Hellboy: The Chronology

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series and its various spin-offs careen wildly back and forth through Hellboy’s career (ditto Abe Sapien, Professor Bruttenholm and everyone else). As I write this, I’ve been reading through them in internal chronological order and frequently discover it’s hard to keep track of which story comes when.

Hence this page, which will break down the Hellboy stories according to the year they happened (and only stories—if you want dates such as the fall of Hyperborea, check out The Hellboy Companion). The nice thing about computers is that it’s possible to update these lists as new stories come along and disrupt the established order, which they inevitably do. If I’m not sure where in a given year a story takes place (does BPRD: Vampire take place before or after The Midnight Circus?), I’ve guessed. I can always correct mistakes later.

While I usually defer to the Companion as the official source, it doesn’t always work. It lists Darkness Calls coming after BPRD: Killing Ground, but the scenes with Liz in the epilog show it falls in 2006, before Killing Ground and after Universal Machine. A commenter just pointed out that Conqueror Worm‘s internal chronology contradicts the dates in the Companion. No surprise, very few series this long don’t run into inconsistencies.

The listing format is year/synopsis/story/TPB collection (when it isn’t the name of the story). I’ll post new entries as I progress through the series. Rights to all cover images belong to the current holder; art by Mike Mignola unless otherwise stated.

If a story takes place with multiple time periods (Hellboy in Mexico, for instance, is a flashback), I’ll place at whichever point makes the most sense. In some cases I list stories in multiple time periods.

Starting around 2007, I’m less sure of my timeline. Everything was moving so fast — events from Abe Sapien: Sacred Places to the first chapter of A Darkness So Great occupy two weeks, according to the text — that my initial guesstimate was that the apocalypse takes place in 2015. However Lost Lives says Abe’s transformation occurs in 2013, which forced me to stretch out the timeline. And obviously dates post-Ragna Rok are impossible to guess.

For more in-depth information, try the Hellboy wiki.

Before the Common Era

Pre-history: Anum Yassa, a slave gladiator in the last days of Hyperborea, breaks free only to become enmeshed in the battles of gods (Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea)

Pre-history: The warrior Gall Dennar wields a Hyperborean sword in his final fight against the forces of darkness.(The Sword of Hyperborea)

1339 BC: In ancient Egypt, a young girl discovers Pharaoh Akhenaten’s monotheistic state religion hides the truth about a great war between gods of light and darkness (Panya)

Common Era

690: Yang Mei, a warrior with the Order of the Golden Crane, leads a team of women to battle a spirit haunting the Chinese imperial palace. (Shadow of the Golden Crane)

Medieval Russia: An ambitious young man becomes a legendary warrior and mage, only to be enslaved by the Russian witch Baba Yaga. (Koschei the Deathless)

1200s: Wen Ru, a member of China’s Golden Crane Society, battles a supernaturally powerful Mongol warlord (Shadow of the Golden Crane)

1646: Witch-hunter Henry Hood confronts a witch despite her family’s protests. (The Burial of Katharine Baker in Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels)

1865: Langdon Caul launches the undersea expedition that will lead to his transformation into Abe Sapien. (The Calm Before the Storm in Abe Sapien: The Drowning omnibus)

1879: Edward Grey saves Queen Victoria from witches. (Murderous Intent in Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels)

1879: Grey confronts an occult conspiracy involving ancient artifacts, a monster and the Heliotropic Brotherhood of Ra. (Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels)

1880: Edward Grey hunts an escaped criminal into the Wild West and finds a supernatural menace. (Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever)

1880: Sir Edward Grey battles an ape that worships an evil god. (Beware the Ape in Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland)

1881: Investigating the death of a British official, Sir Edward Grey discovers a sinister waterborne menace in the fens around the town. (Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland)

1882: Sir Edward Grey discovers the vampire Giurescu has been laying the groundwork for an assault upon England. (Witchfinder: City of the Dead)

1883: A female member of the Heliotropic Brotherhood experiences her past incarnation as a female gladiator in ancient Hyperborea. (Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea)

1884: A mysterious thief steals occult items from around London. Sir Edward joins with other occult researchers and investigators to thwart the thief’s sinister plan. (Witchfinder: The Gate of Heaven)

Late 1880s: Simon Bruttenholm and the Silver Lantern Club battle a demon summoned up by an experimental early radio.
(The Silver Lantern Club Chapter One)

Late 1880s: Investigating a murder, the Silver Lantern Club encounter a giant spider capturing humans for food. (The Silver Lantern Club Chapter Two)

Late 1880s: Sarah Jewell helps out a medium deal with a spirit that may have been lurking around London since Elizabethan times. (The Silver Lantern Club Chapter Three)

Late 1880s: Werewolf hunter Yad Tovich recruits Edward Grey and Simon Bruttenholm to help him hunt down a London lycanthrope. (The Silver Lantern Club Chapter Four)

1888-9: Investigating the Ripper murders in Whitechapel, Sir Edward discovers they have ties to the Heliotropic Brotherhood of Ra. (Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness)

Early 1890s: The Silver Lantern members investigate multiple different cases, all of which turn out to have a common solution.(The Silver Lantern Club Chapter Five )

