Revisiting A Mike Mignola Hellboy Interview Before Seed Of Destruction Was Released In 1994
- Byron O'Neal
- 13 minutes ago
- 11 min read
It's safe to say I'm a big Hellboy fan. Aren't we all. It can't be understated the influence Mike and Hellboy have made on the comics industry over the last few decades. With the Dark Horse announcement of a facsimile edition of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction issue 1 (READ ABOUT IT HERE), I decided to dig into my own treasure trove and share this interview Mike did with Kris Young for Dark Horse Insider in 1994 prior to the original release of the book. It certainly gave me a giggle or two reading it over again and made me feel hella old too as I was a young lad of eighteen working in World Class Comics when this came out. Enjoy.
MIKE MIGNOLA’S HELLBOY
NEW MINISERIES DEBUTS!
Hellboy story and art by: Mike Mignola
Script by: John Byrne
Colored by: Mark Chiarello
Monkeyman & O’Brien story and art by: Art Adams
Colored by: Matt Hollingsworth
Color cover by: Mike Mignola
$2.50 U.S.,$3.40 Canada.32 color pages, color cover.
Monthly.
Shipping March 22, 1994.
HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION #1 (OF 4)
Hellboy bursts onto the film noir monster detective scene. From his apocalyptic origin in WWII England to the modern-day case of the sole survivor of a doomed Arctic expedition, Hellboy must battle vampire frog creatures and worse in his debut miniseries. Created by Mike Mignola, with script by John Byrne, and colors by Mark Chiarello. Hellboy — World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator.
Also featuring chapter one in the astounding origin of Monkeyman and O’Brien, the most dynamic duo since a talking scientific genius (who also happens to be an ape) and a beautiful, super-strong blonde (who also happens to be a scientist) teamed up to battle extra-dimensional menaces while looking for a way to return Monkeyman to his home dimension!
MIKE MIGNOLA
by Kris Young
With Mike Mignola’s new series, Hellboy, launching in March, this seemed the ideal time to talk with him about his career, his unique style, and his new creation. Here’s our conversation.
Kris Young – You have a real flair for drawing monsters and “scary stuff.” Have you always been fascinated by creepy characters and things that go bump in the night? Where does it come from?
Mike Mignola – Where it comes from is the big question. That’s the one that therapy will eventually answer. [Laughter.] I’ve always been fascinated with monster stuff and scary stuff, but the bulk of my career actually has been spent not drawing that. I’ve done everything in my career from funny animals to straight superheroes to science fiction. But the way my style has evolved, becoming so dark and so heavy on shadows… it finally evolved to the point where I feel I can really do the horror I’ve always wanted. What’s important to me is what the reader doesn’t see. At this point now, my work is at least 50% black. There’s a lot of stuff in that shadow area of my artwork that leaves a lot to the imagination. The little bits and pieces you do see suggests things that I didn’t put there. That’s what I feel is real important about the way I’m working now. I finally figured out my own style enough so that I can pull that kind of thing off. The shadows and things I’ve become kind of famous for really evolved out of me trying to cover up stuff I couldn’t draw [laughter] and little by little, that, plus really being influenced by high-contrast paintings, turned from a crutch into a real powerful tool.
KY – You’ve definitely got a distinctive style. In fact, I was reading something recently in one of the trade publications that referred to someone else’s art as “Mignolaesque.”
MM – Yeah, that’s real weird. I remember when I was first starting out, I was trying to be “Wrightsonesque.” Now no one remembers Bernie Wrightson, unfortunately, so it’s “Mignolaesque.” People have very short memories. Jim Lee showed me an Alpha Flight plot he had years ago, where the writer had asked for a cemetery scene that was “Mignolaesque, you know, lots of Mignola shadows.” It really made me sad, because it just showed how short people’s memories are. The guys I’m inspired by do what I do so much better.
KY – That leads right into my next question — who were some of your major influences in comics?
MM – The biggest influence when I was young was Frank Frazetta. A lot of what I do comes from Frazetta. He doesn’t show you everything, but he shows you enough. Also, just the way that I structure figures, and the fact that my figures tend to always be rooted into the ground by these big black connecting shapes — it all comes from studying Frazetta paintings. There have been other comic-book artists who have influenced me. Bernie Wrightson… a lot of people. Mike Ploog was a big influence at one time. I’ve been influenced by so many different people at so many different periods of time. These days I’m much more influenced by various painters, and people from outside the comics field.
KY – Now, let’s talk about Hellboy. Your new series debuts in March. I’ve read the first issue, and I’m hooked! You’re combining elements of horror, mystery, and the supernatural. How did the idea for Hellboy come about?
