B.P.R.D. The Dead by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Guy Davis

In a cavern, the members of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense break through a wall and discover what looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. But when Johann attempts to reach it in the spirit realm, it comes to life and attacks the team, thinking that they, or more precisely, Johann are/is someone named Shonchin. They manage to put it down, and Roger picks up a trinket from the site, a cylinder with dirt or rusty spikes sticking out of it.

Meanwhile, a woman is found mummified in a barn, and a series of eggs that release frog-like things that kill and transform the humans who touch them. And Abe Sapien, newly informed of his previous life as Langston Everett Caul, returns to the New England town of Littleport, Rhode Island to find out more about his past with his colleague Kate Corrigan. He hears about his life and discovers that he had a wife named Emma. But when he left Emma to be with his brethren, she couldn't stand his departure and committed suicide by throwing herself into the ocean.

Although Everett Caul built a very fine house with the money he had made sailing the ocean, her death and his disappearance made the residents of Littleport consider the house cursed, and no one would buy it or live in it. So it still sits, abandoned and nearly in ruins. As a storm hits the coast, Kate returns to the hotel while Abe decides to take a walk and ends up in the house, where a vision of his wife comes to him, along with her decaying body, and tries to persuade him to stay with her.

The plague of Frog-people spreads and the B.P.R.D., led by a man returned from the dead, Benjamin Damio, relocate to Colorado, to an old research complex that was abandoned. Since most of the Frog-People attacks are happening in the midwest, it will be easier for the B.P.R.D. to coordinate the defense from there.

But the place doesn't come without some baggage of its own, and in the fourth sub-basement, they find a man still living, an ex-Nazi who was bricked up behind a wall when the other scientists working with him became jealous of his knowledge, or so he claims. But when the old man proves to be much more malevolent, and crazy, than they thought, can they defend the place from the powers he seeks to awaken and master?

This was a very good graphic novel, moody, atmospheric and full of interesting and horrific story details. The Abe story is really creepy, in a chills-up-and-down-your-back kind of way, while the story of the B.P.R.D. goes into full horror movie territory. We also get introduced to a new character, Marine Captain Benjamin Daimio, now a Green Beret, who was killed and somehow came back to life, albeit with a huge scar that now decorates his face. Everyone reacts to him differently, Liz with suspicion, Johann with acceptance, and Roger with Hero Worship. And yet, we are being led to not trust him, with a strange oriental man performing some sort of service for him involving candles and other things. Is Liz right in her suspicions not to trust him?

Well, I've already read ahead, so I know the answer, but I won't spoil it for you if you haven't, but suffice it to say that the mystery deepens around his character. He also has definite reactions to the members of the team, and he doesn't particularly seem to care that Liz doesn't trust him. This graphic novel also sees a change in uniforms for the B.P.R.D. less cop-like and more like military outfits. Is the Bureau becoming more military? It seems so. Is this a good thing? We don't know yet.

The contrast in the story between the moody ghost story surrounding Abe's wife, and the out and out graphic bloody horror of the secret in the new HQ's sub-sub-sub basement is well done, Interleaving the two stories sends the tension rising in each of them, until the very end. I recommend this graphic novel for two great stories, each different and yet involving characters we have grown to know and love.