Late 1890s: Lady Bai Lian of the Golden Crane Society battles an angry goat spirit in Beijing. (Shadow of the Golden Crane)

The 20th Century

1910: Simon Bruttenholm and Honora Grant visit a small English village where the midsummer festival summons powers from beyond the stars. (British Paranormal Society: Time Out of Mind)

1916: Ling de Gotha, a Eurasian werewolf, becomes a pawn in the Heliotropic Brotherhood of Ra’s latest scheme (The Sword of Hyperborea)

1923: In Burma, British colonial police and occult adventurer Sarah Jewell discover a series of kidnappings trace back to an ancient temple and a sinister prophecy. (The Rise of the Black Flame)

1926 (February): Sarah Jewell and Marie-Therese arrive at an isolated house which soon becomes cut off from the outside world — and, of course, there’s a murderer among the guests. (The House of Lost Horizons)

The 1930s

1932: The Lobster launches his war on crime and confronts ghostly Indians, gangsters and an occult Nazi threat. (Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand)

1932: In occupied Manchuria a Chinese sorceress and a British-educated Chinese spy pit themselves against the Crimson Lotus, who’s working with the occupying Japanese forces. (Crimson Lotus)

1932: The Lobster thwarts a cabal of German scientists plotting to use a deadly chemical weapon on New York. (Caput Mortuum in Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat)

1933: The Lobster discovers a scientist conducting neurosurgical experiments on unwilling guinea pigs. (Satan Smells a Rat)

1933: A gangster enlists supernatural help to defeat the Lobster (Tony Masso’s Finest Hour in Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat)

1933: The Lobster finds himself working alongside New York’s tongs—Chinese gangs—against an uncanny Japanese agent, the Crimson Lotus. (A Scent of Lotus in Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat)

1933: A nightclub owner steals an Egyptian mummy, unaware he’s being manipulated by a schemer plotting to tap the mummy’s magic. (The Prayer of Neferu in Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat)

1934: While the Lobster takes on a mad scientist’s radio-controlled brain slaves, he also has to cope with the cops trying to shut him down and reporter Cindy Tynan exposing his secrets. (Get the Lobster)

1934 (December): The Lobster hunts down gangsters who’ve taken a sidewalk Santa Claus hostage. (A Chain Forged in Life)

1935 (April): The Lobster investigates mysterious goings-on involving a Turkish glassblower’s museum exhibit.The Glass Mantis (A Chain Forged in Life)

1935: Trevor Bruttenholm, still in college, makes his first attempt to investigate the supernatural. (The Kelpie (Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)

1935: The Lobster and his crew confront a cabal of sorcerers raising the dead in a New York graveyard. (Garden of Bones in A Chain Forged in Life)

1935 (autumn): The Crimson Lotus battles the Lobster inside his own mind. (Mangekyo in A Chain Forged in Life)

1935 (winter): A former mobster forms a sinister cannibal cult among the down and out of a local hobo camp. (The Forgotten Man in A Chain Forged in Life)

1936 (May): The Lobster and his crew try to crack the mystery behind the robot juggernauts creating havoc throughout New York. (The Metal Monsters of Midtown)

1936 (August): Mob boss Wald kidnaps reporter Cindy Tynan as part of an elaborate trap involving a phantom pirate ship.(The Pirate’s Ghost)

1937: The Lobster goes up against the sinister Mehmet Saa in a battle for control of Hyperborea’s lost arcane secrets. (Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus)

1937:(July) A Nazi representative recruits Rasputin as an ally of the Third Reich. (Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon)

1938: The Lobster investigates the deaths of several scientists. (The Killer in My Skull in BPRD: Hollow Earth)

1938: A young, reckless Trevor Bruttenholm confronts his first ghost. (And What Shall I Find There? in BPRD: 1947 )

1939: Professor Howard Eaton joins Bruttenholm on another occult investigation. (Bishop Olek’s Devil in BPRD: 1946)

1939: The Lobster dies trying to stop a Nazi attempt to summon the Ogdru Jahad to Earth. (The Conqueror Worm)

The 1940s

1940: The Heliotropic Brotherhood of Ra attempts to recover a lost vril crystal from the English Channel. (The Sword of Hyperborea)

1941: (June) Working with British intelligence, Trevor Bruttenholm discovers Rasputin and his Nazi acolytes are seeking the lost secrets of the Heliotropic Brotherhood. (Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon_

1944: An American platoon is assigned to back up a man taking on the Nazis with a vril-powered battlesuit. (Sledgehammer 44)

1944: Redding, the new occupant of the Sledgehammer battle-suit, reluctantly goes into action against the Black Flame to rescue an American pilot. (The Lightning War in Sledgehammer 44)

1944: Bruttenholm leads an Allied effort to thwart a Nazi ritual, but the ritual nevertheless brings forth—Hellboy! (Seed of Destruction)

1944: An alien assigned to kill Hellboy when he first appears opts to monitor him over the coming years instead. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

1944: While Professor Bruttenholm witnesses the birth of Hellboy, “the Hammer” tries to rescue his buddies from the Battle of Bastogne. (Modern Prometheus in BPRD Hell on Earth: Metamorphosis)

