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SYFY WIRE Hellboy

First look: Dark Horse delivers five haunting mysteries in new 'Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957' one-shots

By Jeff Spry
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Starting this fall, Dark Horse Comics returns to the Mignolaverse as the leaves are turning with the conclusion of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.'s final misadventures in the 1950s. It's an atmospheric collection of five standalone, interconnected one-shots written by Mike Mignola & Chris Roberson (iZombie) with artwork courtesy of five celebrated illustrators — and SYFY WIRE has an exclusive covers preview to set the macabre mood.

Each Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957 story also showcases evocative covers by Laurence Campbell (Punisher Max), coloring via Eisner Award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, and lettering from Clem Robins.

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It's 1957 and the winds of change are rising. This is the year that Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the last time. The Wham-O Company introduces the world to the first Frisbee. Andrei Gromyko is sworn in as foreign minister of the Soviet Union. Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the 34th President of the United States, and Congress approves the Eisenhower Doctrine and its assistance to Communist-threatened foreign regimes. These are the ideal shifting times for the events of Hellboy and the BPRD 1950s comics and the Occult Cold War storyline to come to a fitting end. 

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Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957— Family Ties is the first to arrive on Sep. 15 and features interior art by Laurence Campbell.

Here, prior to tracking down a missing volume of Gustav Strobl’s Witchcraft and Demonology, Hellboy and B.P.R.D. agent Susan Xiang are sidetracked by a distraught housewife’s urgent pleas for help. Unraveling the mystery of a disturbing, unwanted house guest might lure the occult investigators to exactly where they wanted to be, but also straight into the heart of demonic danger.

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Co-writer Chris Roberson explains that inside this handful of horror one-shots, Hellboy partners up with a different agent from the B.P.R.D. to investigate paranormal oddities, and things are never quite what they initially appear to be.

“Hellboy and his fellow B.P.R.D. agents have tackled menaces large and small over the years, but this time they’re moving into somewhat unfamiliar territory,” Roberson tells SYFY WIRE. “Family Ties is a domestic horror story that takes place almost entirely inside a normal suburban home where things have taken a very abnormal turn.”

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Emerging later in the year, the remaining four Dark Horse one-shots will be: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957— Forgotten Lives, with art by Stephen Green; Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957— Fearful Symmetry, showcasing art by Alison Sampson;  Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957— Falling Sky, featuring art from Shawn Martinbrough; and Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957 — From Below, starring art by Mike Norton.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957— Family Ties creeps into comic shops to launch it all on Sep. 15.