BPRD Hell on Earth #124 - Review

If you’re a fan of that hellfire red corner of Dark Horse Comics called the Mignolaverse or even if you’re just “Mignola-curious” then I have a treat for you.  BPRD Hell on Earth # 124 is a one-and-done story called “Grind” and it’s right up there with the best the Hellboy universe has to offer.



First off, automatic points for the single issue story, we need more of those in our hands, I reckon.  The self-contained short story is a format that the monthly comic book lends itself to particularly well, this is a prime example of how to do it right.

In 22 brisk pages, Mike Mignola & John Arcudi (co-writers) introduce us to a character, he’s a regular guy with a regular job in an irregular world. They give us both his short term and long term goals and they show him striving to make them happen and so they make us care.  Then they resolve the story on the final page.  Textbook stuff perhaps, but such simplicity is too often lacking in this modern age.  Ongoing series don’t often pull back and focus on the world around the big stories and how the cosmic and cinematic events taking place in those worlds affect the regular people on the outer edges of the screen. But when they do, the results are often surprisingly poignant.



The first Batman comic I ever read was Batman #423 by Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum.  The issue is told from three different viewpoints of how the regular people of Gotham perceive their encounters with the caped crusader, heady stuff for a six year old.  If I’d reviewed that comic back then, I would have said there weren’t enough cool costumes and villains in it, but I never forgot how unique that issue was.  And as the years flipped by I grew to appreciate how excellent that issue was.

Mignola, Arcudi and artist Tyler Crook (Witchfinder – The Mysteries of Unland #5 also released today), have reached a similar height of excellence with this issue.  BUT they also included monsters both big and small and a huge explosion, so there you go.  This one’s got everything and it comes in a complete package.  For new readers, all the immersion you need is in this issue. For older readers it’s a shard of the larger storylines taking place across the Mignolaverse. For prospective writers this issue is a clinic, study it.  Above all else, it’s a good story with good art. Everybody wins.

Who knows?  Maybe this story won’t appeal to everybody after all, but I’m just electrified from having read a comic whose storytellers got it right.