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John Arcudi's run on B.P.R.D. comes to an end tomorrow, so [URL="http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news-columns/favorite-arcudi-bprd-moments/"]the Mignolaversity team looked back over his twelve-year run and picked their favourite moments.[/URL] What are your favourite moments?
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Arcudi justly should be remembered for how amazingly he brought life to all the BPRD characters, but I wanted to throw in the mix that in the few brief moments where he wrote for Hellboy, he captured him beyond perfectly. The first mention of Daryl the Wendigo still stands strong in my memory as one of the most authentic Hellboy moments. That raised gun, then "Hi, Daryl."
It's all over far too soon.
Favourite moments from Arcudi's blisteringly baffling B.P.R.D. run?
Pretty hard to pinpoint since they are plentyfold. Plus they may depend with every re-read I do on each of the mini-arcs, which I'm still in the midst of, eventhough I'll have been an avid follower of all of the Mignolaverse eversince Hellboy started and also before that. Blame Gotham By Gaslight. Or Wolverine's the Jungle Adventure.
And Hellboy was taking the cake. Reading really easy although plenty-layered. With every 'short' or 'mini' ending up a thing of its own or step-up in itself. Adventure stuff. Towards what being no worry whatsoever, albeit with each story proving never the same.
With B.P.R.D. shooting off as its own thing a good ways in, kind of similar (but hardly really) to the Hellboy Weird Tales stints. A team thing!
Case files, but with things also zooming in and out from team thing to team thing or agent bit in an organic fashion.
Organic?! Yes. Like nature-colored pasta. Or pumpkin soup served cold.
And it is awesome. Eventhough I was sort of cautious like pitchfork-pointing twitchingly for years on it. Guy Davis? John Arcudi? Ryan Sook?
Abe Sapien. Going to his unknown home, to meet with his unled life having been stolen from him. With pets.
A studied lady named Kate telling field experts off. Aptly. Or Were-Jaguars. Or see-through Johann.
Or my favorite being Liz. Pyro-kinetic. Troubled. Trashtalking like a sailor but with keeping it all in.
What was she doing? Going into heavy internal slumber-yoga in order to fight evil within evil?
Also I will never think the same of Ancient Egyptian bedridden ladies livin' it out, thoughtfully smiling, again with pets. By George.
Oh and that Marquis guy with the fecal Homunculi collection, in a giant Versailles type of building inside a painting. Too rich!
All with still zooming in and zooming out, pretty ruthlessly at times, making the weight or suspense and organicalness really FELT.
I don't know who did what to this pumpkin soup or even what people are taking from it, but I'm remaining drawn to it like it'd be from 'the House
of the Flies'.
Thank you very very much for the soup Mr John Arcudi! Whatever it is you put into it exactly, but it sure is and remains top of the bill.
Much obliged.
Wow... there have been so many moments, it's hard to pick a handful, but I sure will try... bear with me, I'm still recovering from the recent loss(es)
The entire journey of Johann Kraus. Kraus in da haus. The ghost in a bag.
All his 'German' moments earlier on - SCHNELL! GOTT! VERDAMMT! ARSCHLOCH!
His isolation & social awkwardness. His first kill with that knife and how scary it was going forward from there, from the things he was saying... Hunting down Daimio with said knife... Were-Jaguar vs Zombie Moose. Johann's new test tube body + junk food + porn. Johann's new suit... "I have knuckles". Jumping into Enos' body. His Prometheus experience.
The badass Agent Howards. He hardly ever says anything - but I guess that is testament to how good Arcudi's writing is, he knows how best to use the artists to encapsulate the stories.
The first Black Flame's epiphany... "I think I made a mistake..."
Roger's pants.
...and then Roger's death.........
The park scene in New York during Reign of the Black Flame.
Watching Nichayko go from a somewhat 'jolly' zombie thing in a containment suit to a total terminator/destroyer zombie thing in a containment suit.
It's been a crazy ride, all these years reading B.P.R.D.... it's hard to imagine the book WITHOUT Arcudi. Though the story will still move forwards, and Dave Stewart's colouring will always be there... I am going to miss his characterization. Thank you, Mr Arcudi... for the best comic experience in my life.
As much as I love the quiet moments, after being an avid reader of all things Mignolaverse for many years, seeing the Ogdru prison not just cracked but open gave me a bigger buzz than almost anything I've ever looked at on a comics page, second only to Hellboy finding the shapes at the end of In Hell, and knocking the Snikt moment in Old Man Logan down from second to third.
I think Roger's death and Johan's reaction to it is the moment for me, it was so damn powerful.