Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense

Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense
B.P.R.D. by Guy Davis
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
First appearance	Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (1993)
Created by	Mike Mignola
In-story information
Type of organization	Government intelligence agency
Base(s)	Research facility in Colorado (film version) New Jersey
Leader(s)	Director Tom Manning Professor Trevor Bruttenholm
Agent(s)	Johann Kraus Liz Sherman Abe Sapien Kate Corrigan Captain Ben Daimio Hellboy Roger the Homunculus

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) is a fictional organization in the comic book work of Mike Mignola, charged with protecting America and the world from the occult, paranormal and supernatural. It maintains the services of several supernatural persons, including Hellboy. The B.P.R.D. originally appeared in the Hellboy comics but has also been featured in many stories under the B.P.R.D. title.

Fictional Organization History

B.P.R.D. Logo

The BPRD was founded in late 1944 by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm to combat various occult threats uncovered in operations against Nazi Germany. It initially had strong links to the USAAF and was based at a military airbase in New Mexico, but later relocated to a custom built facility in Fairfield, Connecticut. It maintains strong links to various branches of the United States Armed Forces to this day. It is a private organization that receives funding from several major governments (mostly the United States and United Kingdom, although other countries including Canada, Japan, France, and Italy have been mentioned).

Professor Bruttenholm served as director until the late 1950s when he stepped down to return to field work. The current Director is Dr. Thomas Manning. Under Manning several "advanced skills agents" were added to the agency including Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien.

The BPRD is a well known and respected organization that has excellent relations with most international governments and United States government agencies, with the exceptions of China and the CIA. The Bureau was the United States' only defense against an onslaught of frog creatures (originally featured in Seed of Destruction). Though the 'frogs' began operating on the East Coast, they spread west on both sides of the US-Canadian border. To cut costs, the Bureau moved from its traditional headquarters in Connecticut to an abandoned research facility in Colorado. This facility was last used to house Nazi scientists who defected to America after World War II. As such, the facility contains vast quantities of secret files that the BPRD has yet to explore.

The frog monster invasion reached its peak during the events of The Black Flame during which a Neo-Nazi madman adopted the persona of the World War II era supervillain the Black Flame and insinuated himself as the leader of the frogs. Together they raised the gigantic Katha-Hem (one of the Ogdru Hem, the 369 spawn of the Ogdru Jahad) which ran rampant across the American heartland until Liz Sherman used an ancient artifact to amplify her pyrokinetic powers a thousandfold. After Katha-Hem was destroyed, the frog monsters dragged the Black Flame into a vast pit and the invasion appeared to come to an end.

A series of incidents - The Warning, The Black Goddess, and King of Fear - saw the Bureau threatened by both an alliance of the frogs, The Black Flame, and the Hyperborean underworld, united to bring about an apocalypse and the birth of a new human race; and also the villain Memnan Saa, who abducted Liz in an attempt to use her powers to conquer the Earth so he could prevent the apocalypse. This crisis saw half of Munich destroyed, the Bureau on the outs with the American military, and Abe Sapien revealed to be an example of the next stage of the frog's evolution. Finally, Liz Sherman exhausted all of her powers in destroying the underworld alliance. This inadvertently caused massive volcanic disasters across the world, devastating Malaysia and causing the destruction of Borneo (wiping out the nations of Indonesia and Brunei), and also causing the rise of a large, immobile monster in California, spewing out a gas across America and Mexico that mutates people. In the wake of this new crisis, the United Nations Security Council drafted the Bureau to work directly for them, with "blank cheque" funding.

A vision of the future shown in King of Fear showed the apocalypse had triumphed over this larger, heavier armed BPRD.

Agents

"Enhanced Talents" Agents Hellboy, heroic paranormal upper level demon (deceased) Abe Sapien, amphibious man (incapacitated) Liz Sherman, pyrokinetic (resigned) Roger, homunculus (deceased) Johann Krauss, ectoplasmic physical medium (physically deceased) Captain Ben Daimio, were-jaguar Sidney Leach, psychically detects and manipulates metal Panya, ageless mummy Mr. Garret Omatta, field agent, psychic

Human Agents Dr. Tom Manning, director Dr. Kate Corrigan, liaison to enhanced talents agents Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, former director (deceased) Dr. Howard Eaton, occult specialist, assistant to Prof. Butternholm (deceased) Dr. O'Donnell, occult specialist Andrew Devon, field agent Bud Waller, field agent (deceased) Mr. Clark, field agent (deceased) Agent Van Fleet, field agent, former Navy Seal (deceased) Agent Hampton, field agent (deceased) Agent Pratt, field agent (deceased)

Publication History

Comics

See also: List of Hellboy comics

The agency was created for the Hellboy comic book series by Mike Mignola and appears in most issues of that series, including the first two mini-series Seed of Destruction (4 issues, March–June 1994), Wake the Devil (5 issues, June–October 1996). Hellboy parts company with the agency at the end of Conqueror Worm, with the first solo BPRD series, Hollow Earth, set some little time afterward; from this point onward, the BPRD and Hellboy series exist concurrently but separately.

Hellboy is mentioned several times in the BPRD series and often appears in flashback; the BPRD are rarely mentioned in the Hellboy books, with the notable exception of the epilogue to Darkness Calls, which features most of the notable BPRD cast receiving a letter from Hellboy bringing them up to speed on recent events. In most of the Hellboy stories set prior to Conqueror Worm, Hellboy is still working with the BPRD.

