Mignola, Dysart and Azaceta pull it off.

They don’t exactly pull it off the way I expected (I’d forgotten the conclusion) but they still come through.

Instead of doing something collected, they go all out with a Nazi space rocket and vampires fighting robot gorillas. Let’s not forget the cybernetic Nazi monkey, he was kind of my favorite. I can’t believe a monkey being a Nazi though. They must have brainwashed him.

In other words, they go crazy. It’s a big lunacy absurdist piece. The craziest thing in the comic might just be the decapitated Nazi mad scientist flashing back to loading up all the vampires with his gorilla and monkey sidekicks. It’s just crazy.

But it’s still serious. The scene where the sergeant saves the Professor, it’s amazing. The scene where the little demon Russian girl plays with her doll because she’s upset, amazing.

The whole thing’s just amazing.

I’m going to have a hard time on this response. There are monster gorillas at the end. Monster, cybernetic, Nazi gorillas. It must have been murder waiting for the final issue.

The thing I like most about this issue is when the soldier, the regular soldier, finally loses it on the Professor. He gets knocked down by his CO and all, but it’s been a couple issues coming. There’s a lot of emphasis on reality in 1946 as evidenced this issue with the Nazi general who reminds his interrogators the Nazis were a working class revolution.

It’s a convoluted issue–not in a bad way, I just can’t figure out how one issue’s going to be enough to wrap it up. This issue has the second issue’s villain returning, plus a new villain.

I like how the comic’s conscious of the situation in Berlin, just doesn’t try to make metaphors.

And, after the glorious response to the previous issue, this one….

It’s a very confusing, all action issue. The writers now expect the reader to remember all the disposal army guys, but additionally some Russian ones too. There’s still a lot of content for Azaceta to make fit. But he has to sacrifice establishing panels, which means there’s little frame of reference.

Except the utterly disposable, soon-to-be-dead soldier.

I try to be an attentive reader, but I can’t tell a bunch of guys who look alike (the sergeant’s balding and mustached) apart from a bunch of other guys who look alike–when the soldiers are in horrific situations, Azaceta goes for a close-up, so no telling Russian or American; their uniform’s aren’t visible.

I don’t even know if I’d be harping about it if the series hadn’t raised the bar so high with the last issue.

The cartography of this issue is simple. It opens in this secret Nazi asylum, then they go to a bar, then they go to a house, then they go back to the asylum. However, a whole lot happens at the bar, even though it’s all in conversation (the army guys come to respect the Professor), a whole lot happens at the house (the series’s hook, Nazi vampires, is revealed) and then a lot happens on the way back to the asylum (the history of the Nazi vampires, the history of the “little girl” who runs the Russian investigation team).

It’s a full and rich experience and completely unlike not just other mainstream books, but it’s unlike almost every comic book. The plotting seems more based on television than comic books. It’s not an issue, it’s an episode.

Here’s where I, on my first read, decided it was a great comic.

I’ve read this series before and mostly remember it (no, I don’t), but I’m shocked how little reaction there is from the Professor over his Russian counterpart, Varvara (who’s apparently a little girl).

It’s a strange scene, the most striking before the last one and the last one is a lead-in to a cliffhanger. Seeing as how 1946 is the only B.P.R.D. series I’ve read, it makes me wonder if this kind of strangeness is common in the franchise.

The issue’s incredibly solid–I love Azaceta; it’s really traditional too. It’s a first act, an introduction. The cliffhanger comes as a surprise even, since there’s so little action or hint at action until that point. Instead, the comic’s a lot of history. It really appeals to the historian in me, I suppose.

There’s also a particular way the writers deal with groups. It’s very three dimensional, very well done.