1946: In occupied Berlin, Professor Bruttenholm recruits his first group of agents and a Russian demon-child to investigate the lingering Nazi threat of Operation Vampire Storm. (BPRD: 1946)

1947: Hellboy tries pancakes for the first time. (Pancakes in The Right Hand of Doom)

1947: Bruttenholm’s newest recruits encounter more vampires. (BPRD: 1947)

1947 (May): A plane crash strands Hellboy and the professor on a lost island with an ape civilization, a vampire queen and pulp adventurer Scarlett Santiago. (Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land)

1947, June: Delirious with fever, Hellboy imagines himself on an adventure with the Lobster — unaware there’s a real killer lurking at the BPRD’s new Connecticut HQ. (Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death)

1948: Hellboy runs away to the circus, but this circus is a trap designed to lure him to the side of Hell. (The Midnight Circus)

1948: Bruttenholm investigates weird phenomena around an atom-bomb test site and falls for a physicist. (BPRD: 1948)

1948: Possessed by vampire spirits, Simon Anders sets out to fight back against the undead. (BPRD: Vampire)

1948: The demon Varvara sends a Soviet soldier along on a mission to deliver the magical Melchiore Burgonet to a Soviet occultist. (The Abyssal Plain in The Devil Does Not Jest)

The 1950s

1952: In Chicago, bluesman Elijah Bone becomes the latest pawn tasked with ensuring the Sword of Hyperborea achieves its destiny. (The Sword of Hyperborea)

1952: Hellboy accompanies a BPRD field team to investigate mysterious events in Brazil. What awaits him include cyborg apes and betrayal by one of his team-mates.(Hellboy and the BPRD: 1952)

1953 (February): In England, the Professor and Hellboy battle a disembodied hand. (The Phantom Hand in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)

1953 (March): Hellboy, still visiting England, confronts an old legend threatening an inn. (Rawhead and Bloody Bones in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)

1953 (April): Hellboy and the professor spend a long day drinking with Simon Bruttenholm, who shares stories of the Silver Lantern Club. Later, the three men investigate an apparition at the Old Bailey. (The Silver Lantern Club)

1953 (April): In Shropshire, Professor Bruttenholm and Hellboy take on a resurrected witch who once battled against Rome. (The Witch Tree in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)

1953 (November): Hellboy and psychic Susan Xiang lay to rest the ghosts of murdered Chinese miners.
(Wandering Souls in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)

1953 (December): Hellboy leads a BPRD team to investigate the mutations threatening a California town. (Beyond the Fences in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953)




(Cover by Stephen Green)

1954 (February) Investigating strange beasts attacking an Arctic research station, Hellboy encounters a crashed UFO and an occult Nazi conspiracy. (The Black Sun in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954)

1954 (June): A family haunted by a ghost monkey turn out to have deep secrets. (The Unreasoning Beast in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954)

1954 (August): The theft of a Chinese spirit jar draws Hellboy and Susan to Hong Kong. The case turns out to involve stolen souls and international intrigue. (Ghost Moon in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954)

1954: Hellboy confronts ominous visions inside a magic mirror. (The Mirror in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1954)

1954: The Osiris Club pits Hellboy against a dragon to learn his true nature. (The Nature of the Beast in The Right Hand of Doom). The Visitor watches the battle and becomes convinced Hellboy is a force for good. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

1955 (March): Hellboy and black researcher Dr. Farrier investigate demon attacks in Oregon, despite the locals’ bigotry. (Secret Nature in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1955)

1955 (September): Hellboy and a team of BPRD agents investigate monstrous goings-on in the Marshall Islands and stumble into international intrigue. Professor Bruttenholm meanwhile investigate Britain’s ongoing occult espionage network. (Occult Intelligence in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1955)

1955 (October): Hellboy and Susan Xiang travel to Florida to investigate what might be cases of spontaneous human combustion. (Burning Season in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1955)

1956: Bruttenholm sends Hellboy to Norway to help a friend investigate the eerie King Vold. (King Vold in The Right Hand of Doom)

1956: (May) Investigating a wave of occult attacks in Mexico, Hellboy joins forces with three luchadores. Hellboy in Mexico

1956: (May) Bruttenholm and Susan Xiang both make discoveries about the CIA and other intelligence agencies’ occult research programs. (Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1956)

1956: (August) One of Hellboy’s wrestling friends convinces the drunken Hellboy to play the role of Satan in a luchadore movie.(Hellboy vs. Lobster Johnson: The Ring of Death in Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1956)

1956: (August) The Visitor watches Hellboy perform in The Ring of Death and wonders if he’s misjudged him. (Down Mexico Way in Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1956)

1956: (August) Bruttenholm and Susan investigate the Center, a federal facility for occult research. Susan learns of Varvara and realizes the Professor already knew about her. The Soviets imprison Varvara in a jar. (Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: 1956)

1956: (August) Hellboy battles an Aztec Mummy possessed by an Ogdru Hem (Hellboy versus the Aztec Mummy in Hellboy in Mexico)

1956: (September) A drunken Hellboy gets married to a beautiful demon. (Hellboy Gets Married in Hellboy in Mexico)

1956: (September) Vampires kill Hellboy’s friend Esteban, who becomes the undead wrestler Camazotz. (Hellboy in Mexico)

