In the comic series Hellboy, what is the name of the paranormal investigator’s adoptive father?

In the comic series Hellboy, the paranormal investigator’s adoptive father is Professor Trevor Bruttenholm.

Trevor Bruttenholm, commonly called Professor Broom, is a British paranormal investigator who finds and raises Hellboy after the creature is summoned to Earth in 1944. He becomes Hellboy’s adoptive father and an important mentor in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, or B.P.R.D.

Mike Mignola created Hellboy, and the character first appeared in Dark Horse Comics in 1993. Bruttenholm’s role gives the series an emotional foundation: he treats Hellboy as a son rather than merely as a supernatural specimen. That relationship is central to Hellboy’s struggle to choose his own identity and destiny.

Bruttenholm is sometimes confused with characters from other supernatural traditions. He is not Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and he is not a Marvel or DC mentor. The surname is usually written “Bruttenholm,” while “Professor Broom” is the more familiar in-story nickname.