Hitting shelves next week is the next series in the B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth series The Return of the Master. John Arcudi takes on an insiders look at the new series and his work on BPRD as a whole in this interview.


Dark Horse Comics: It sounds like things get even worse for our world in Return of the Master. How do you manage to bring so much character and humor to a story line headed for apocalypse?

John Arcudi: This is gonna sound silly, but these characters sorta become little brothers and sisters to you—or certainly nieces and nephews—and you want to take care of them, help them get to where they should be. Even when you're putting them through it, even when they're getting hurt, you want them to live up to their potential and feel proud of what they've done, so I do my best to develop their characters as fully as I can. And the humor is part of that. Without it, I wouldn't feel these guys were human.

DHC: This has been the trend in the past, but are there still B.P.R.D. agents in the background you'd love to bring to the forefront of the story?

JA: Right now I'm pretty much working with all the characters I want to. Nichols and Giarocco and Gervesh I brought out in The Long Death (although Giarocco had been kicking around for a little while) and Agent Tasso has shown up here and there, too. The stories I'm writing right now bring those characters more to the forefront and it's been fun (and challenging) filling them out, giving them their histories. We're also introducing a new character that I'll be working with, but I can't talk about that yet.

DHC: Return of the Master #3 will be the one hundredth issue of B.P.R.D. That's incredible. What do you take away from working on B.P.R.D. as it reaches this milestone? 

JA: Gratitude is the main thing. It's wonderful to be able to produce something steadily that people respond to, but more than that, it's great to finally be given a chance to develop characters in a long-form narrative because I don't do well with those smash-and-grab stories. Oh, I can do them, sure, but not on a monthly schedule where the status quo has to be the same at the start of each new arc—not an uncommon dynamic in this industry. I've had the opportunity to change these characters—and I mean really change them, as one would actually expect human beings to change—over the course of my run on this book, and that's the kind of story I've always wanted to write but have had few chances to do. So yeah, very grateful to Mike and to Dark Horse, but mostly to the readers for putting me in this place. Pretty cool. 

DHC: You've been working with Mike Mignola for quite a while. Do you still manage to surprise each other with the work you do?

JA: Ask him! But I can tell you he still surprises me with some frequency.

DHC: It seems most of the core agents of B.P.R.D. are down for the count or hurting something fierce. What happens when the B.P.R.D. reaches its breaking point? 

JA: I gotta tell you, I just don't see that happening. They're too tough to break, in my eyes. I mean, if the whole human species becomes extinct, then sure, there won't be a B.P.R.D., but until that happens…Not that I'm saying that WILL happen! Besides, those core agents may be making a return to active duty sooner than you think.

DHC: If you were one of the agents of the B.P.R.D., who would you be?

JA: Probably Agent Devon. I'm waaaaaay too meek to be anybody else, but push comes to shove, I don't think I'd be entirely useless either.

DHC: Thanks for your time, John.

JA: Thank you!