1956: (September) Hellboy tries to save a man from a Mexican sorcerer. (The Coffin Man in Hellboy in Mexico)

1956: (September) Hellboy tries to even the score with the Coffin Man but only gets turned into a monkey. (The Coffin Man 2: The Rematch in Hellboy in Mexico)

1956: (October) Still in Mexico, Hellboy agrees to challenge a seemingly unbeatable wrestler. (House of the Living Dead)

1956: The Frankenstein creature Hellboy battled in the wrestling ring wanders into an underground Hyperborean city where new dangers lurk. (Frankenstein Underground)

1957 (January): In India, Hellboy and his childhood buddy Virginia Payne investigate reports of a weretiger. (Fearful Symmetry in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1957 (March): In West Virginia Woody Farrier helps Hellboy investigate a UFO sighting, while worrying he’s neglecting his own cryptozoological research. (Falling Skies in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1957 (July): Susan Xiang and Hellboy battles a demonic grandmother. (Family Matters in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1957: Hellboy and Professor Bruttenholm go into the field together to investigate a ghost haunting a graveyard. (Forgotten Lives in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1957 (December) Professor Bruttenholm and Hellboy investigate a haunted sawmill. (From Below in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1957 (December): On New Year’s Eve, Hellboy participates in a seance despite knowing and distrusting the medium, Ava Galluci. (Happy New Year, Ava Galluci in Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957)

1958: Hellboy battles a Malaysian vampire. (The Penagglan in The Troll Witch)

1958: In the Appalachians, Hellboy and a Korean War veteran take on a miser who collects souls for Hell. (The Crooked Man)

1959: To restore a baby traded for a changeling, Hellboy has to give a hanged corpse a Christian burial. (The Corpse in The Chained Coffin)

1959: Hellboy saves a woman from the Nazi scientist Von Klempt and his super-gorilla. (Untitled Story and Seed of Destruction)

The 1960s

1960: A serial killer tells Hellboy the murders are all the work of the haunted house he bought. (Sullivan’s Reward in The Bride of Hell)

1960: Hellboy tries to stop a lunatic from resurrecting the Egyptian gods. (The House of Sebek in The Bride of Hell)

1960: After Professor Bruttenholm accidentally resurrects the monstrous Lambton Worm, Hellboy has to destroy it. (Return of the Lambton Worm in The Beast of Vargu)

1961: Hellboy battles a hydra and tries to make sense of why a ghostly lion helps him. (The Hydra and the Lion in The Troll Witch)

1961: (April) Hellboy faces a monster out of British folklore. (The Iron Shoes in The Chained Coffin)

1962: A cursed Greek village recruits Hellboy to defend them against a cyclops. (Night of the Cyclops in Secret of Chesbro House)

1962: In Romania, Hellboy loses a fight with a monster. A local Roma witch helps turn things around. (The Beast of Vargu)

1962: The witch tells Hellboy the story of a man-god who had the courage to overcome the evil within. (The Secret God of the Roma in The Beast of Vargu)

1963: An old Norwegian woman tells Hellboy a legend and helps him destroy some murderous trolls. (The Troll Witch)

July, 1963:Susan Xiang becomes involved in a series of cases involving demon-possessed objects. Working alongside Hellboy to contain the demons, she discovers her ties to China’s demon-fighting Golden Crane Society. (Shadow of the Golden Crane)

1964: Hellboy battles the legendary Russian witch and shoots her eye out. (The Baba Yaga in The Chained Coffin)

1964: The Visitor watches Hellboy defeat a giant armadillo. Later in the year, the Visitor destroys one of the Oghdru Hem. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

1966: Hunting a vampire, Hellboy learns the undead have a long-range plan to destroy humanity. (The Sleeping and the Dead in The Bride of Hell)

1967: During a visit to Kyoto, Hellboy stays in a haunted house. (Heads in The Right Hand of Doom)

1967: Hellboy returns to the Appalachians where a witch he once defeated has returned to wreak havoc. (The Return of Effie Kolb)

1967:  After an encounter with Hellboy, Sara May Blackburn enrolls in a sinister girls’ school for training in magic. (Castle Full of Blackbirds)

1967: The immortal werewolf hunter Yad Tovich helps Hellboy when the latter walks into a trap in Russia. (Long Night at Goloski Station (The Return of Effie Kolb)

The 1970s

1975 (October): A small New Hampshire town discovers the bodies of dozens of missing people, killed by a ghoul. (Saturn Returns in The Beast of Vargu)

1975: Ghosts lead Hellboy to an encounter with their killer, the Christmas monstrosity known as the Krampus.(Krampusnacht in The Beast of Vargu)

1976: Two years after Liz Sherman arrives at the BPRD, Professor Bruttenholm takes her along to investigate a haunting (The Dead Remembered in BPRD: Being Human)

1978: The Visitor discovers a self-help movement is actually a front for a cult summoning an Oghdru Hem. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

1979: A medium summons up an ectoplasmic manifestation he can’t control. (Goodbye Mr. Tod in The Right Hand of Doom)

1979: The daughter of the witch who helped Hellboy against the Beast of Vargu asks for help escaping an evil spirit about to claim her as his bride. (Her Fatal Hour in The Return of Effie Kolb)

