B. P. R. D. : 1946

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B. P. R. D. : 1946 – written by Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart, artwork by Paul Azaceta (Dark Horse Comics, 2008, 5 issue series)

To expand the franchise while simultaneously expanding the Hellboy universe, this is the start of the series which is still published, but in different form. As the principal character is here still a little boy, these are the post-war adventures of Hellboy's foster dad Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, the founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

It is 1946, the war is over and Bruttenholm is in occupied Berlin. He and his colleague Dr Eaton have come to catalogue occult Nazi stuff. His work leads him into the Russian Sector where he met the Communist version of his little outfit. It is commanded by a little girl called Varvara which is possessed by a demon. Varvara is very interested in Bruttenholm and Hellboy.

They find an abandoned Nazi project called Vampir Sturm. In the war Hitler met with the vampire Giurescu whom he had destroyed – as told in the Hellboy story Wake the Devil (1996) – but using the blood of one of the vampire brides the Nazis tried to grow themselves some vampire soldiers. They are in suspended animation, hidden somewhere in destroyed Berlin, and Hermann von Klempt, a mad Nazi scientist, now a head in a jar, wants to unleash them.

Of course this is subjective, but I think it is one of best B. P. R. D. stories. While being unapologetically pulp in its roots, the story is fast and well done. If one of those many mini-series would make a great horror action movie, this is it. Varvara with her white and immaculate form can only be a homage to Mario Bava's devil as girl from the movie Operazione paura and is a great addition to the cast, the creepy character lasts to the end of the franchises story. Artist Paul Azaceta unfortunately didn't do much stuff for Dark Horse, but worked for all the big outfits. Award winning writer Joshua Dysart co-wrote the sequel 1947, which is more about mythological vampires.