We’re getting close to Halloween, so it’s a good time to look at a couple of new comics from Mike Mignola, creator of “Hellboy” and the industry’s foremost horror writer.

 

B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground #3

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is under siege from within, thanks to the untimely escape of a murderous wendigo. Multiple people have died, Liz Sherman is seeing an ancient sorcerer who keeps showing her images of the Apocalypse, and Ben Daimio is hearing voices from a dead monster-monkey in his quarters. And there’s someone with a serious grudge against the entire BPRD stalking the facility.

Unlike some previous “BPRD” series, “Killing Ground” has had a lot less overt supernaturalism — sure, there’s the wendigo and the mummy in the medical ward, but most of this has been about ratcheting up the pressure on the characters. Most of these characters are either professional soldiers or have had some military training, and this story has mostly been about a military organization in collapse. Not that there isn’t some really creepy stuff — the carcasses the wendigo leaves behind are pretty stomach-churning, and the thing in Daimio’s room just keeps getting more disturbing every time you see it.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I get the feeling this story is going to change the series’ dynamic forever, and I have no idea what’s going to happen next.

 

Lobster Johnson #2

This is a bit less horror and bit more classic ’30s pulp fiction. Lobster Johnson and his cohort Jim Sacks, the man with the high-tech powered armor, are on the trail of the dastardly souls who kidnapped Sacks’ benefactor. Lobster must contend with some villains he thought he’d already destroyed, while Sacks discovers the real reason why evil masterminds cultivate an image of ominous menace — it makes it easier to get you with the knockout gas.

Verdict: Another thumbs up. Really, if you love the crime pulps of the 1930s and ’40s, you should pick this one up — I have zero doubt that you’ll enjoy it.

Lobster Johnson #1

Oh, man. This is one big fat shot of happyjuice.

Lobster Johnson is a pulp-style crimefighter who made his first appearance in a Hellboy comic back in 1999. In all of his previous appearances, he’s been a ghost, but this series is set in 1937, back in the Lobster’s heyday. In this first issue, the Lobster defends a man named Jim Sacks, who has acquired a high-tech suit of armor that shoots electricity. The Nazis want him, a mysterious band of evil monks want him, an oversized shapeshifting Yeti wants him. We also get to meet the Lobster’s assistants, a bunch of specialists similar to the Shadow’s various assistants, as well as some of the dastardly forces arrayed against our band of heroes.

Verdict: Thumbs up times about 20. I’m a sucker for pulp adventure, and this one has a pulp hero fighting a big angry Yeti, shooting Nazis, and scaring the crap out of sleazy underworld thugs. It’s got a guy wearing an electrified super-suit. It’s got cannibals in the sewers. It’s got spooky Chinese girls who prophesy doom. It’s got diabolical Fu Manchu villains. And we’ve got another four issues of this delicious cherry-filled awesome pie ahead of us. If you ain’t got it yet, go get it now, ’cause you won’t wanna miss out.