1979 (June): Hellboy meets archeologist Anastasia Bransfield and helps her protect an artifact from goblins. (Goblin Night in Hellboy in Love)

1979 (July): Hellboy and Anastasia start dating. When shadow puppets begin terrorizing a Turkish archeological excavation, Hellboy joins Anastasia in investigating. (Shadow Theater in Hellboy in Love)

1979 (August): Hellboy and Anastasia, now lovers, discover a relic that would prove Anastasia’s theories about ancient magic. They are not, however, the only ones interested in it.(The Key to It All in Hellboy in Love)

The 1980s

1981: Abe’s first mission without Hellboy requires recovering a sorcerer’s corpse from a sunken ship. The BPRD figures it’ll be easy … (Abe Sapien: The Drowning)

1981: Hunting a werewolf forces Liz and Abe to think about the dead they’ve left in their wake. (Casualties in BPRD: Being Human)

1982: Hellboy battles an accursed vampire that can only die when someone beats him at cards. (The Vampire of Prague in The Troll Witch)

1982: Hellboy finds that to stake vampire Ilona Kakosy he’ll have to defeat her unholy overlord, the Varcolac. (The Varcolac in Right Hand of Doom)

(Cover: Dave Johnson)

1982: Abe accepts another “routine” case involving the ghost of a drowned boy. (The Haunted Boy in Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest)

1983: (January)Exploring an underground lake, Abe winds up in battle with a Mayan vampire.( Land of the Dead in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

1983: (January) Professor Bruttenholm tells Abe the legend of sorcerer Gustav Strobl and the Black School that trained him in the occult. (Witchcraft and Demonology in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

1983 (October): Professor Bruttenholm sends Hellboy to investigate a haunted house with a long and awful history. (The Secret of Chesbro House)

1984: (August) BPRD agents Abe Sapien and Sal Tasso set out to salvage the Melchiore Burgonet, lost at sea for 40 years. The Abyssal Plain (Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest)

1985: An occultist attempts to reclaim his family’s mystic legacy. It doesn’t go well. (The Whittier Legacy in The Bride of Hell)

1985: A Nebraska boy’s wish for a mystic transformation draws the attention of alien abductors. (Buster Oakley Gets His Wish in The Bride of Hell)

1985: Investigating an old missing persons case, Abe discovers a house that holds a gateway into Hell. (Abe Sapien:The Devil Does Not Jest)

1985: Hellboy attempts to rescue a kidnapped college student only to discover he’s fighting on the wrong side. (The Bride of Hell)

1986: Hellboy and Abe Sapien attempt to stop Blackbeard’s headless corpse from reclaiming its head and launching a reign of terror. (They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships in The Crooked Man)

1986: In a sequel to The Whittier Legacy, a woman asks Hellboy to help her learn the truth behind the nightmarish memories of her chidhood. (Old Man Whittier in The Secret of Chesbro House)

1987: Hellboy and a BPRD researcher visit an old mansion where the researcher is initiated into a terrifying cult. (The Transformation of J.H. O’Donnel (BPRD: The Pickens County Horror)

1988: (February) The BPRD investigates when Thor’s hammer turns up in Sweden. Hellboy and Abe soon find themselves battling monsters out of Norse myth, including the resurrected king of the frost giants. (The Bones of Giants)

1989: In Budapest, Hellboy helps a young man travel into the past to return a cursed coin to a miser’s ghost. (The Miser’s Gift in The Secret of Chesbro House)

1989: Hellboy returns to Budapest’s past to rescue the professor stranded in antiquity during the previous trip. (Time Is a River in The Secret of Chesbro House)

1989: On Christmas Eve, Hellboy tries to free an old woman from a vampiric curse. (A Christmas Underground in The Chained Coffin)

1991: Investigating a mad scientist’s laboratory, Hellboy finds himself trapped in a ghostly replay of the past. (Dr. Carp’s Experiment in The Troll Witch)

1991: A sorcerer sends an evil spirit to acquire an evil book of magic. Hellboy objects. (The Sending in The Return of Effie Kolb)

1992: Helping out a friend in Savannah, Ga., Hellboy battles against seven female ghosts. (The Seven Wives Club in The Return of Effie Kolb)

1992: In Portugal, Hellboy helps out an artist who’s been seduced into sculpting an Earthly body for the demon Moloch. (In the Chapel of Moloch in The Crooked Man)

1992: Hellboy confronts a poetry-quoting immortalist who sustains himself by eating corpses. (The Ghoul in The Troll Witch)

1992: Investigating a murder in British Columbia, Hellboy and Abe encounter a lake monster and the hermit that controls it. (The Ogopogo in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

1993: Abe Sapien battles against a mysterious curse plaguing ships in the Atlantic. (Drums of the Dead in BPRD: The Hollow Earth)

1993: An African mummy causes Hellboy to relive the battles of the legendary African warrior Makoma. (Makoma in The Troll Witch)

1993: Ruby, the Visitor’s human wife, dies. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

1994: After demonic frogs murder Professor Bruttenholm, Hellboy, Abe and Liz discover Rasputin has returned with a plan to bring about the apocalypse—and Hellboy has a starring role. (Hellboy: Seed of Destruction)

