Broken Frontier

In 1946 Germany Trevor Bruttenholm is seeking information but this rookie occult scholar is going to find more than he expected.

With the success of both the Hellboy and BPRD franchises, writer Mike Mignola finally turns to the hidden history of one of Hellboy’s oldest supporting characters. Is the world ready to learn what Hellboy’s adopted father was like as an occult agent just starting out?

In 1946, Germany has not even begun to recover from World War II. The country is a devastated wreck occupied by the allied forces, each of whom are swiftly moving to consolidate their control. Into all of this comes Trevor Bruttenholm and his associate Howard Eaton. They are there to explore the remains of the Nazis’ occult dealings but Bruttenholm has another mission as well – to try to learn more about his adopted son – the demon child dubbed Hellboy. Bruttenholm is about to get more than he bargained for because the Nazis had many projects and not all of them died with the Nazi party. In fact, many of them cannot die…

Writer Mike Mignola teams up with Joshua Dysart on the scripting duties for this mini-series that sets out to explore Trevor Bruttenholm’s hidden history. The character was originally introduced in the very first Hellboy issue but up till now not much has been revealed about his life. The first issue of this mini-series is, itself, actually mostly set-up. Mignola and Dysart set the stage with the deplorable conditions in Germany at the end of the war and the ever tightening hold the Russians have over the eastern part of the country. There is also some explanation of the type of threat Bruttenholm and his colleagues will be facing as, early on, readers are given a glimpse of the types of horrors the Nazis both are inflicting and are dealing with. Despite the slow start to the story the characters and setting are compelling, familiar, and sometimes creepy… even the fully human ones.

Art for this series is being supplied by Paul Azaceta – most recently seen in the Talent and Potter’s Field mini-series’ from Boom! Studios. Azaceta’s spare, angular style with its heavy, black lines is actually a perfect fit here as it echoes Mignola’s own style but without ever trying to ape it. The dark mood Azaceta creates is also aided by Nick Filardi’s colors, as Filardi works mostly in jet blacks and crimson reds for this horror tinged tale.

If you’ve ever been curious about how Professor Bruttenholm got his start or what kind of man Hellboy’s human father was then this is the place to start. In a world of demons and monsters, fish-men and firestarters, one human man put himself on the path to stand against dark forces of the occult. This is that man’s story.