Collected Editions

B.P.R.D. Trade Paperbacks

Most of the B.P.R.D. comics have been collected by Dark Horse as trade paperbacks:

1. Hollow Earth & Other Stories
   Collects: Hollow Earth (3-issue miniseries), B.P.R.D. (promotional piece), Lobster Johnson: The Killer in My Skull (from Hellboy: Box Full of Evil #1), Abe Sapien versus Science (from Box of Evil #2), and Abe Sapiens: Drums of the Dead (one-shot)
   ISBN 1-56971-862-8
2. The Soul of Venice & Other Stories
   Collects: The Soul of Venice, Dark Waters, Night Train, There's Something Under My Bed, and a new short story Another Day at the Office
   ISBN 1-59307-132-9
3. Plague of Frogs
   Collects: Plague of Frogs (5-issue miniseries)
   ISBN 1-59307-288-0
4. The Dead
   Collects: Born Again (short story) and The Dead (5-issue miniseries)
   2005, ISBN 1-59307-380-1
5. The Black Flame
   Collects: The Black Flame (6-issue miniseries)
   July 2006, ISBN 1-59307-550-2
6. The Universal Machine
   Collects: The Universal Machine (5-issue miniseries)
   January 2007, ISBN 1-59307-710-6
7. Garden of Souls
   Collects: Garden of Souls (5-issue miniseries)
   January 2008, ISBN 1-59307-882-X
8. Killing Ground
   Collects: Killing Ground (5-issue miniseries)
   May 2008, ISBN 1-59307-956-7
9. 1946
   Collects: 1946 (5-issue miniseries) and Bishop Olek's Devil (short story)
   November 2008, ISBN 1-59582-191-0
10. The Warning
    Collects: Out of Reach (short story) and The Warning (5-issue miniseries)
    April 29, 2009, ISBN 1-59582-304-2
11. The Black Goddess
    Collects: The Black Goddess (5-issue miniseries)
    October 21, 2009, ISBN 1-59582-411-1
12. War on Frogs
    Collects: War on Frogs (4-issue miniseries) and "Revival" (from MySpace Dark Horse Presents) #8-9
    April 28, 2010, ISBN 1-59582-480-4
13. 1947
    Collects: 1947 (5-issue miniseries) and And What Shall I Find There? (short story)
    July 21, 2010, ISBN 1-59582-478-2
14. King of Fear
    Collects: The King of Fear (5-issue miniseries)
    December 2010, ISBN 1-59582-564-3
15. Being Human
    Collects: Being Human, The Dead Remembered (3-issue miniseries), The Ectoplasmic Man and Casualties (short story)
    December 2011, ISBN 1-59582-756-0

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth Trade Paperbacks

There is also a series of trade paperbacks collecting the Hell on Earth cycle:

1. New World
   Collects: New World (5-issue miniseries) and Seattle
   August 2011, ISBN 1-59582-707-2
2. Gods and Monsters
   Collects: Gods (3-issue miniseries) and Monsters (2-issue miniseries)
   January 2012, ISBN 1-59582-822-2
3. Russia
   Collects: Russia (5-issue miniseries)
   (forthcoming, 2012)

Ominbus Editions

Dark Horse have also released a series of omnibus editions collecting the Plague of Frogs cylce:

• B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs - Volume 1
  Collects: Hollow Earth & Other Stories, The Soul of Venice & Other Stories, and Plague of Frogs
  (408 pages, January 2011, ISBN 978-1-59582-609-1)
• B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs - Volume 2
  Collects: The Dead, War on Frogs, and The Black Flame
  (480 pages, August 2011, ISBN 978-1-59582-672-5)
• B.P.R.D. Plague of Frogs - Volume 3
  Collects: The Universal Machine, Garden of Souls, and Killing Ground
  (448 pages, April 2012, ISBN 978-1-59582-860-6)

In Other Media

Films

The Bureau appeared in the 2004 film Hellboy and its 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, both directed by Guillermo del Toro, where it differs from the agency in the comics.

• In the movie it is a secret United States Government agency, created by Roosevelt to combat Hitler's growing mastery of the occult, and strongly affiliated with the FBI. Professor Broom claims that the BPRD fought the Occult Wars that ended in 1958 with the death of Adolf Hitler.
• Several personnel are federal agents, including Manning and new character Special Agent John Myers whilst the Director is still Professor Bruttenholm, who refers to the bureau as "the ones who bump back", in reference to "things that go bump in the night".
• The BPRD uses the motto "In Absentia Luci, Tenebrae Vincunt", Latin for "In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails"—though this motto is grammatically incorrect—Luci should read "Lucis" for the desired meaning.
• In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the Bureau's existence is confirmed when Hellboy reveals himself to the media.
• The film reveals there is a German branch where Johann was stationed until he became the new director of the US branch.
• It is hinted that the base may be related to military base Area 51: the number 51 appears on the walls.

Television

The B.P.R.D. Declassified was a TV special that aired on the FX Network in 2004.

Roleplaying Game

The B.P.R.D. appeared in the Hellboy Sourcebook and Role Playing Game.

In Popular Culture

• In the film Blade II, Blade's young assistant, Scud, wears a shirt bearing the B.P.R.D. logo. Guillermo del Toro, who directed Blade II, is a fan of Hellboy, and later he directed the movie adaptation and its sequel.
• In the comic shop in The Big Bang Theory, the B.P.R.D. comic is prominently and repeatedly featured.
• In the show Hawaii 5-0 a B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: New World poster is on the wall of Dr. Max Bergman's (actor: Masi Oka) apartment.

See Also

• Hellboy
• Bureau 13
• Vector 13

External Links

• The B.P.R.D. Declassified at the Internet Movie Database
• The Hellboy Archive