Conceived in Hell, fueled by folklore, raised in the comic book. This issue we introduce you to a special boy who came from the nether-world to destroy us all, but became a man in spite of his destiny.
On April 9, 1944, he was born to murder the world: a demon created in fire and summoned to Earth by Hitlers evil scientists in a desperate attempt to win World War II by bringing about the absolute destruction of mankind. Humanity would never know how close it came to extinction when the clandestine experiment known only as Project Ragna Rok was attacked in medias res by a team of specially trained GIs from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, who narrowly averted the apocalypse by intercepting the furious beast at the moment of its corporeal birth.
Taken back to terra Americana for further examination, the demon conjured from Hells fury was a harbinger of doom in its latent state only. To all appearances, in fact, he was a tiny red infant one that looked curiously like a little boy... a boy from Hell: Hellboy. Could morally responsible people possibly raise him to live a life outside of his nature?
Since 1994, Mike Mignolas sporadic series, Hellboy, has recounted the worldly exploits of this unlikely hero who has rejected his evil birthright in order to defend the world against things that go bump in the night (typically incarnations of classic supernatural folklore). Or, to quote Mignola, its a comic book about monsters fighting monsters.
But if you look past Hellboys blood-red skin, cloven hoofs and self-mutilated devil horns, youre left with less a demon out of hell than a fish out of water. In the classic vein of metaphoric mythology, Hellboy doesnt see himself as a monster. Raised by humans, he thinks hes human or he at least wants to be one, despite the fact that hes built like the Hulk and has an even meaner right hook (given that the hand in question is made out of a mysterious solid stone).
Its an endearing story, one that doesnt just facilitate sympathy for the piteous creature, but rather demands it. And it is perhaps Hellboys inner humanness his ability to love, his desire for acceptance, his belief in pure-hearted justice that has attracted so many readers and led other acclaimed artists to expand upon his universe by taking the Worlds Greatest Paranormal Investigator to uncharted territory in comics, novels and, this month, as far as the silver screen.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, Mimic, The Devils Backbone and Blade II), the film version of Hellboy brings to life the comic story that originally introduced the character, Seed of Destruction. Respectfully adapted by del Toro, who is such a fan of the source material that he insisted on having Mignolas approval at every step, the resulting movie unites the visions of both men: the artists two-tone, square-edged, shadows-and-silhouette-style expressionism, and the directors frighteningly frenetic live action execution.
And while Big Red combats dark and Lovecraftian menaces in multiplexes everywhere, the rest of us mortals will be swept up in an inevitable marketing frenzy of collectibles and movie tie-ins, signalling the globes love affair with Hells dark hero. But before that happens, we want to take you behind the scenes of Hellboys mysterious genesis and introduce you to the man truly responsible for summoning him: Mike Mignola. The creator/writer/illustrator recently spoke to Rue Morgue and offered the following insights about the years he has dedicated not so much to raising hell as to raising a hellion....
Gary Butler: There has always been a nature vs. nurture argument at the heart of your Hellboy comics. Does Hellboy do good because he wants to or is it more of a case that he just doesnt want to do bad?
Mike Mignola: These things depend on the model that you had growing up, dont they? In Hellboys case, he was raised by really good people. I always equate it to stories you hear about a cat that grows up among dogs and therefore thinks its a dog. Hellboy grew up around people, and therefore just thinks of himself as a person, a regular Joe. So really, hes got a huge case of denial. In fact, when I originally wrote the comic, my intention was never to deal with his origins at all, other than those first eight pages of the first series [Seed of Destruction], where you saw him appear as a baby. I was just going to treat him like a regular guy a regular guy who would be much more fun to draw. The idea was, it was going to be hilarious that Hellboy thinks hes an average Joe when he looks like the stereotypical Devil.
GB: Why did you deal with his origin, then fan demand?
MM: It was more of a case of, some of the bad guys in the comics started talking about this and that and next thing I knew, it had snowballed. Suddenly, it was, Oh shit hes the Beast of the Apocalypse! He couldnt just be a middling-level demon no, I had to go and make him the Beast of the Apocalypse. Once youve trotted something like that out, just try to put a lid on it.
GB: Its just as well that you wrote the origin; the fans would have demanded it regardless.
MM: But Im not sure that I would have given Hellboy an origin just to cave to popular demand. This isnt to say that I dont respect my fans in fact, I respect them profoundly. But if my work isnt honest to myself first, it wont be honest to them, either.
GB: You mentioned Hellboys huge case of denial. Ive always loved the epilogue to Box Full of Evil, where he tells his B.P.R.D. associate, You know how I live? I never deal with what I am.
