BPRD... Er, what time is it?

[Kees_L]

I agree, which places Killing Ground firmly in 2006.

As for the Companion, I just can't seem to justify buying an incomplete book, one that will likely be heavily revised one day. Believe me, I am tempted, but in the end I decided I would only get my facts from the books, the only real canon.


As of yet I still haven't found a single piece of credible contradictory information in the books*. However, if I try to fit things in with the Companion (which places Killing Ground in 2007) the books contradict themselves so frequently, it makes creating a logical timeline impossible. Everything I need is in the books, I just need to find it. Ignoring the Companion, the books are not only beautiful stuff, but they are also "correct". It fits so neatly, it's hard to imagine it all being coincidence. John Arcudi must keep track of everything very carefully.

The list I have created is simply the evidence I've found in each story, nothing more. This was not created to be a puzzle (although I am enjoying the puzzle aspect, especially when everything fits together so neatly), but rather to get into the characters' heads. It makes such a huge difference knowing the Nebraska incident was last year and not five years ago. The timeline has an effect on the characters. At the end of the day, the characters are what I'm most interested in.

... [snip]

Not to mention, placing the Duncan Fegredo stories in time is difficult since Hellboy and Alice are sort of adrift in a supernatural realm.

*The exception being Abe's remark about the Cavendish Hall incident being 15 years ago. However, I think this still makes sense, since when events are further back than a decade, we tend to rounds things by fives. An incident 18 years ago is said conversationally as "20 years ago". This is literally the only contradiction I've found, and it can be rationalised away very easily.

Okay, cool, Middenway.

I was afraid I might come across rather strict or snappy for a bit, but I felt I needed to speak my concerns, clearly enough, in that I would feel a future unbridled ongoing build-up of criticisms due to finding evermore seeming or possible inconsistencies sort of problematic.

Whereas I would also feel just suggesting any amount of whatever inconsistencies as being possibilities to being perfectly okay.

You assured me 'though, so thanks for that.

So break a leg with this "inconsistent hunt" of yours, o fearless friend!

[Middenway]

Updated to include the Russia timeline.

[Bosco685]

Nice work!

[Middenway]

Updated. B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Long Death is set in December 2007.

[Thomas Uk]

Nice bit of work Middenway, I was assuming the BPRD timeline had moved along with our own and we had to just assume other
stuff was happening in between issues, in which case Liz would have turned 50 sometime over the last couple of weeks! Thanks for figuring it all out. If its not too ambitious, maybe we could make a a complete hellboy/bprd timeline including all the hellboy adventures set between 1952 and the early 1990's and all the events mentioned in passing reference too one day!

[Middenway]

If its not too ambitious, maybe we could make a a complete hellboy/bprd timeline including all the hellboy adventures set between 1952 and the early 1990's and all the events mentioned in passing reference too one day!

There's a pretty complete version of that in The Hellboy Companion. It has a few mistakes in it, but if you're interested on that sort of stuff, I'd definitely recommend buying it.

[Thomas Uk]

Fantastic, that'll give me something to buy once I've finally got all the trades!

[Middenway]

Updated. The story has just entered 2008.

[Donald]

I disagree. In the opening of Pickens the voice over on the radio says "--emerged as front-runner for the republican nomination, while rumors circulate that president Obama may not run for a second term." This places it in present day.

[Middenway]

I disagree. In the opening of Pickens the voice over on the radio says "--emerged as front-runner for the republican nomination, while rumors circulate that president Obama may not run for a second term." This places it in present day.

That one reference makes no sense. You can't possibly arrange the established time frame to match that one bit of erroneous information. And as I said in the first post, Obama could've been elected a term early. It's not the same world as ours. And as I've also stated numerous times, I'm less interested in literal times and dates, than I am in the ammount of time that has passed for the characters. If a TV in the comic says it's 2012, but a character says the Nebraska incident happened last year, I'm going to side with the character, which has emotional weight and relevance. Using character frames of reference, it can't possibly be later than 2009, but it is most likely 2008.

If it was 2012, then Panya should've started attempts at walking over a year ago now. But she hasn't. When story events are referenced, the time that has passed is not years, but months or weeks. The Nerbaska incident happened in March 2006, that date is made very clear in the comics on multiple occasions. The events at the end of King of Fear are stated by the characters to be one year later (2007), even though the story came out in the middle of 2010.

The stories fell out of sync with current events a long time ago. Trust me, a year did not pass between the events of The Storm and The Fury.

[Kees_L]

Any reader of the books can see that sometimes dates are used. And sometimes not. Many references, of which the weight or relevance may vary.

Ask yourself why that is.

What else is 'knowing', than being able to discern just the right facts making everything fit most conveniently from a certain retrospect? All the doubting and the wondering or the want for knowing but not being able to be doing so confidently yet. Thát's what knowing would also be amouning to or coming from.
Which can't come only from just the right or most apt fact-discerning, that's for sure.

So maybe narratives or stories want you to wonder, instead of only dumb old boring *knowing*. Maybe wondering or some doubt involved would be what creates emotional weight or relevance in the first place. Better than just stuff fitting immaculately. I mean, if narrational depths or universes would only be made to fit perfectly, then they would totally suck. Because stories need friction and doubt and going the other direction, not as anticipated. Different perspectives to take.

Would be my two cents.

And I know in case of Hellboy vs the BPRD there might be some weird stuff going on timeframe-wise, to know of. But when such gets tackled or dealt with or pointed out within the storytelling - if such would be deemed needed at all, then I'm sure it'd get explained enough, with sticking dates or stuff on it. Or not - if that would be preferable!