1994: Abe has a dream that gives him uneasy hints about his destiny. (Subconscious in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

1994: The death of Hellboy’s friend draws Hellboy and Kate Corrigan to a town governed by a werewolf curse. (The Wolves of St. August in The Chained Coffin)

1994: In a small Southwestern town, Hellboy confronts the god Anubis. (Untitled story in Seed of Destruction)

1995: Hellboy returns to the church where he first appeared and learns part of the secret behind his birth. (The Chained Coffin)

1997: Hellboy investigates a fantastic plot involving Nazis, vampires and Rasputin, and glimpses more of the mystery behind his destiny. Meanwhile, Liz reanimates a centuries-old homunculus. (Wake the Devil)

1997: Hellboy tries to hunt down the homunculus that drained Liz’s power, before the loss kills her. (Almost Colossus in The Chained Coffin)

1997: When BPRD scientists decide to dissect Roger the homunculus, Abe takes drastic steps to revive him. (Abe Sapien vs. Science in BPRD: The Hollow Earth)

1998: A priest gives Hellboy some information about the origin of his stone right hand. (The Right Hand of Doom)

1999: Occultist Igor Bromhead settles an old score by giving Hellboy’s destiny and power to a minor demon. (Box Full of Evil in The Right Hand of Doom)

The 21st Century

2000: Hellboy and Roger investigate eerie goings-on at a decayed Southern mansion. (Being Human in BPRD: Being Human)

2001: When a Nazi space capsule returns to Earth, Hellboy and Roger must thwart a madman’s plan to free the Ogdru Jahad from their cosmic jail. (The Conqueror Worm). The Visitor sacrifices himself to help Hellboy stop the Nazi scheme. (The Visitor: How and Why he Stayed)

2002: After surviving the death of his body, the spirit of Johann Krauss goes up against a malevolent spirit that devours ghosts.(The Ectoplasmic Man in BPRD: Being Human)

2002: Kate reads Krauss’s file and decides he’ll make a good recruit. (Untitled story in BPRD: The Hollow Earth)

2002: Two years after Liz retreats to a monastery to learn better control of her powers, troglodytes arise from inside the Earth to kidnap her and exploit her pyrotic abilities. In his first mission, Johann joins Abe and Roger to rescue her. (BPRD: The Hollow Earth)

2002: After a year in Africa, Hellboy is drawn into the sea where a witch plans to thwart the apocalypse by destroying him and his right hand of doom forever. (The Third Wish in Strange Places)

2003: The agents battle an immortal plotting to sacrifice the spirit of Venice to the forces of Hell. (The Soul of Venice)

2003: When a New England town uncovers the corpses of three women hung for witchcraft, hate possesses a clergyman and drives him to begin a new crusade against witches. (Dark Waters in BPRD: The Soul of Venice)

2003: Roger and Liz join forces with the Lobster’s ghost to capture a Nazi spy hunted by the ghosts of his victims. (Night Train in BPRD: The Soul of Venice)

2003: The BPRD investigates when monsters from under the bed kidnap some children. (There’s Something Under My Bed in BPRD: The Soul of Venice)

2003: A medieval tyrant rises from his grave to confront Johann and Abe. (Another Day at the Office in BPRD: The Soul of Venice)

2004: The BPRD team discover that the horrors from Seed of Destruction have survived the destruction of Cavendish Hall. And with the help of human disciples, they’re spreading … (BPRD: Plague of Frogs)

2004: The spirit of a giant monster overpowers Johann when he attempts to contact it. (Born Again in BPRD: The Dead)

2004: The BPRD adds a new member and gets a new HQ—that turns out to be haunted by ghosts and a mad scientist (BPRD: The Dead)

2005: Hellboy washes up on an island where a follower of the Ogdru Jahad reveals the secrets behind Hellboy’s stone hand—which he plans to steal and wield to free the monstrous Ogdru Hem. (The Island)

2005: Hellboy escapes the island only to be trapped in the past, on a mad seagoing expedition to contact one of the Ogdru Hem. (Into the Silent Sea)

2005-2006: A neo-Nazi embraces the role of the Axis agent the Black Flame and begins leading the frog creatures in efforts to wake up the terrifying Kathu-Hem. (BPRD: The Black Flame), The BPRD continues its efforts to wipe out the frog creatures, but the struggle grows increasingly unsuccessful (BPRD: War on Frogs)

2005: Abe and Roger argue about their different approaches to dealing with their true natures. (Lost Lives in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

2006: Seeking an alchemical treatise that can restore Roger to life, Kate becomes the prisoner of an aristocratic occultist. (BPRD: The Universal Machine)

2006: A mysterious message leads Abe and Capt. Daimio to the Oannes Society, an occult group that knows the secret of Abe’s past—and a sorcerous scheme that will wipe out millions of innocent people.(BPRD: Garden of Souls_

2006: A mole on Hellboy’s hand develops a terrifying life of its own. (The Mole in The Crooked Man)

2006: After Hellboy refuses to become king of England’s witches, Baba Yaga lures him into the world of Russian myth so that Koschei the Deathless can avenge Hellboy shooting out her eye. (Darkness Calls)