MM: That was a rare, thoughtful moment for Hellboy. I had purposely stayed away from characters sitting around and talking about their feelings but for whatever reason I guess, given the story that that is the epilogue to, I had really brought all of this beastly apocalypse crap to the table, and I was really going, Shit, what have I done? How do I put an end to this subject? In fact, in Hellboys speech at the end of that story, when he says, I dont want to talk about this, I dont want to deal with this, Im not that, I dont want the crown, I dont want any of it thats it! thats basically what I was saying. It was a really interesting dilemma that I had put this character in and I should know, because I was raised Catholic. I guess the lighter side of creating this over-arching origin is that Ill have no shortage of story ideas....
GB: Hellboy began as a saga comic but has evolved into a short story vehicle, and those latter tales find you plumbing the rich history of folklore a limitless wellspring.
MM: Thats certainly where my focus has been going more and more, is to the short stories. The big sagas are kind of like, well, piles of junk really fun junk, but they dont have the pure and simple concept backing them that you can use as the backbone for a good short story. Once a story cracks one hundred pages, I just tend to throw everything into the kitchen sink. The short stories I tend to think of as and treat like little polished gems where you have one simple idea, or, in the case of probably the best short stories, theyre usually based on a European folk tale. Sometimes its a departure point; sometimes its almost a straight adaptation.
GB: The nifty thing about tapping folklore is that youre in the drivers seat with a character that can bridge all of these cultures simply by visiting them.
MM: And that was certainly my idea from day one. From the very start, I wanted to use Hellboy as a device to investigate folklore. The bigger storyline that kicked it all off was just that: a kick-off. I have to add, though, that I never suspected that this thing would go on for ten years. So in my wildest dreams back when I was starting Hellboy, I wouldve been happy just to see him visit a few different parts of the world during his tour of duty because youve also got to remember that, the way the comic is structured, theres fifty years between his origin and the setting of the original storyline, Seed of Destruction. For me as a writer, you have to understand that that was structured to give me fifty years of Hellboys life to have him wander the world. And as time permits and my schedule allows, I tackle folklore and essentially fill in the blanks of his life. At the same time, Ive got all of these other things that I want to deal with. English folklore has always been a favourite for me there are some big giant English monsters I want to introduce for a visit.
GB: Do you feel that English folklore loans itself better to the horrific?
MM: It might seem that way because of gothic literature, and the simple pervasion of English folklore in, go figure, commonwealth countries. But certainly, some of the most horrifying things Ive ever read are oriental and Japanese stories. Thing is, Im talking about stuff thats so insanely horrifying that it actually becomes comical. England on the other hand, not just because of the folklore, but the literary tradition, holds a lot of appeal. Youve got the fairy tales, the folk tales, the ghost stories, the gothic literature. Then again, you can find all of that in Germany. I guess what it boils down to is that England and Europe is the stuff that I understand the best; probably hearkening back to this nurture discussion being brought up with it has caused me to spend time ruminating on it and therefore, in the grand scheme, it makes sense to me. Whereas with the international stuff, this insane stuff for example, this Malaysian story [new material based on the myth of the Pennangalan], the creature is so out there, so insane, that I might as well be writing a story about an alien.
GB: Theres more to folklore than horror, but nonetheless, horror often seems to be a linchpin to it.
MM: There are different kinds of horror, and the kind that always appealed to me is the kind that involves creatures. My start with horror goes back to sixth grade when I read Dracula I was hooked. I remember making a conscious decision to spend the rest of my life reading and thinking about it, and I pretty much never turned back. It was an easy jump from Dracula to books like Bernhardt J. Hurwoods anthology Passport to the Supernatural, which not only has vampires and werewolves from all over the world, but all kinds of other kinds of creatures. So with a lifetime of exposing myself to diversity in monsters, making the jump to the bigger picture of folklore was a natural move. And as an artist, Ive always loved the challenge of reading a description of some absurd creature and giving it my best shot to try and make that thing look spooky, or cool, or, which happens all the time, silly.
GB: Ah, the challenge of describing the indescribable. It reminds me of Stephen Kings IT, where he describes the monster during the final confrontation and says that it was indescribable but if you had to put it into words, it was a giant spider. Talk about lame!
MM: I guess that wasnt one of his strongest descriptions. But if the passage that contains that kind of description is well written, then that kind of approach can work. I mean, look at the pulp guys Lovecraft, one of my favourites, would write things like, It was kind of like a goat and kind of like a pig and kind of like a tree He would give you things that you couldnt possibly equate in your mind. Now thats a challenge as an artist. A giant spider variant is one thing, but just try to imagine what that Lovecraft monstrosity could possibly look like. Of course, the thing with Lovecraft or with any of that kind of stuff, the best thing to do, always, is to not show it. Or show just a piece of it.
