Comic Books Are Burning In Hell: The BPRD Will Never Die...Right?

In this special episode, Chris Mautner, Matt Seneca, Joe McCulloch and Tucker Stone talk about a comic they share a mutual affection for: The Long Death, an early 2012 BPRD mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics.

Download The Long Death

Comments

[Colin Panetts]

I'm listening to this podcast wearing a Love & Rockets shirt, and a co-worker goes "Love and Rockets, bro" and I say "Not the band" and Chris Mautner says "Mmmaaaaaybe Love & Rockets".

[Chris Mautner]

We always strive for synchronicity.

[Colin Panetta]

I'm totally on board with the sentiment that BPRD has been diluted since Davis left. Too many new artists and books, the sum of which I'm not enjoying nearly as much as I was six books a year from Davis.

I think Crook's characters look adorable, and his monsters look like He-Man villains. Totally inappropriate for the series. Same for Cameron Stewart.

You guys are dead on about James Harren. Although I would stipulate that if BPRD is about characters and monster fights, he can fall a bit short with the former. His characters gestures can sometimes look trite and awkward. I like Jason Latour, who drew Pickens County Horror (not Becky Cloonan, which is probably what Tucker was thinking when he said she drew something for this series). His stuff can get appropriately savage, but I wasn't totally on board with him until I noticed that he was drawing one character's nose with two squiggles, which seemed audacious enough to give him a pass. I also think Max Fiumara, drawing the current 1948 series, is capable of producing some striking images and a unique atmosphere.

I've been feeling like maybe Arcudi has been reigned in by editorial mandate of late as well. The guy is at his best when he can just write these characters bouncing off of each other, and my favorite issues of this series (Universal Machine through Killing Ground) were all about that. This series has been so big lately he hasn't had much time to do it. Well, until Long Death (and maybe that last arc Davis did too).

Thanks for doing this episode. I usually only get to hear CBR or like Bloody Disgusting or whatever write about this book, so this was a relief. I've been enjoying the more thematically focused approach of the last few episodes overall. Looking forward to the Prophet episode.

[Jog]

I kinda dig that Max Fiumara stuff too... there's definitely something to his Mignola work that wasn't coming through in stuff like Infinity, Inc... which could just be his skills improving over time, but I suspect he may be dealing with a more supportive environment...? I dunno, just more of my fetish for stalking old Avatar artists. Juan Jose Ryp is drawing this *awful* Image series titled Clone, the kind of thing so lacking in basic competence one of the double-page splashes wound up getting split across a page turn, but he does this amazing drawing of an old man looking surprised in the new issue...

[doof]

I really hope you guys give a response to the first issue of Hellboy in Hell and perhaps on the 1940's BPRD series that are interesting in their own right.

[Thrills]

Who was the Russian guy that introduced the podcast? He sounded unwell.

[Jeppe]

Excellent episode (and what a hilarious introduction).

I agree completely on the not-adequately-praised importance of Guy Davis' work on the series - he really created much of the feel of B.P.R.D., basically taking what Mignola had made and running with it.

I'm also on board with Jason Latour as one of the better artists tackling the title post-Davis, and I've liked what I've seen of Fiumara's work elsewhere, so I'll have to check out the 1948 series at some point. Too little time, too many spin-offs.

Happy holidays, gents, as always I'm looking forward to your next installment.

[Jeppe]

On a related note, Mignola was recently the guest on another podcast, talking about his reasons for outsourcing the work on the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. titles back in the day. His explanation was basically that he really disliked drawing "real-world" stuff, so he found some good people to take care of that side of things once he realized that his series would need a lot of that (and couldn't get by with abstract or fantastical backgrounds and settings anymore).