4 out of 5

Ah, here we go.  Arcudi – a writer who works wonders when his humorous inclinations are grounded in some way – works within the Mignolaverse for the first time, syncing effectively with Guy Davis for an energetic, fun, surprising followup to Plague of Frogs.  That story, while pushing forward a plotting agenda that will last for a while, felt a little at odds with itself in terms of what it wanted to do and how it wanted to do it.  The Dead suffers from that a tad as well, though only in the direct followup to that story, which (ironically or tellingly) was more under Mike’s oversight, according to the afterword in the trade collection: expanding on Abe’s past.  This part of the tale could be said to be thematically linked to what goes on in The Dead but it’s otherwise wholly separate, with Abe and Kate elsewhere, digging up the info, while Johann, new team leader tuff-guy Daimio, a peppy Roger, and perpetually unpeppy Liz are tasked with fighting frogs… but get distracted with matters in their new Colorado base.

This latter plot is a wonderful sleight of hand; Daimio wants nothing but to get his team out and about and anti-frogging, while Liz, frustrated at the sudden new B.P.R.D. addition, encourages checking out some mysteries in their new digs, which leads to some purely Mignolaverse-y weirdness.  Roger and Daimio form an odd buddy-cop pairing, but Arcudi keeps the story developments rolling and the stakes fairly high so the story never drags or feels cheap.  This characterization and style is much more fitting for Guy Davis, who excels at downbeats in conversations and big, bold machinery and monsters but struggles with defining space and fight choreography.  Thankfully, there’s a lot of the former.

Abe’s side-story also comes to something of an end, so it’s exciting to look forward to the Arcudi / Davis teamup tackling the fully assembled B.P.R.D. soon.

The trade also includes quite a few sketches from Guy, showing off how much work goes in to what comes across as a seemingly casual style.