GB: Tell us about a real Lovecraft-level challenge youve tackled.
MM: There have been a few, but the Malaysian vampire is still fresh in my mind, and it was definitely a tough one: its made up of guts and intestines that leave the body and fly around with a human head on top, too. So you go, Well, thats maybe horrific. Because the thing is, when you try to draw it, it just looks kinda goofy.
GB: Lets jump from the indescribable to something that you have never fully described in Hellboy the Ogdru Jahad, a.k.a. the seven who are one.
MM: I started out drawing it as a crystalline structure. Over time, I imagined that it would be more like shark eggs something inside those linked cocoons. And Ive been very careful not to show what it is. I mean, there have been one or two panels where you sort of see something curled up inside, but thats all just a hint. I will show it to you one of these days, but, as is my style, theyll be morphed with shadow. Of course, thats one of the more horrific by-products to using a lot of solid black as an artist you dont know and I dont know what the hell is going on in that corner over there And I dont mind admitting that subconsciously, there are times when I dont know what Im drawing I just know that it would be spooky if I was to ink such-and-such shape in such-and-such place. I suppose you could say thats a callback to the characters hijacking the script.
GB: You have stated that The Conqueror Worm story wraps up the original Hellboy arc but we still havent seen the Ogdru Jahad released. So maybe by wrapped up, you mean that weve seen the last of the Nazis as a Hellboy nemesis?
MM: Do us both a favour and dont hold me to any of that Conqueror Worm brought a lot of closure, a lot. But yeah, theres still a lot left to deal with.
GB: Such as, say, Hellboys stone hand.
MM: I am about to drop a gigantic bomb a good bomb in terms of what that hand is. Sorry, not here in this interview, but in my next Hellboy story, which is called The Island. When I was doing thumbnails for it See, its something Ive plotted and replotted a zillion different times. It always starts the same way. It was going to be a two-issue mini-series and I drew the first eight pages but I didnt like them, so then it became a three-issue miniseries that was completely different, then it became a one-issue story and now its back to being a two-issue story. Every time, the story changes completely. In the latest incarnation, as I was thumbnailing it, someone was talking to me about some stuff, and suddenly this idea of that hellish hand just popped up. Its going to be pretty cool, I think.
GB: Can you give us a taste of what it is without spoiling the surprise?
MM: Um Its very old. Ive always wanted it to be something that could be the worst thing on earth or it could be this divine instrument. Its like nuclear power used correctly, its great, but in the wrong hands, its the most devastating thing there is. (So I guess the question becomes: is Hellboys hand in the wrong hand?) His hand is this amazing thing, but like all truly amazing things, most people want it for a bad purpose. Its been great to not explain it up till now, but for sure, as the series goes along, you will find out aspects of it it can do this and this and that and the more you know, it will be all the more reason for Hellboy to hang on to it and make sure that no one else gets it.
GB: Mike, I wont be happy if it turns out to be a Swiss Army knife.
MM: Well, in the movie it almost was! In one of the script treatments, there was a total Swiss Army finale with the hand. That quickly went away. It was actually the only thing in the screenplay where I went, Whoa! Thats not really working. And within a couple of minutes, [writer/director] Guillermo del Toro and I had whipped up a much better ending.
GB: Lets talk about the movie. Four years ago you said you were 99 per cent sure that there would never be a movie. Even today, long after the filming wrapped, are you still surprised?
MM: Im so surprised that I still need to be reassured that it even exists. It takes a lot of getting used to. I spent five or six years telling myself, Dont get your hopes up, theres no way this could happen I spent a lot of time on the set, a lot of time in pre-production youd think Id get used to the idea that they made a movie. They sent me the trailer, and when I first saw it, I actually almost threw up, not in any kind of bad way but because I was like, Oh my God, they actually made a movie out of Hellboy. I thought they were kidding!
GB: How faithful is the movie to your work?
MM: Thing is, I had seen Cronos and Mimic, and I really liked both of them. I love that he [del Toro] adds his own personality to his pictures he has his own unique bag of tricks that he brings to all of his movies. So when I first met him, I said, Dont feel like you need to be faithful to my material. Id rather see a great picture thats different from the comic than a bad picture thats real faithful. He didnt lose a second before saying, No, I want to do the comic. And the result has been a really interesting collaboration because his personality is all over this picture, but so is mine.
