Mike Mignola artwork
No question about it: Mike Mignola is on the Mount Rushmore of the greatest comic book creators who ever lived. For three solid decades, the California-based artist/writer has captivated readers with the supernatural exploits of Anung Un Rama — better known as “Hellboy” — at Dark Horse Comics, earning the same rarified status as Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) and Todd McFarlane (Spawn).
“So few people get to be in that position, where what starts as a one-off, fun project ends up becoming your career,” Mignola tells me over the phone. “I’m pretty much drawing exactly what I want to draw. I’m so spoiled.”
While he’ll never give up his demonic brainchild completely, the industry titan is ready to turn the proverbial page. And what better way to ring in a new era than with a public celebration his greatest works so far? Enter Philippe Labaune, whose New York comic book gallery will host an upcoming exhibition — Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola — between September 19 and October 26. The pieces on display and up for sale comprise 30 watercolors, over 100 black and white pieces (including 50 covers and 10 pages of original comic book art from Hellboy), as well as drawings from Beehive Books’ illustrated edition of Pinocchio.
“I finally sat down with my daughter and said, ‘Listen, I’m old. This is all going to be yours. I can’t imagine you want all of this. Pick through and see what you want me to save, or just want me to give to you, and then the rest of it we can just pass on to somebody else,’” he says. “I cleared out a lot of stuff that I had been hanging on to, especially the paintings I’d been mostly doing for myself. But they were piling up [in my studio] and I thought, ‘They’ll just sit on a shelf here. Let me put them out there.’ Most people have never seen that stuff. I’m pretty happy with the paintings and I’m just curious to see what people think.”
He continues: “I don’t want it sound like a garage sale. I do think it’s among the best stuff I’ve ever done. I’m just really excited to see it all in one place. The idea of having a New York City gallery show is one of those things I never imagined I’d ever have.”
In addition to showcasing his best work, the exhibit will also stand as a testament to the last gasp of paint-and-pencil comic book artists working today. “It’s a changing art form,” Mignola muses. “I think I might be one of the last guys doing this stuff where it exists in a physical form. I know most guys seem to be doing this stuff electronically these days. There’s the threat of AI looming over the comics business…”
Mike Mignola art exhibit
Mike Mignola artwork
“Encountering Mike Mignola’s work for the first time is like being dropped into a beautifully crafted dream; you find yourself inclined to remain there rather than waking up,” Labaune said in a prepared statement. “Mignola’s work is eerily captivating. Reading Hellboy in my 20s, I was struck by Mignola’s artistry; his drawing ability, specifically the strength of the black-and-white, his line-work, the character design, the depth of his compositions, combined with the narrative force of his images. These all set him apart. Now, some 30-years later, I have the privilege of presenting Mike Mignola’s first gallery exhibition — and not just showcasing his unparalleled line-work, but also to share publicly his magnificent ability as a watercolorist, which has been revelatory to me.”
Getting Mignola to describe his patented style, on the other hand, is a little more difficult. “I’m the last guy to try to describe my own work,” he declares. “I just want my work to be solid and readable … It’s very much inspired by painters, guys like Frank Frazetta, Jeff Jones, but [also] the old American illustrators like N.C. Wyeth. There was so much strength and power and simplicity to their work. It’s very shape-conscious as opposed to fussy details. Being around in the ‘90s, when everybody went to a million extra lines, that’s when I started to head in the opposite direction.”
As for what the future holds, Mignola is already pivoting away from the Hellboy mythos in favor of a brand-new project he describes as a mishmash of international mythology that began with a desire to adapt a story from Italian folklore.
“I ended up making up an entire fantasy world. It’s kind of like if you sat down to write The Hobbit and you ended up writing The Silmarillion instead,” he teases. “The world I’ve created very much mirrors our world. There’s a kind of Asian area, there’s a kind of German area, there’s kind of an Italian area. The idea will be to adapt, or pay homage, to all these different cultures. Instead of having to worry about doing a specifically Japanese folktale, I can combine a bunch of Japanese elements and make them into a fantasy world. I can play fast and loose with these things without worrying about the specifics of the real-world version of Japan or China.
Fans will get a chance to dive into that world next January with the release of Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown, the first book to be published under Mignola’s newly-minted Dark Horse imprint: Curious Objects (a nod to The Amazing Screw-On Head). “It’s a catch-all for stuff that is mine [and] reflects my sensibilities,” he explains. “It does sweep the non-Hellboy stuff into the same big basket. So, if you like Hellboy, but you’ve never tried the Joe Golem stuff or the Baltimore stuff — at least now it’s very clear all that stuff is is under this banner.”
Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit opens its doors Wednesday, September 18 for an invite-only preview event, with a free opening reception scheduled for 6 p.m. ET the following day.
The gallery will also host a launch party for an official tie-in book, during this year’s edition of New York Comic Con, which runs from October 17-20.