Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Beast of Vargu and Others

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. #7

by Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Christopher Mitten

Face the mysterious Lambton Worm, track down an ancient corpse collector in the untamed wilderness, and more in this collection of monster meet-ups!

Some of Hellboy's most notorious exploits, including the story of Eisner Award-winning one-shot Hellboy: Krampusnacht, await in this new short story collection!

Mike Mignola and Scott Allie are joined by veteran Hellboy artists Ben Stenbeck, Adam Hughes, Christopher Mitten, and Duncan Fegredo to present stories collected for the first time in paperback, complete with bonus sketchbook section.

Collects the stories "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Beast of Vargu," "Helboy: Krampusnacht," "Helboy: The Return of the Lambton Worm," and "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Saturn Returns" #1-#3.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2020

About the author

Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.

In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.

In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.

Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.

Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some more solid Hellboy tales set in the 60's and 70's. My favorite was the Krampus tale illustrated by Adam Hughes. It was nice to see Duncan Fegredo to return for The Beast of Vargu as well.

Received a review copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains:

The Beast of Vargu + The secred God of the Roma
-Duncan Fegredo's epic return to the world of Hellboy. Hellboy goes to Romania in 1962 and fights a mythical beast and gets blasted into the past. It's everything you want from a short Hellboy story, and I love seeing new artwork by Fegredo. He's actually the reason I started reading Hellboy in the first place!

Saturn Returns
art by Christopher Mitten.

Krampusnacht
art by Adam Hughes. Wonderful eerie Hellboy story to read on a cold winter's night.

Return of the Lambton Worm
art by Ben Stenbeck

[Dan]

Four stars, despite the bulk of the collection being taken up by a dreadfully slow and disjointed Scott Allie story. Scott Allie's writing is the worst thing that ever happened to Hellboy.

Even worse than dying and going to Hell.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did receive my monthly collection of comics and it has been some months since I received some titles dus to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Hellboys 4 stories in this paperback all have some sense of melancholy involved on the side of the "baddie", ally or Hellboy. They are all quality tales that makes you enjoy the story of Hellboy even is he a Demon in his own right.

On another note I have seen the new movie and it is actually quite a decent reboot of the character, my wife got a kick seeing an Eastenders character kicking behind in the chips shop. I do hope they'll make a few more Hellboy movies with this team. Fans a re fickle they rather have nothing than anything less than their own wet dreams of a version. But they are not alone Who fans of Star Wars fans are just as moronic and juvenile.

This collection can be read by anybody who enjoys an original and enjoyable dark comic.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice collection of Hellboy tales, with some nice artwork. Some of it's even written by Mike Mignola himself (it would've been nice if he could have drawn those issues himself, too, but fat chance of that happening these days).

I've had this one sitting on my 'currently-reading' shelf since February (it's October as I write this), thanks to the shipping cancellations due to the pandemic, so it's nice to finally get my paws on the last couple of issues and clear it down.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellboy, as a series, has two strengths, and I'm increasingly more delighted by the one-offs than the arcs, which is rare. I love Hellboy's moral wrestling and his all-time battle against his supposed innate nature and the long-standing enemies as well as his most notable pals, but the series feels at its most adventurous when it's just Hellboy roaming the world on lone missions throughout the mid-late 20th century. You don't have to recall anything save for who Hellboy is and what he's about. He's just a good-natured product of Hell, raised by a good-natured human professor dad, and he'll solve any mystery, which typically includes him readily battling any evil entity. He rules, and there's room for hundreds of these stories where he just bounces around space and time. It feels like ancient tales that now include Mr. Right Hand of Doom.

[Wouter Dhondt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fun stories. But as usual Scott Allie has to ruin things with the terrible Saturn Returns story. His dialogue is always very hard to follow, sometimes confusing me enough to check if I'm not missing pages. I suspect some text has been misplaced or left out. Glad he finally got kicked out.

[Mattthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great volume of Hellboy short stories. These were all good. Enjoyed this one a lot.
Highly Recommend.

[Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return of the Lambton Worm - 4* - Had a lot of difficulty finding a copy of this to read as the Library does not have this particular TPB. Eventually found an online version on the "Playboy" website, as the story was actually a comic exclusively released to Playboy for the magazine’s May/June 2018 issue. The story is short, sweet, entertaining and easily ties in with later Hellboy stories. Kudos for them managing to get all this done in a short format.

Beast of Vargu - 3* - pretty interesting tale, I particularly liked how the stories were partly told through a puppet show.

Secret God Of The Romany - 3* - interesting but nothing special.

Saturn Returns - 3* - features Liz running away from the BPRD while Hellboy is out on assignment.

The Krampusnacht - 5* - this was an EXCELLENT Christmas Horror Story. Everything about it worked and the bonus past Christmas snapshots at the end of the serial were truly hilarious, especially the one of the year Abe got drunk.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this are brilliant. Parts shouldn’t exist, on a creative and a behind-the-scenes level. Scott Allie finally lost his gig writing Mignolaverse stuff in 2020 after a colleague described his long-term sexual harassment and abuse of her. This was five years after a different creator came forward to accuse him of sexual assault at a convention, with Allie quitting his Dark Horse job in between. Allie’s 3 issue story in this collection is from 2019, I think it’s his last Hellboy work.

Why is it 3 issues? Because it’s an important or exciting tale? No - because Allie is profoundly incapable of telling a story! The most baffling thing about him continuing to get work from Dark Horse and Mignola was that he is one of the most incompetent writers I’ve ever read in the medium, allergic to incident, exposition and plot. (The decision to trust him with the closing arc of the main two-decade long storyline is one of the worst creative choices in comics history)

Allie’s stories are all vibe, and he’s not even good at vibe. What happens in Saturn Returns? Hellboy and an anonymous BPRD agent are called in to deal with a load of corpses which have just been uncovered in a remote community. Meanwhile Liz runs away from HQ cos she only trusts Hellboy.

Aha, I thought, maybe I see where this is going. Maybe Liz will get recovered by the other agent, and it’s a story about her learning not to rely entirely on Hellboy? Or maybe Hellboy will go get Liz and the other agent will get in trouble, and it’ll be a story about Liz’ selfishness or the BPRD’s over-reliance on Hellboy? Both those plots would have been a bit corny, sure, but would have at least told a story. No. Hellboy goes and gets Liz, who is fine. The other agent solves the case with no problems. Nothing unexpected happens in either plot. The End. Why is this 3 issues? Why is it even 1?

It’s a shame because the rest of this collection is strong. Rather than ineffectually paddling around in BPRD continuity it goes the tried and true route of just turning folklore into problems for Hellboy to solve. Or punch. Mignola himself writes all the rest and as ever he’s a master of economy and atmosphere.

“The Return Of The Lambton Worm” is a six page basic Hellboy story of the kind Mignola sometimes does as an intro to the character (it ran in Playboy). “Krampusnacht” seems to be generally considered the high point, a full length Christmas story with Adam Hughes art in which Hellboy meets the festive monster. It’s good, and won awards, and Hughes’ more flowing and luxuriant line gives it the feel of a lovely rich winter treat. Doubt it would make a top 20 list of Hellboy short stories for me, though.

“The Beast Of Vargu” might, though. It starts off as the standard fare but then gets strange (for Hellboy and the reader). I like Hellboy stories where you can see the fairytale logic behind the action even when the events don’t make sense, and this is one of those. It’s also by Duncan Fegredo, one of the A-List Mignolaverse artists, who can do a banging fight scene but also draws an autumnal European landscape of old forests, straight tracks and mysterious travellers. To say more would spoil some of the resonance.

Well worth picking up Krampusnacht and Vargu digitally - both are cheap and easy to find - or as print one shots. As a collection? Skip the insubstantial main course and head straight for the buffet.