GB: Can you define each of those personalities in a couple of words?
MM: He is atmosphere and I am shadow. Uh dont hold me to that.
GB: So you complement each other?
MM: Sure. We speak the same language. You know, when we talk, we reference the same books and movies. It was funny: when we were first getting to know each other, he came over to my apartment I was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time and he was looking at my bookcase and he went, Oh, you put William Hope Hodgson next to Clark Ashton Smith! So do I!! I mean, how many people have even heard of these two authors, let alone for some weird reason, put them next to each other on a bookcase, where they dont belong next to each in any real sense in the first place? Thats indicative of the level of compatibility that was going on.
GB: What were the conditions of your involvement in terms of Hellboy being optioned in the first place? I know that Neil Gaiman optioned The Sandman and washed his hands of it immediately, knowing that Hollywood would very likely fumble the ball.
MM: Well, that certainly could have happened. There were no conditions in the option saying, Mignola must be involved. A different director could have easily come in and said, Lets change it 100 per cent. Well give Hellboy two gloves, and well grow his horns back, and we dont want Mignola on the set. Now, my publisher at Dark Horse, Mike Richardson I guarantee you that if that had happened he would have fought to keep me involved. Basically: I wasnt looking to get in the movie business. It was del Toro who wanted me involved.
GB: If I understand correctly, the movie quite strictly follows the Seed of Destruction storyline, but the short story The Corpse does seem to be in there too.
MM: It is, and I wasnt surprised that it ended up in there, because Guillermo, like a lot of people, thinks its the best Hellboy story. Because hey who doesnt like a talking corpse?
GB: How is the story of The Corpse deployed in the movie? I would imagine that it could work like the mini-adventures that James Bond always has before his own opening credits.
MM: Strangely enough, Peter Briggs, the first guy to write a version of the Hellboy screenplay, did exactly that. But thats not what Guillermo did he made it an actual part of the story. So instead of taking place in Ireland, as it does in the comic short, it now occurs in Russia, as part of the exploration arc where theyre trying to catch Rasputin.
GB: Hellboy has elements of horror but its not a horror comic. What do you consider to be its most horrific element?
MM: Horror is a weird thing. To me, the most horrible thing in Hellboy is the idea that you are pre-destined to do something evil. If you are the Beast of the Apocalypse, then eventually you are going to be forced, by some kind of fate, to bring about this horrible destruction, or unleash this plague or whatever its going to be all of that stuff is going to come out of you. Imagine the personal, psychological implications of that.
GB: This is the nature/nurture argument again. On the nature side, I think of Wake the Devil, where Hellboys horns regrew without his volition he chopped em right back off, of course, but something made them grow.
MM: Thats the question of the genetic element: Is there something in a personality that you cant escape, and is it just going to wear you down over the years? And, even spookier, if you believe in real destiny kind of stuff and say, Im not going to do this, Im not going to go over there, Im going to go over there well, whats to say that going over there isnt going to bring about the same thing in a different way? Free will implies control, but is it necessarily the case that you have control? Are some things beyond your control?
GB: Which brings us to the million-dollar question for Hellboy, the comic character: can he escape his destiny of bringing about the apocalypse?
MM: I think you understand why I cant answer that. Maybe its because I dont actually know yet, but maybe its because I do...
Reprinted with permission Rue Morgue Magazine Magazine #38
By Gary Butler
Submitted by Jen Vuckovic
Managing Editor
Rue Morgue Magazine
Suicide Girls Member SCREAMQUEEN.
On April 9, 1944, he was born to murder the world: a demon created in fire and summoned to Earth by Hitlers evil scientists in a desperate attempt to win World War II by bringing about the absolute destruction of mankind. Humanity would never know how close it came to extinction when the clandestine experiment known only as Project Ragna Rok was attacked in medias res by a team of specially trained GIs from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, who narrowly averted the apocalypse by intercepting the furious beast at the moment of its corporeal birth.
Taken back to terra Americana for further examination, the demon conjured from Hells fury was a harbinger of doom in its latent state only. To all appearances, in fact, he was a tiny red infant one that looked curiously like a little boy... a boy from Hell: Hellboy. Could morally responsible people possibly raise him to live a life outside of his nature?
Since 1994, Mike Mignolas sporadic series, Hellboy, has recounted the worldly exploits of this unlikely hero who has rejected his evil birthright in order to defend the world against things that go bump in the night (typically incarnations of classic supernatural folklore). Or, to quote Mignola, its a comic book about monsters fighting monsters.