MM – I wanted to design a character to suit stories that I want to do. I had drawn characters like Hellboy in people’s sketchbooks at conventions over the years. It was the kind of character I’d draw if someone said “Just draw me something.” I thought “Gee, I keep drawing this kind of guy…maybe I should make up a character like that, something that would be fun to draw and is very distinct… it’s a combination of Jack Kirby monster characters and old Ray Harryhausen stop-motion movie characters. I gave him a tail because I imagined him moving like one of those stop-motion characters.
Also, I have a horrible, horrible, short attention span, so I thought if I could make my main character a monster, maybe that would keep me more interested. [Laughter.] Plus this way, even in the slow parts of the book, where he’s not actually fighting monsters, there’s still a monster in the book because — he’s a monster!”
KY – Is this your first creator-owned project?
MM – Yes. It’s so weird, doing my own thing, because I can’t blame anybody else. With Hellboy, I’ve got to eat any negative criticism myself.
KY – It’s a big responsibility, but then you have the pride of that creatorship — that’s your baby. And it’s coming out under the Legend logo. We couldn’t be happier about the whole Legend concept and the fact that the Legend creators are publishing with Dark Horse.
MM – That all worked out really well. For me, I kind of feel like one of the real junior members of Legend. Suddenly to be lumped in with Frank Miller and John Byrne, and to actually have John writing Hellboy with me — I’m just thrilled to death. I’ve never been a fan-favorite. I’ve had commercial success, but I’ve never been one of those guys who you would immediately associate with the top-ten creators, or anything like that. I just want to do a really good comic. But, yeah, the Legend thing suddenly elevates me to a certain level with those guys.
KY – It’s quite a rarefied crowd… a very elite group. It says quite a bit about the work that you do, to be included in that group.
MM – I paid my way in! [Laughter.] Grease enough palms and you can get anyplace in this world.
KY – You mentioned John Byrne and his involvement with some of the writing on Hellboy. How did that happen?
MM – I’m not a writer, and I don’t want to do a book that’s horrible. I want somebody good to write it, but I want somebody who I can work with, because I do have nine-tenths of the ideas and a lot of the dialogue in my head. I need somebody I can bounce stuff back and forth with. John and I had a really comfortable experience in the past when we worked together. We did the World of Krypton miniseries for DC, and an issue of Superman, and a little back-up feature for an annual, so we’ve worked together a couple of times. I always had a real good give-and-take with him.
I’m doing all the plotting so far myself, and I’m sending him pages with a lot of suggested dialog. In the future, hopefully, John will do some of the plotting with me, because right now I’m pretty much sending him the stuff cold. At this point he’s scripted issues 1 and 2, but he doesn’t know what happens in issues 3 and 4, which is kind of an awkward way for us to work. Next time I think we’re going to sit down and really work the stuff out ahead of time, and I’ll really take advantage of John’s expertise. One of the weird things about this Hellboy miniseries is it’s pure me. This is the longest thing I’ve ever plotted myself.
KY – Do you have a long-range plan for the Hellboy storyline?
MM – Pretty long. I mean, I’ve had two or three different long-range plans; I just change my mind so often. I’ve figured out who he is, and where he comes from, and what I’d like the book to turn into. Again, I have such a short attention span, I want to keep certain things really flexible. I’ve built in enough safety release valves in it, that it could turn into anything at a moment’s notice. Hellboy will be an ongoing series of miniseries.
KY – I see that the Torch of Liberty from John Byrne’s new series, Danger Unlimited, makes a guest appearance in the first issue. Will there be any more of these appearances or any crossovers planned with other Legend titles or characters?
MM – There will be some… John’s Danger Unlimited, Arthur Adams’ Monkeyman & O’Brien, and Hellboy all share the same tiny universe. I guess it’s the smallest shared universe out there. [Laughter.] There are characters Arthur’s designed that I want to use, and there are characters I’ve designed that I hope Arthur will use.
I don’t want to do stories where suddenly Hellboy meets Danger Unlimited. What is much more interesting to me is having the background characters bump into each other. The Torch of Liberty is present at Hellboy’s origin, but it’s not like Hellboy teams up with the Torch of Liberty to do something. My doctors, my evil Nazi scientist… I’d like to have those guys cross over into other books. What’s fascinating to me is having one of my Nazi characters appear in the background in a group photo in Monkeyman & O’Brien. Little things like that, so it’s not real blatant, and maybe you have to look for it.
KY – Right. It gives the story a lot of depth and texture.
