WIBR: B.P.R.D. vol. 12: War on Frogs

Now this isn’t a “real” volume of “B.P.R.D.” in the sense that it doesn’t continue the ongoing story of the bureau’s fight against the frogs.  What it is, is a collection of four one-shots (and a story from “MySpace Dark Horse Presents”) that were published in between the various miniseries that have writers Mike Mignola and John Arcudi working with a host of talented artists to tell short stories with the cast of the B.P.R.D.  While none of these stories are bad, and it is nice to see Roger the Homunculus and Capt. Ben Daimio again, they really don’t add anything noteworthy to the series mythos.  All of the art is great, with Peter Snejbjerg’s depiction of the frogs’ afterlife and John Severin’s “‘Alien’ on an abandoned ship” being particularly worthy of mention, but unless you’re buying it just for that you can safely skip this volume.  I’d say you could do the same for the next volume, “B.P.R.D.:  1947,” but I’m actually dying to see how Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba tackle that section of the “Hellboy” universe.