in.
So very excited for this to come out…
Can you put up a link to where we can buy thsi through IFanboy.com’s amazon account?
@AmirCat There ya go!
I was on the fence until I realized the 35 dollar entry fee. Time to get rid of my trades in favor of these delicious hardcovers.
I just sold all my trades to a fellow staffer.
I’ll be selling these trades off for the HC, but not until confirmation of a shipping date.
a beauty if i ever did see one (one tear drops from eye).
I caught this on Dark Horse’s website a couple weeks back. Looks great. I’ll definitely be picking this one up.
So Dark Horse is going to let the trades go out of print? Gotta say, that’s kind of annoying b/c I just finished the first trade and don’t really want to rebuy it in HC form. Not because it’s a bad book, it’s just the principle of the thing.
I think I might have to get this. I only have the first volume in TPB and all of the rest of the series in issues. Wouldn’t mind double dipping on this series and this would be the way to do it.