Cover by Guy Davis

2006: The BPRD is thrown into chaos when a wendigo imprisoned at the base breaks out—and it turns out it’s not the only man-monster stalking the halls. (BPRD: Killing Ground)

2006: In the aftermath of Daimio’s transformation, Johann takes possession of a mystical knife that can kill the captain. (Out of Reach in BPRD: The Warning)

2006: The BPRD tries to enlist Lobster Johnson’s ghost against Gilfryd, the occultist entering Liz’s dreams. Gilfryd, however, reveals they’re facing another threat to the world besides the plague of frogs. (BPRD: The Warning)

2007: With the help of the Lobster and his men, the BPRD tracks down Gilfryd. He claims the only way to avert humanity’s doom is for him to control Liz’s power. (BPRD: The Black Goddess)

2007: The BPRD go into a final battle against the frogs, the troglodytes and the Black Flame. However the damage done to the world may not be easy to fix… (BPRD: The King of Fear)

2007: The Osiris Club invites Hellboy to help fight against an army of resurrected giants. What follows makes Hellboy realize he hasn’t completely beaten his destiny, and reveals new secrets about his heritage. (The Wild Hunt)

2009: The witch Nimue becomes possessed by the Oghdru Jahad as Hellboy decides it’s time to fight. (The Storm in Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury)

2009: Hellboy goes into battle against Nimue, but saving the world will come at a terrible price. (The Fury in Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury)

2010: Abe goes AWOL to investigate a possible wendigo sighting in Canada, where he meets an old friend and a dangerous new menace. (BPRD Hell on Earth: New World)

2011: Abe and Devon investigate Fenix, a psychic vagabond who seems able to foresee attacks by monsters. (Gods in BPRD Hell on Earth: Gods and Monsters)

2011: Liz’s life in a trailer park is disrupted when it turns out her neighbors are part of an Oghdru Hem-worshipping cult. (Monsters in BPRD Hell on Earth: Gods and Monsters)

2011: The leader of Russian’s occult researchers, Josif Nichayko, recruits the BPRD to help with another Oghdru Hem infestation (BPRD Hell on Earth: Russia_

2012: Kate learns what happened to Hellboy in his battle to save England. (An Unmarked Grave (BPRD Hell on Earth: Russia)

2012: Devon and Fenix struggle to return to the BPRD’s base despite the growing number of monsters infesting the country. (The Devil’s Engine in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine and the Long Death)

2012: Johann leads a strike force into the Canadian forests to get revenge on Captain Daimio for destroying his body. (The Long Death in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine and the Long Death)

2012: A BPRD agent learns that vampires are covertly building up their forces for a war with humanity. (The Pickens County Horror in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Pickens County Horror)

2012: The power of a Hyperborean sword plunges one BPRD agent into prehistoric times—but even there, he must battle the threat of the Oghdru Jahad. (The Abyss of Time in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Pickens County Horror)

2012: The BPRD races to stop a new Oghdru Hem threat in Scotland, while Zinco Corporation attempts the resurrection of Rasputin. (The Return of the Master in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Return of the Master)

March, 2013: As the monsters continue to rise, Johann leads of team of agents into Chicago to find out what happened to the team in The Abyss of Time (The Wasteland in BPRD Hell on Earth: A Cold Day in Hell)

2013: Nicheyko and a BPRD agent work together to prevent the demon-child Varvara from escaping her prison (BPRD Hell on Earth: A Cold Day in Hell_

2013: Abe leaves the BPRD to find the reasons behind his strange transformation. He soon discovers that his days of fighting monsters aren’t over yet. (Dark And Terrible in Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible and the New Age of Man)

June, 2013: Liz begins regaining control of her fire powers, but can she do it in time to stop a mad scientist experimenting on a friend? (Lake of Fire)

2013: Abe remembers how Langdon Caul, his past self, became involved with the Oannes Society. (Ichthyo Sapien in Abe Sapien: Lost Lives)

2013: Drifters seeking the meaning of the world’s transformation encounter a personal tragedy on the edge of the Salton Sea.(The New Race of Man in Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible and the New Age of Man)

2013: The newly deceased Hellboy finds himself in Pandemonium, city of demons–but it’s abandoned and almost completely empty except for him. (Hellboy in Hell: The Descent)

2013: Abe makes friends with a Latino family coping with both monsters and bigots. (Abe Sapiens: The Shape of Things to Come)

2013: A cop assures Abe that the teenagers who’ve wandered into his small town are harmless. The cop, of course, is wrong. (To the Last Man in Abe Sapien: The Shape of Things to Come)

2014: With Liz and Fenix back on the BPRD, a joint American/Russian task force penetrates the Black Flame’s stronghold in New York City. (Reign of the Black Flame)

2014: Abe rescues a captured woman, Grace, from a man who believes Abe is Satan. (The Garden in Abe Sapien: Sacred Places)

2014: Abe and Grace encounter a couple seeking a way to heal their mutated son. (The Healer in Abe Sapien: Sacred Places)

2014: Abe and Grace revisit their pasts as they traverse New Mexico. (Visions, Dreams and Fishin’ in Abe Sapien: Sacred Places)

