Bureaucrats and grunts

January 16, 2014 12:14 PM

"One series that I’ve kept up with, however, that doesn’t get enough credit for its cast of active, intelligent females, is B.P.R.D., written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, and currently drawn by a rotating group of artists, including Tyler Crook, James Harren and Laurence Campbell." -- Craig Fischer explores some of the female characters in Hellboy and B.P.R.D
posted by MartinWisse (8 comments total)

It is a Damn Shame that BPRD doesn't get the Library Edition treatment that Hellboy itself gets.
posted by jason_steakums at 1:05 PM on January 16, 2014

I loved that book for a long time but I completely agree about the drop in quality when Guy Davis left. I know he worked on New World and I know the Jaguar God/Wendigo storyline continued even longer but I've been pretending both the storyline and the series concluded here.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 1:35 PM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

(And I apologize for posting a comment about this article that doesn't mention the female characters. I think Liz and Kate Corrigan have been well written but I don't have much to say about it than that. I wish they weren't the exception to the rule, I guess.)
posted by The Hamms Bear at 1:52 PM on January 16, 2014

As much as I love Hellboy and BPRD, Liz is on some pretty shaky ground in regards to agency and empowerment. It's kind of a recurring theme that she loses control of her powers resulting in destruction unless someone else is controlling her and her powers. It's not quite as cut-and-dried as that, but it's always given me some pause.
posted by jason_steakums at 2:00 PM on January 16, 2014

I mean, that's something that happens on and off with pretty much everyone with powers in the series. But still. I think it would have helped if it wasn't tied up in mental health issues with Liz, shades of "hysteria".
posted by jason_steakums at 2:02 PM on January 16, 2014

Guy Davis will always own it, in my mind, but my god is Laurence Campbell doing some of the best art of his career on it right now.
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on January 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's a real shame that Dr. Corrigan hasn't appeared in the movies. She would have made an interesting counterpart to "Agent Myers", or been the one to replace him in the sequel.
posted by Apocryphon at 3:23 PM on January 16, 2014

I've really lost interest in BPRD as the story got bigger and bigger. Apart from Johann I don't feel like there's an investment in any of the characters and the global story hasn't proceeded in a realistic way to me. Frankly, it's not what I originally tuned in to BPRD for, and after following along for years, it's finally on the chopping block.
posted by Legomancer at 6:44 AM on January 17, 2014