As seen in Seed of Destruction, Abe was found in a water-filled tube in a Washington, D.C. hospital. He got his name from a piece of paper attached to the tube, dated the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination: (April 14, 1865). Abe quickly entered the ranks of the
Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.), along with the demon
Hellboy and the pyrokinetic
Liz Sherman. During the climax of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, Abe is possessed by the spirit of a long-dead whaler named Elihu Cavendish, who kills the mad monk Rasputin and foils the madman's plans to unleash the demonic Ogdru Jahad to destroy the world. In the next series, Wake the Devil, Rasputin's spirit warns Abe that he will be speared to death, just as Rasputin was.