[Óscar López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a good book in the “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” series! Thank you Mignola, this is the Hellboy we all love to read. The last few entries were starting to get pretty bad; whereas this volume is pure gold – and that’s thanks to the fact that the author went back to the classic formula of monster-hunting, with no silly B.P.R.D. shenanigans to spoil the fun.

Five stories were collected: "The Beast of Vargu", "The Secret God of the Roma", "Saturn Returns", "Krampusnacht" and "Return of the Lambton Worm", each with a different supernatural evil that manages to surprise and horrify, every time. Different artists were involved in each story, with kudos to Fegredo for the amazing artwork that sets the high bar for all the others.

Writing was original and superb, with only a minor quibble on my part: "Saturn Returns" was co-written with Scott Allie and at times it felt erratic and hard to follow. All is forgiven; it’s hard to equal Mignola’s masterful narratives.

Let’s see what’s in store for the future of this series. Mignola should really do more one-shot horror stories like the ones collected in "The Beast of Vargu", and finish once and for all the lousy overarching story that’s been going on in “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” 1952 – 1956.

[Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked all these stories EXCEPT Saturn Returns which is of course co-written by creep Scott Allie which explains the crappy dialogue. I really dislike Christopher Mittens art, maybe he’s just not suited to Hellboy. I find he draws people with an angled head and raised-eyed knowing expression a lot, to the point where it’s quite boring, or one person standing behind someone’s shoulders. After a while, your brain picks up on the reused positions and it gets boring to read.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In what was, for me, an unusual turn, I had already read all of these stories elsewhere, but it's still nice to have them all in one place, and any story that pits Hellboy against the Lambton Worm - as drawn by Ben Stenbeck - is always gonna get at least four stars outta me.

[Philip James Ahlschlager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Hellboy shorts, glad I finally got to read “Krampusnacht”! Will have to re-read around the holidays.

[Etain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two spectacular mignola stories in "the beast of Vargu" and "krampusnacht" they're probably both in my top 10 hellboy stores ever. There's also a sort of middling Mignola story with "the return of the lambton worm" (which is apparently based on a poem) it doesn't have much to offer except a very cool creature & armor design but it's a fun bonus. The bulk of this book is taken up by "Saturn returns" which is a rather meandering story that trips over itself and is much to long. It starts off as a mindhunter-esque police procedural but doesn't really offer any clues or anything and is often difficult to follow until the monster just shows up randomly on one page and the rest of the story is about trying to track it and kill it which is exceptionally boring because it's a completely unexceptional monster. I did like seeing adolescent Liz though #Lizfan4life (I could totally understand if you found her annoying though).
This book is like if you had godly mash potatoes as a side to a really overcooked steak. It's kinda confusingly unbalanced but I suppose that makes it a bit more noteworthy than the other books in this series which are mostly sort of blandly good.

[William O’Pomegranate · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would have been better off called Saturn Returns as that story takes up the majority of the length. Meanwhile, the Beast of Vargu is incredibly short.

It has a Christmas story in it so which makes it a perfect Hellboy collection to read in December.

In the end this is more average Hellboy. I don’t think it’s particularly standout in this collection but I don’t think there’s any particularly bad stories either.

[Nora Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

hellboy and liz <333333 and also i love krampusnacht so much, def the fav of the stories in this one

[Aritra Dasgupta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ranking stories:

1. Krampusnacht

Beautiful art, great twist ending. The art really is unreal, it's so good.
(The only one worth reading here)

2. Return of the Lambton Worm

Fun short tale, but forgettable, like the Professor intended.

3. The Beast of Vargu

What even happened here? But always glad to see Duncan Fegredo.

4. Saturn Returns

Overlong and just plain boring. I was never invested in this and constant cutting between the two stories helped neither. The Liz part was just unnecessary and useless. The main story had potential but is completely butchered by the end by its pace and unnecessary diversions(which in more able hands would have been so much more potent)

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much second-tier Hellboy stories. Saturn Returns had a weird, fragmented style to it that seemed like there was a panel missing every here and there. The Beast of Vargu wasn't bad. Krampusnacht was little for than a vignette. And The Return of the Lambton Worm was even less than that. Rounded out with a bunch of pages of sketches of work in progress, cover variants, etc.

