Mike Mignola

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Mike Mignola (born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley , California , USA ) is an American comic book author and illustrator. He is best known for his character Hellboy .

Mike Mignola, 2006

Life

Before Hellboy

Mignola's career began in 1983 as an illustrator on the Marvel series Daredevil and Power Man & Iron Fist , later followed by titles such as Alpha Flight and a Rocket Raccoon mini-series.

In 1987 he moved to DC Comics and drew Phantom Stranger and The World of Krypton . Through this work he got some attention, so in 1988 he got some more important jobs, e.g. B. the cover pictures for Batman: A Death in the Family , in which the second Robin dies and the preparatory drawings for Gotham by Gaslight , in which a Victorian version of Batman meets Jack the Ripper . The success of this 52-page one-shot led to the introduction of DC's Elseworlds segment, which tells of alternate versions of well-known DC characters.

During the early 1990s, Mignola worked on series such as Batman , Starman, and made covers for Marvel Comics. Francis Ford Coppola hired him for design drafts and the storyboard of his film Bram Stoker's Dracula . As a result, Mignola also drew the comic adaptation.

Hellboy

Until now, Mignola had always worked with characters he had no rights to, which made him feel restricted. Together with Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons , then two absolute superstars of the US comics scene, he switched to Dark Horse Comics . He has always been more interested in drawing monsters. So he designed one as the title hero: Hellboy . His character made his first appearance in 1993 in "San Diego Comic Comic Comics # 2", followed a year later by the first longer story The Seed of Destruction .

Hellboy was heavily influenced by Mignola's preferences for sagas, B-movies, ghost stories, monsters, HP Lovecraft, and pulp stories of the 1940s and 1950s. The paranormal investigator series became a relatively big hit, with Mignola creating more stories with Hellboy over the years, indulging in merchandising and even crossovers with characters like Batman and Painkiller Jane .

Before Hellboy , Mignola had no story writing experience, so he hired John Byrne as a writer for the first stories . From the short story "Wolves of St. August" Mignola acted both as a draftsman and as an author.

He later had other authors and draftsmen tell stories with his characters, which allowed the Hellboy universe to expand further. New series and spin-offs emerged, such as BPRD, Abe Sapien and Lobster Johnson. The “Mignolaverse” can now be assigned to over 50 comic volumes, some more closely, some only loosely linked to the Hellboy figure. Some of these comics were published by Cross Cult in Germany .

Hellboy was successfully filmed in 2004 and 2008 by Guillermo del Toro with Ron Perlman in the title role. In April 2019, Hellboy - Call of Darkness was released another screen adaptation, but this time it was not directed by del Toro and does not represent the expected end of a trilogy. Mignola said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung : “I was too deeply involved in both projects to be objective. But it was clear to me that del Toro would move away from my template, even if it often hurt. The new film tells the story all over again and relates much more to the comics. In this respect, when I visited the film set in Bulgaria, I was actually able to see the pages from my comics come to life. "

According to Hellboy

In 2011 he wrote the Dark Horse comic Joe Golem and the Drowning City together with Christopher Golden , which was published in September 2012 in an edition limited to 1,000 copies.

Mike Mignola's new work is Baltimore , a horror story about a vampire hunter shortly after the First World War.

Private

From July 16-20, 2012, he led the BPRD Camp (Hellboy Camp) in Portland, Oregon .

Bibliography (excerpt)

  • 1986: Solomon Kane
  • 1988: Cosmic Odyssey
  • 1989: Cover for Batman: A Death in the Family
  • 1989: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
  • 1990: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
  • 1990: Wolverine: the Jungle Adventure (text by Walter Simonson)
  • 1991: Bram Stoker's Dracula (based on the novel and film by Coppola)
  • 1992: Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution (text by Howard Chaykin and John Francis Moore)
  • 1993: San Diego Comic Con Comics # 2 (text by John Byrne )
  • 1994: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (text by John Byrne )
  • 1995: Hellboy: The Chained Coffin
  • 1996: Hellboy: Wake the Devil
  • 2000: Batman: The Doom that came to Gotham
  • 2001: Hellboy: Conquerer Worm
  • 2001: BPRD: Hollow Earth Teaser (text with Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski ; drawings by Ryan Snook and Curtis Arnold )
  • 2002: The Amazing Screw-On Head
  • 2002: Hellboy: The Third Wish
  • 2004: BPRD: The Dead (5 parts)
  • 2004: BPRD: Plague of Frogs (5 parts)
  • 2004: BPRD: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories TPB
  • 2005: Hellboy: The Island (2 parts)
  • 2005: BPRD: The Black Flame (6 parts)
  • 2006: Hellboy: Makoma (2 parts)
  • 2006: BPRD: The Universal Machine
  • 2007: Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus
  • 2008: Abe Sapien: The Drowning
  • 2008: BPRD: 1946
  • 2009: BPRD: 1947
  • 2010: Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steven Geyer: Interview with "Hellboy" inventor - Mike Mignola and the special view of evil. In: Berliner Zeitung. March 24, 2019, accessed March 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Dark Horse Releasing a Deluxe Hardcover Edition of Joe Golem and the Drowning City
  3. ↑ Attend the BPRD Training Camp - The Best Summer Camp Ever!

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mignola, Mike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comic book writer and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley , California, USA