BALTIMORE: THE CULT OF THE RED KING #3 (of 5)
Written by: Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Art by: Peter Bergting
Colours by: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Ben Stenbeck
On sale July 1, 2015
Lord Baltimore attacks a coven of witches to free his friend, but the witches will not give him up so willingly. Alone and freezing, the only one Baltimore can save now is himself. Will he survive the wrath of the witches?
Scott Allie: The Cult of the Red King is the biggest, most ambitious Baltimore story yet. In the first few volumes of the series, the previous hardcovers, the biggest threat that loomed over the heroes had already been resolved in the novel, so we were more exploring that world and digging into the characters — but the stakes are much higher now. Not only is the threat, the Red King, much bigger than the vampire threat in the novel — we've basically gone from fighting Dracula to chasing the Devil — but the resolution is open. We always knew the toll that that vampire would take on Baltimore, and we knew the outcome. Now Baltimore is seeking out the heart of evil in his world, and it could literally take him anywhere. This arc and the next arc — which Christopher Golden has started writing — are real high stakes, with Baltimore losing one of his most trusted allies in the worst way possible.
ABE SAPAIEN #24
Written by: Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Art by: Sebastián Fiumara
Colours: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Max Fiumara
On sale July 8, 2015
Haunted by memories of Hellboy, Abe crosses paths with a horrible monster in a sunken town, which reveals secrets of his own pre-human origins.
Scott Allie: Abe left the B.P.R.D. to confront the monster at the Salton Sea and prove he had nothing to do with the impending end of all mankind. The Salton Sea monster was gone, and Abe has spent the intervening months wandering and running from the truth. Now he's found another monster like it, in a Florida town that's sinking into the Gulf, and he's not running anymore. He's focused on getting answers. This is the first chapter of a trade that we're calling The Secret Fire, which will reveal big things about Abe and the Hellboy universe, and force him to deal directly with what he is once and for all. This issue is drawn by Sebastián Fiumara, and it's beautiful, with a reveal of the monster at the beginning that makes me feel guilty for asking Seba to draw something so over the top. But he also got to draw a few pages of Hellboy and Liz, so hopefully that makes up for it."
B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH #133: MODERN PROMETHEUS (PART 1)
Written by: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by: Julián Totino Tedesco
Colours: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Laurence Campbell
On sale July 15, 2015
Johann's fascination with the Sledgehammer armor leads to a strange journey into the past and the origin of "Project Epimetheus."
Scott Allie: Artist Julián Totino Tedesco came in to do a two-parter in which Johann deals with his disintegrating humanity, and his relationships with his fellow agents in the B.P.R.D. This little two-parter changes things in a big way for Johann, and sets us up for a really climactic arc for this series. Sometimes stories happen like this in our books: An artist tells us something he really wants to draw — a certain character, a flashback to World War II — and instead of it just being service to those images, what we get is a story that gets to the most important stuff about the Hellboy series, and changes things in major ways. Writer John Arcudi did a great job with this one.
FRANKENSTEIN UNDERGROUND #5 (of 5)
Written by: Mike Mignola
Art by: Ben Stenbeck
Colours: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Mike Mignola
On sale July 22, 2015
Frankenstein's monster confronts the danger lurking within the underground city. Can he save the spirit of the city or will he meet his end?
Scott Allie: When Mike first told me this story, it was just good fun monster action. But the two surprises for me were in how amazing Ben Stenbeck's art evolves over the course of the series, and how much we wound up saying about the Hellboy universe. This has been happening a lot lately. Not too long ago we were talking about an Abe story, and as usual, we talked through all the bigger implications of the story, all the secrets behind the main action, and I said, "How much of that do we actually reveal here." And he said, "All of it." Not that we'll explain everything and end the mysteries, but we're at a point in the series where it's really time to start letting the answers reveal themselves. Earlier this week, we were plotting a single-issue story, and it seemed pretty simple and visually entertaining, but as we spoke, we got deeper and deeper into the big stuff, the things that make the Hellboy universe tick. Now, with Frankenstein, what we've wound up with is a very strange glimpse into the secret societies of this world, and the secrets they hold, or think they hold, about man's history, prehistory, and the monsters that hang over our world, and are right now wreaking havoc on the world of the B.P.R.D. and Abe Sapien. This last issue ties current B.P.R.D. to the old Guy Davis B.P.R.D., to Hellboy: The Island—and if you haven't read that stuff, now you won't have to to understand what happens next in the current stories. Of course, we'd never be so generous as to reveal these secrets to Hellboy, or Abe, or Liz, or someone who could really use them today, right...?
LOBSTER JOHNSON: A CHAIN FORGED IN LIFE
Written by: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by: Troy Nixey
Colours: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Tonci Zonjic
On sale July 29, 2015
Santa is in trouble! Santa was taken hostage after witnessing a hostile robbery and the death of a man. Hidden away in a mountain cabin, will the Lobster be able to find Santa and save Christmas?
Scott Allie: OK, this one is a lark. We hadn't worked with Troy in a long time, and John Arcudi suggested him for one of the non-Tonci Zonjic Lobster Johnson issues. We're calling this one Christmas in July, because it is a Christmas story of sorts - complete with a riff on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and a down-on-his-luck department store Santa. It's really the most clever, wonky, yet grim thing John possibly could have done, with a very lame heist, and some real unattractive characters, Dick Tracy villains through the lens of Boardwalk Empire, with a fairly silent and murderous hero.
B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH — VOLUME 11: FLESH AND STONE
Written by: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Art by: James Harren
Colours by: Dave Stewart
Cover by: Laurence Campbell
On sale September 23, 2015
Things seem to be going well for the B.P.R.D. With their alliance with the military, they now have all the munitions they need and, compared to what they faced in New York, an easy mission to clear a small town. But the town has strange connections to Howards's past as a prehistoric warrior, and more than its share of monsters. This volume collects
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth #125–#129.
Scott Allie: Agent Howards first appeared in a two-parter called The Abyss of Time, drawn by James Harren. In that story, Howards got connected to the spirit of an ancient warrior chieftain who'd fought monsters in the earliest days of the human race with a little help from some shamanistic magic. Howards has barely spoken since then, but he's emerged as one of the coolest B.P.R.D. characters, wielding an ancient sword and possessing inexplicable knowledge about how to fight the monsters. Flesh and Stone finally delivers Howards to the main stage, with James Harren back working with John Arcudi to make Howards an epic character worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with Liz, Johann, and the guys who are missing, Abe, Hellboy, Roger. Howards is going to be very important from now on in B.P.R.D., and this is the definitive Howards story, with plenty of Liz, Johann, and Kate, to show his connection, and disconnection, from the Bureau.