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars - I liked it

This is a collection of six Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. stories: "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Beast of Vargu," "Hellboy: Krampusnacht," "Hellboy: The Return of the Lambton Worm," and "Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: Saturn Returns" #1-#3.

This was an enjoyable collection of missions that Hellboy goes on for the B.P.R.D.. I enjoyed that some of the stories featured Liz as a young teenager struggling to cope with her abilities. Of the stories in this collection I found the Beast of Vargu to be the most fascinating of the bunch. Overall, this was an enjoyable collection of Hellboy stories.

You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.

[Joseph R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some more adventures from Hellboy's past...

The Beast of Vargu--Hellboy goes to Romania and encounters the titular beast at Vargu Castle. A local gypsy woman also tells him his own adventure via a puppet show which is bizarrely tied to the defeat of the beast. The tale is weird but not particularly satisfying. The art by Duncan Fegredo is great and makes up for other failings.

Saturn Returns--In 1974, a remote New England woodland grove is home to dozens of corpses. People had been vanishing or "leaving town" for decades. The rock wall of the grove is covered with occult symbols, so Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. have been called in to help the investigation. The fresher corpses show their rib cages pulled out and their hearts missing. Meanwhile, Liz Sherman makes an escape from the Connecticut headquarters and runs into trouble. Hellboy is pulled off the investigation to help out Liz. The stories are loosely tied together. The supernatural investigation is more interesting than the teenage runaway plight.

Krampusnacht--Hellboy faces off against the Krampus, a legendary Christmas monster who is interested in punishing those on Santa's naughty list. They face off a couple of days before Christmas in a remote Austrian home. Mignola does a great job building up some character and mythology for the Krampus, with the typical spooky and violent ending. The story is a fun cross of "monster of the week" and "Christmas special."

Return of the Lambton Worm--Hellboy and the Professor investigate a medieval knight's grave. The knight claimed to have defeated a dragon that he accidentally summoned to his neighborhood. The tomb of the knight has a few surprises in store. It's a fun, very short story.

Recommended--an enjoyable collection!

[Lacee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This B.P.R.D. installment was a cool collection of Hellboy shorts. I'm really glad I picked this up since it's the first time I got to experience the masterpiece that is Krampusnacht! The story really hits that sweet spot that only Mignola can reach with his eerie plot lines and the art was so gorgeous. I would linger on the same page for a bit just to take in the beauty, Adam Hughes really knows how to draw Hellboy!

Return of the Lambton Worm was also a great shorter piece. The Beast of Vargu and it's follow up The Secret God of the Roma was fine but not my favorite. There is still that Mignola flair that as a fan I can't get enough of, so it still works for this collection.

Saturn Returns had so much potential to be great. For one the main plot was interesting but the choppy, disorienting dialogue gave me horrible flashbacks of "The Devil You Know", same co-writer if you weren't aware. I also found the bouncing back an forth from one story line to another just a strange choice and some of the characters were insufferable. Not surprised, the co-writer is notorious for these problems. The story wasn't terrible but I'll be honest, I could have gone without reading it.

To end on a positive note, the Sketch book in the back has a couple snap shots of Hellboy's Christmas photos and the one with Abe, Hellboy, Liz, and Kate was so heartwarming. I miss the old crew so much. That was a great little addition to this collection!

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volumes collects four standalone tales from Hellboy's past. The first "The Beast of Vargu" takes place in 1962. Once again, Hellboy is at some abandoned castle in Romania dealing with a monster of tremendous power. While the story does put a decent twist on the action, I have seen this one before - too many times.

