A Trip to the Many Worlds of Hellboy’s Creator

Mike Mignola, whose diverse artworks are on display at Philippe Labaune Gallery starting Thursday. “Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola,” an exhibition at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in Chelsea could be a game changer for Mignola, a comic book artist and writer. “It does open up my world,” he said in a recent telephone interview. Mignola, 64, is best known for Hellboy, a tall, brooding, crimson demon who made his comic book debut in 1993 and had forays in animation and film. He is showing 100 pieces of his art at Labaune, which opened in 2021 aiming to blur the line between fine art and comics. “Hopefully the Hellboy paintings will sell, but will people buy paintings of skeletons and ghosts, which is what I like to paint?” Mignola said. (The range of his art is reflected in projects like his next one, “Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown,” an anthology of fantasy stories inspired by folklore.) The gallery will display watercolor paintings, and pen-and-ink comic book covers and interior pages. Mignola gave details about some of the works in the exhibition, which opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 26. Iceberg Credit…Mike Mignola This watercolor began as a cover for “In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft,” written by Joe R. Lansdale. Mignola drew an ink-wash illustration, which was then digitally colored by Dave Stewart, a frequent collaborator. (The digital coloring allowed for editorial changes, if needed, for the book cover.) “Having the ink wash laying here was kind of like having an unfinished piece of artwork,” he said. Not having to worry about logo placement was freeing. “I could just do whatever I wanted.” Hellboy Credit…Mike Mignola Hellboy smokes, which is usually reserved for comic book villains. “Hellboy is based on my father in a lot of ways, and my father always had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth,” Mignola said. His vision for the character became clearer when he gave him the cigarette and a trench coat. Mignola has been drawing Hellboy for 30 years. “My original […]

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