4 out of 5

I’m sorta shocked and sad to read in the letters pages that Arcudi is leaving B.P.R.D., but that’s besides the point.

HB: 1953 follows up on the 1952 mini-series, but whereas that really felt like the ‘early years’ book it was intended to be, this one-shot just reads like… a one-shot.  Which isn’t a bad thing in the Mignolaverse, as Mike and his various fellow creators / artists have come to excel at this kind of thing, Hellboy having grown into being a perfect guest star in any given supernatural story.  Although calling this a “double feature” is something of a stretch; it’s more that The Phantom Hand ran a few pages shy of a full book, and so The Kelpie is here to fill its place.

In the former, Bruttenholm brings a young HB along to investigate sighting of a disembodied hand that prowls a home in England.  With typical bravado, Hellboy spots the thing and tosses it into a fire, which, y’know, releases a demon.  Then there’s a big ol’ fight.  The Kelpie is simply a relation of a tale from Bruttenholm’s youth regarding some Scottish lore with a Kelpie – a “water horse.”  Supporting what I was saying above about guest star status, Hellboy has barely a word in this story: he’s just listening to Trevor tell it.

Stenbeck and Stewart are an amazing team, having already proven this on Baltimore, but it’s nice to see Stenbeck open up a little bit with the more humorous tone of the tale – not all the glowering and doom of Balty.

So while I can’t really say this deserved a 19XX tag, except to stick with the streamlining timeline of the Hellboy world as of late – either tale would’ve been perfectly suited to a DHP at any point – a “normal” Hellboy story is above average entertainment.