The second story is "Saturn Return", taking place in 1975. It is the longest story and definitely the best of them. A corpse pile is discovered in rural New Hampshire, with some of the bodies dating back fifty years. Hellboy and company have multiple theories as to what is causing this, and its a race to see who is correct. There is also a subplot with a young teenage Liz running off in a huff, but you can ignore that. There's nothing new to it.

The third story is "Krampusnacht" where Hellboy confronts the Demon of Christmas, with an interesting twist. While the last one is "Return of the Lambton Worm" which takes place in England in 1960. It is a variation of the old Dragon slaying stories of the England.

As usual the art is great.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another marvelous collection of various short stories that chronicle the adventures of Hellboy and his colleagues at the B.P.R.D. These tales, all one-shots that mostly appear elsewhere in the Mignolaverse TPBs, come together very nicely here, with a bonus tale or two thrown in. What makes this volume such fun is that the stories range from the whimsical and weird to the dangerous but not apocalyptic. They all fill out the strange details of the world of Hellboy without tipping off what the real meta-story of it all is, making this not just a terrific volume in the ongoing series, but also a great volume to give to first-time Hellboy/BPRD readers, as well. Writing, terrific. Artwork, terrific. Tone, terrific.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beast of Vargu and Others offers some quality Hellboy tales, though it's a real random mix. The Beast of Vargu is short and sweet, as are the Krampus and Worm tales. Krampus is an easy favorite for its dark, seasonal tidings and superb artwork.

Most of the collection's space is allotted to Saturn Returns, in which Hellboy tracks down a mystery killer in the northern wilds. The side characters here are annoying and too present, basically resulting in Hellboy getting second billing. The Liz side-story is also a bit random. Saturn Returns might have been better served in a different volume where it can more accurately slot into the Hellboy timeline.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection has several short stories featuring Hellboy during the 60s and 70s. Most were solid but not up to the iconic Hellboy stories of the past. The best by far was the title track - The Beast of Vargu. This was drawn by Duncan Fegredo who was the artist for the Darkness Calls, Wild Hunt and Storm & Fury in the main Hellboy story line.

Krampusnacht was a dark Christmas story that led me to Google the legend. Hopefully there will be an omnibus collecting all the winter special stories in the future.

The bulk of the collection was the 3 part story Saturn Returns. That had a disjointed feel and pulled down the rest of the collection.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of standard Hellboy tales. "Krampusnacht" and "The Beast of Vargu" are probably my favorites, mixing some creepy concepts with solid art from Adam Hughes and Duncan Fegredro, respectively. I particularly liked the puppet concepts and art in the latter.

The softest story was probably the longest one. "Saturn Returns" shifts between a rural monster in New Hamshire and a teenage-crisis for Liz Sherman. Unfortunately, the plotting feels rushed, the monster is soft, and the ancillary characters (especially a jerky FBI agent) don't add a ton of interest.

[Marc Pastor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recull d'històries irregulars, molt en la línia dels primers Hellboy, però sense la frescor d'aquelles. La pitjor, la que implica la Liz escapant-se de l'AIDP en una trama paral·lela amb el descobriment d'uns cadàvers que es remunten cinquanta anys enrere, i que se m'ha fet feixuga.
Per sort, la presència de Duncan Fegredo i Adam Hughes fan que el conjunt sigui més interessant, si més no gràficament.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5]
A couple of classic Hellboy stories that are great, and one that is confusing and not as good. One of the good ones is the acclaimed Krampusnacht. I actually decided to skip the bad one after reading maybe half of it. I thought it would just take away from the other stories and so I just flipped pages and looked at the art for it. Too bad it was one of the longer stories in the collection. Bad judgment

[Andres Pasten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beast of Vargu y Krampusnacht tienen 4 estrellas, pero Saturn Returns la verdad es que decepciona, con suerte para 2,5. Por lo que tendriamos un esforzado 3. Creo que no vale la pena hacer estas historias cortas si no son para algo de calidad, como estabamos acostumbrados con Hellboy o el BPRD por separado.