Mike Mignola

Go straight to Hell, boy.

By Jan Rosenfeld

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The average person doesn't really get comic books. We're usually exposed to comics as kids, so we associate them with childhood. The most popular heroes are the most clearly defined: Superman is strong, Spider-Man is smart and the Fantastic Four are a family. These are concepts that we understand even at a young age, and it all contributes to the misconception that comic books are somehow archaic—shrines to a bygone era of wide-eyed American heroism. Mike Mignola doesn't make those kinds of comics. His creation, Hellboy, deals in darkness: the darkness of, well, Hell. That's where the eponymous Hellboy is from. He's also trained by the US government to be the world's greatest occult detective. It comes as no surprise, then, that there are no brightly colored tights in Mignola's slowly dilapidating gothic world. Instead, these are relevant, affecting stories drawing deeply from the history and folklore of exotic cultures.

"That stuff just fascinated me ever since I was a kid," says Mignola. "It's subject matter than I'm passionate about. I'm not trying to retread on the same old horror concepts. I want to draw on something more diverse."

He didn't always have that perspective. When he started out, Mignola worked as an artist for both Marvel and DC, drawing iconic superheroes with years of history already behind them. "Back in those days, in the early '80s, it was pretty common for writers and artists to work at both places," he said. "They were cool places back then—not so much cold and stiff." Within a few years, high-profile assignments were coming his way. 1989 saw Gotham by Gaslight, a tale where Mignola was allowed to create his own Victorian-era Batman, pitting him against the real-life serial killer Jack the Ripper. "It wasn't regular Batman ... it was my version of Batman, my version of Gotham. I didn't have to reference what Commissioner Gordon's office looked like. Now that I do my own stuff, I certainly can't imagine going back and doing someone else's characters."

Finally, in 1994, Dark Horse Comics published Mignola's first Hellboy story, "The Seed of Destruction". With its distinctive artwork and penchant for the supernatural, the series would go on to influence an entire generation of comic book artists and writers. At the time, Mignola wasn't fully aware of its importance. "I approached Hellboy as just another project. I didn't think that I'd be doing it for 15 or 20 years. I never actually believed it would work." John Byrne, a fellow artist/writer, scripted the initial story at Mignola's request, but eventually left to pursue other projects. "I had no fear until John left. Then I became scared. Then it was mine."

Even though he has achieved critical and commercial success with his comics (a new Hellboy film comes out later this year), Mignola acknowledges the complications that come with such an established medium. "I feel like I've got a character with a real spark to his story. I can change this character because he's not intended to be around forever. Those guys like Superman deal with the illusion of change, because they're intended to be around for a million years. Hellboy, for the most part, is still a one- or two-man operation. It has honest life to it. And one day, there will be a definite ending."

MIKE MIGNOLA

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