B.P.R.D. War on Frogs - Mobile Edition

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B.P.R.D. War on Frogs
By Geoff Hoppe
June 11, 2008 - 18:00

Dark Horse Comics
Writer(s): John Arcudi
Penciller(s): Herb Trimpe
Inker(s): Guy Davis
Colourist(s): Dave Stewart
Letterer(s): Clem Robins
Cover Artist(s): Mike Mignola
$2.99 US, $3.05 Canada

ARMPIT FURY

In B.P.R.D. War on Frogs #1, a grey-skinned non-human fends off the advances of hideous, gangrenous monsters with diseased killer tongues. How this is different from A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, I don’t know.

War on Frogs is a solo product from John Arcudi, Mike Mignola’s collaborator on the usual B.P.R.D. titles. The story follows Roger the homunculus’ journey to Cavendish Hall to compromise a pair of frog monsters. There’s not a lot to War on Frogs beyond that. Arcudi manages to squeeze in a little character development, but it’s not enough to keep the issue afloat. The simplistic plot places the weight of storytelling on the art. But that’s wanting, too.

Herb Trimpe’s art is a jerky appropriation of Guy Davis, without any of Davis’ eerie extravagance. The craggy grottoes and arcane remains that Davis draws so well are lackluster in Trimpe’s hands. Given that B.P.R.D. is a title that gets a lot of momentum from atmosphere, this is a problem. Roger, the B.P.R.D.’s now retired homunculus, also comes across as lifeless (no pun intended). The double-whammy of uninteresting story and ho-hum art makes War on Frogs feel like another piece of padding comic book companies publish simply because they know fans will buy them.

Worth the money? No, not even for die-hard B.P.R.D. fans.