MM – Yes, that’s what I want — something that’s got a lot of texture to it. I love making up characters, and I’m starting to really fall in love with this whole creating-a-universe kind of thing. It just opens up the door to that many more stories. Every character’s got some kind of story to them. It’s fun.
KY – How long does it take you to get a 24- or 26-page book out?
MM – If I ever get one out I’ll let you know! [Laughter.] No, my average is a page a day. Sometimes faster, and sometimes much slower. I can pencil a book in a month, and I’d like to be fast enough to pencil and ink a book a month. I’d love to do Hellboy as a monthly series, but I’m just too slow.
KY – You’ve got the Monkeyman & O’Brien back-up feature in this first miniseries, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, and I know that you’re planning a back-up feature when Arthur’s Monkeyman launches this summer. Is that going to be an ongoing thing, or just for these first two miniseries?
MM – Just the first two miniseries. Arthur’s very slow, and, as I said, I’m very slow. This way we can have our stuff out almost eight months in a row, and Arthur will get to have Monkeyman & O’Brien come out in March instead of waiting till next summer. [Editor’s note: Turn to page 45 of this issue for an exclusive 4-page Monkeyman & O’Brien story!] His four-issue back-up leads directly into his first issue. The short back-up features I’m doing for him are self-contained short Hellboy stories. With Hellboy appearing in the back of Monkeyman & O’Brien, it gives me four months where Hellboy is out there in some form, and it won’t be that long a gap between the first Hellboy miniseries and the next time you see Hellboy again.
KY – I think it’s a great idea. It keeps Hellboy top-of-mind with your readers. Now, who is your target audience? Who are you trying to reach with Hellboy?
MM – You know, that’s a really good question. It’s not a “mature reader” book. It’s aimed at kids who like monsters. It’s aimed at the kind of kid I was, who liked the idea of monsters hitting each other in the head with big stone hands, and Nazi mad scientists, and gorillas… It’s a real strange one, because it’s got, hopefully, that kind of Jack Kirby big-monster appeal to it. But it’s also got a lot of subtlety to it. There’s a lot of real moody, quiet, weeping tombstone kind of stuff. I didn’t want to do a Vertigo book. It’s a little bit of everything.
KY – Yes. As I said, I’m hooked already, and I’m no kid! [Laughter.]
MM – That’s good! I’m real fascinated to hear people’s response to it. I really don’t think there’s any book out there like it, and that’s part of my goal. It’s actually a book that I wish someone else was doing, because it’s a book I’d enjoy reading. Ted McKeever and I had this same conversation a couple of years ago, when he was doing Metropol for Epic. That was a book that he wished someone else was doing, because it was the kind of book he’d like to read. And that’s what I’m doing with Hellboy. I have so many different influences — literary influences, film, things like that. I’m taking everything I like and mixing it together.
KY – Sounds like you’re having a good time with it.
MM – Yeah… it’s a real love/hate relationship. After a couple issues I was done, and I didn’t want to do any more, and I said “I hate this character.” Now I’m having one of those weeks where I really hope it sells so I can keep doing it. I’ve got so much material, and there’s so much potential there.
KY – Do you foresee any Hellboy sideline products, any collateral material… T-shirts, figurines, anything like that?
MM – I think that would be great. Actually someone did a Hellboy T-shirt for me for the San Diego Con last year, and my wife and I are generating a new Hellboy T-shirt that will be out, hopefully, in time for the Great Eastern Convention in New York. Beyond that, I don’t know. The coolest thing would be having a big Hellboy model kit. He’s designed to be something like that. The dream product to me would be a Hellboy figure that’s like the old G.I. Joe — my favorite toy on earth! I wanted a character that had that kind of solidity to it, that would make a great toy.
KY – Hey, it could happen.
MM – We’ll see. The problem is the name, Hellboy, still does scare a few people off. He’s red, and he has horns, and hooves, and a tail… he does suggest a certain type of character.
KY – But there’s really no… satanic implications there?
MM – Not really. Anything I say about where he comes from would be giving too much away. But he’s a good guy. He’s not a character where, after issue #3 it turns out that he’s actually evil. No, he’s a genuinely good guy. I didn’t want to do another one of those tortured son of Satan/demon kind of characters.
KY – Are there any other projects in the works besides Hellboy?
MM – I’m talking to a writer about doing another project for somebody else. It would be something I would do between the first and second Hellboy miniseries, but I don’t know specifically what it is. Right now all my energies are pretty much focused on Hellboy.
KY – Well, I’m anxious to see how this story unfolds. I think you have a winner on your hands, Mike.
MM – I hope you’re right. Tell your friends! [Laughter.]
KY – I will!!
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