2014: Abe returns to where Fenix shot him and discovers a strange cult, a mutating gas, BPRD agents and some old acquaintances. (Abe Sapien: Sacred Places)

2014: Evil from an old Hellboy case returns to possess Kate. (BPRD: The Devil’s Wings)

2014: BPRD agents in Japan get caught up in a battle between kaijin. (The Broken Equation in BPRD: The Devil’s Wings)

2014: An ordinary man struggles to adapt to the apocalyptic new normal. (Grind in BPRD: The Devil’s Wings)

2014: BPRD Agent Ashley Strode joins forces with an aged exorcist to free the demon trapped in his body. (Exorcism in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Exorcist)

2014: Abe and Grace arrive in a small town untouched by the chaos engulfing the world—but that’s because the preacher is working a sinister magic. (Abe Sapien: A Darkness So Great)

2015: Johann and Howards lead a monster fighting mission while Nichaeyko struggles to keep the fight going in Russia.(BPRD Hell on Earth: Flesh and Stone

2015: Abe comes to the aid of a half-sunken Florida town, threatened by monsters in the water. While there he ruminates about his past, and the revelations he’s received about his future. (The Shadow of Suwanee in Abe Sapien: The Secret Fire)

2015: A prophetic pre-teen girl gives Abe advice about his role in the future. (The Garden (II) in Abe Sapien: The Secret Fire)

2015: The agents under Johann Krauss’s command complain the ectoplasmic Johann has lost touch with his humanity — and theirs. (Nowhere, Nothing, Never in BPRD Hell on Earth: Metamorphosis)

2015: Johann places his spirit in the Hammer’s WW II battlesuit to stop a wave of monsters overwhelming BPRD headquarters. (The Modern Prometheus in BPRD Hell on Earth: Metamorphosis)

2015: Sorcerer Gustav Strobl returns to the school of sorcery that initiated him. What he learns there furthers his plans for Abe Sapien. (The Black School in Abe Sapien: The Secret Fire)

2015: Abe learns that Professor Bruttenholm knew about his past life as Langdon Caul years before Abe learned about it.(Regressions in Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore)

2015: Johann and Liz lead an armed attack on the Black Flame’s domain in New York. (End of Days in BPRD Hell on Earth: End of Days)

2015: Ashley Strode investigates a small town with a long history of children disappearing. (The Exorcist in BPRD Hell on Earth: The Exorcist)

2015: An ancient Hyperborean priest explains Abe’s role in the end of the human era. (Dark and Terrible Deep in Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore)

2015: Abe gains more insight from Hellboy’s old girlfriend Alice, who lives in an England preserved from the wider world’s chaos. Meanwhile Gustav Strobl transforms himself into the same kind of sea being as Abe himself. (The Garden (III) in Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore)

2015: Strobl, believing himself better suited to bring on the new race of man than Abe, attempts to destroy his rival. (Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore)

2016: Wandering Hell, Hellboy has a rematch with the Vampire of Prague. (Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card)

2016: Hellboy discovers there’s a parasite riding his soul, and enlists the help of some occultists to exorcise it. (The Trials of Doctor Hoffman/The Hounds of Pluto in Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card)

2016: Hellboy confronts a woman he once married and learns the only way to find peace is to finally embrace his destiny. (The Spanish Bride in Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card)

2016: Hunting his soul in Hell, Koshchei takes a break to have a drink with Hellboy and share his life story. (Koshchei the Deathless)

2016: Hellboy brings about the end of Hell itself and moves on … somewhere. (For Whom the Bell Tolls in Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card)

2016: With the Black Flame dead, Liz and Johann lead an all-out attack against the remaining Oghdru Hem monsters. (BPRD Hell on Earth: Cometh the Hour)

2017: The Oghdru Hem are gone, but other threats have arisen — including Varvara, who intends to turn Earth into a new home for demon-kind. (BPRD The Devil You Know: Messiah)

Cover by Laurence Campbell

2017: A resurrected Hellboy rejoins the BPRD team for an assault on Varvara’s new kingdom of Hell in New York (BPRD: The Devil You Know: Pandemonium

2018: Rasputin returns for the final battle with the BPRD that will determine the fate of humanity and the world. (BPRD: The Devil You Know: Ragna Rok)

Earth A.R.—After Ragnarok

???: In the aftermath of Hellboy’s destruction of the underworld, Sir Edward Grey confronts an old enemy. (Acheron in Koshchei in Hell)

???: At peace in the afterlife, Koshchei reluctantly takes up arms to stop Hellboy’s sister from summoning Hell’s old ruler back. (Koshchei in Hell)

??? Morgan LeFay resurrects the Gruagach to reclaim England for her. Reluctantly Sir Edward Grey forsakes his life of peace to battle them. (The Serpent in the Garden: Ed Grey and the Last Battle for England)

??? Frankenstein and his young friend Lilja emerge from the underground into the reborn world of the surface. His arrival coincides with a seed of evil taking root, creating a new threat to the peaceful world — the Murk. (Frankenstein: New World)

??? Frankenstein and Lilja cross the sea to reach the mysterious shining woman who contacts them in their dreams. Along the way, Frankenstein learns the true nature of the pursuing monster, the Murk. (Frankenstein New World: The Sea of Forever).