After our incredible chat with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, we’re happy to present an exclusive preview of his newest dive into the expanded universe of Hellboy with B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know #1. Coming from Mignola and Dark Horse editor Scott Allie, the comic follows Liz Sherman—one of the main protagonists of the Mignolaverse—as she leads an intrepid team through the monster-infested ruins wreaked by the Lovecraftian monsters in the previous Hell on Earth story cycle. As society tries to recover, strange cults vie for influence and a demon emerges to lead the way.
This first issue of the final story cycle of the B.P.R.D series is visualized by Laurence Campbell, a British artist best known for his work in 2000 AD and B.P.R.D. with previous writer John Arcudi. “When I work with guys that I really like, it’s just so easy to continue working with them,” Mignola told Nerdist. “It’s been really fun.”
“When John said, ‘I’ve finished where I’m going with B.P.R.D.,’ we were like, ‘sure, but we want to keep working with Laurence Campbell,’ and you know we hadn’t finished the B.P.R.D. story,” Mignola explained. “I sketched out where B.P.R.D. would eventually go and when John said he’d done his bit, I was like ‘oh, how do we finish this book?'”
“Since the very beginning of Hellboy we’ve only had a couple of writers. John has added so much to this world and we’re comfortable working together. We were so lucky with Chris Roberson because he was such a big fan of the work and fit so well,” Mignola continued. “With Scott Allie, he’d been writing the Abe Sapien stuff and that was wrapping up, and we were looking at who was going take over B.P.R.D. Scott and I had been been talking about where B.P.R.D. was going since the very beginning. Most other writers, we would’ve had to feed them the end of the series but Scott knew the story. Finally, I awkwardly asked, ‘could you write it?”
With the end of B.P.R.D. in sight, Mignola already knew that he wanted to wrap the story up in his own way. “B.P.R.D.’s been going on for so long and it’s had a very specific ending for a very long time,” Mignola elaborated. “So, you know, now we’re at the point where we say, ‘well, we know how this is ending and we’re almost there. It’s time to start pulling all those threads together and get this thing to where it’s going.'”
In our exclusive preview, Campbell and colorist Dave Stewart masterfully depict a monstrous fight set in a ravaged North Carolina. Enjoy the pages in our gallery below.
Are you excited to return to the monster-filled world of the B.P.R.D.? Can’t wait to see what pyrokinetic Liz is up to in this latest adventure? Or just happy to see Mignola back on a B.P.R.D book? Let us know in the comments below!
Images: Dark Horse Comics