But if you look past Hellboys blood-red skin, cloven hoofs and self-mutilated devil horns, youre left with less a demon out of hell than a fish out of water. In the classic vein of metaphoric mythology, Hellboy doesnt see himself as a monster. Raised by humans, he thinks hes human or he at least wants to be one, despite the fact that hes built like the Hulk and has an even meaner right hook (given that the hand in question is made out of a mysterious solid stone).
Its an endearing story, one that doesnt just facilitate sympathy for the piteous creature, but rather demands it. And it is perhaps Hellboys inner humanness his ability to love, his desire for acceptance, his belief in pure-hearted justice that has attracted so many readers and led other acclaimed artists to expand upon his universe by taking the Worlds Greatest Paranormal Investigator to uncharted territory in comics, novels and, this month, as far as the silver screen.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, Mimic, The Devils Backbone and Blade II), the film version of Hellboy brings to life the comic story that originally introduced the character, Seed of Destruction. Respectfully adapted by del Toro, who is such a fan of the source material that he insisted on having Mignolas approval at every step, the resulting movie unites the visions of both men: the artists two-tone, square-edged, shadows-and-silhouette-style expressionism, and the directors frighteningly frenetic live action execution.
And while Big Red combats dark and Lovecraftian menaces in multiplexes everywhere, the rest of us mortals will be swept up in an inevitable marketing frenzy of collectibles and movie tie-ins, signalling the globes love affair with Hells dark hero. But before that happens, we want to take you behind the scenes of Hellboys mysterious genesis and introduce you to the man truly responsible for summoning him: Mike Mignola. The creator/writer/illustrator recently spoke to Rue Morgue and offered the following insights about the years he has dedicated not so much to raising hell as to raising a hellion....
Gary Butler: There has always been a nature vs. nurture argument at the heart of your Hellboy comics. Does Hellboy do good because he wants to or is it more of a case that he just doesnt want to do bad?
Mike Mignola: These things depend on the model that you had growing up, dont they? In Hellboys case, he was raised by really good people. I always equate it to stories you hear about a cat that grows up among dogs and therefore thinks its a dog. Hellboy grew up around people, and therefore just thinks of himself as a person, a regular Joe. So really, hes got a huge case of denial. In fact, when I originally wrote the comic, my intention was never to deal with his origins at all, other than those first eight pages of the first series [Seed of Destruction], where you saw him appear as a baby. I was just going to treat him like a regular guy a regular guy who would be much more fun to draw. The idea was, it was going to be hilarious that Hellboy thinks hes an average Joe when he looks like the stereotypical Devil.
GB: Why did you deal with his origin, then fan demand?
MM: It was more of a case of, some of the bad guys in the comics started talking about this and that and next thing I knew, it had snowballed. Suddenly, it was, Oh shit hes the Beast of the Apocalypse! He couldnt just be a middling-level demon no, I had to go and make him the Beast of the Apocalypse. Once youve trotted something like that out, just try to put a lid on it.
GB: Its just as well that you wrote the origin; the fans would have demanded it regardless.
MM: But Im not sure that I would have given Hellboy an origin just to cave to popular demand. This isnt to say that I dont respect my fans in fact, I respect them profoundly. But if my work isnt honest to myself first, it wont be honest to them, either.
GB: You mentioned Hellboys huge case of denial. Ive always loved the epilogue to Box Full of Evil, where he tells his B.P.R.D. associate, You know how I live? I never deal with what I am.
MM: That was a rare, thoughtful moment for Hellboy. I had purposely stayed away from characters sitting around and talking about their feelings but for whatever reason I guess, given the story that that is the epilogue to, I had really brought all of this beastly apocalypse crap to the table, and I was really going, Shit, what have I done? How do I put an end to this subject? In fact, in Hellboys speech at the end of that story, when he says, I dont want to talk about this, I dont want to deal with this, Im not that, I dont want the crown, I dont want any of it thats it! thats basically what I was saying. It was a really interesting dilemma that I had put this character in and I should know, because I was raised Catholic. I guess the lighter side of creating this over-arching origin is that Ill have no shortage of story ideas....
GB: Hellboy began as a saga comic but has evolved into a short story vehicle, and those latter tales find you plumbing the rich history of folklore a limitless wellspring.
MM: Thats certainly where my focus has been going more and more, is to the short stories. The big sagas are kind of like, well, piles of junk really fun junk, but they dont have the pure and simple concept backing them that you can use as the backbone for a good short story. Once a story cracks one hundred pages, I just tend to throw everything into the kitchen sink. The short stories I tend to think of as and treat like little polished gems where you have one simple idea, or, in the case of probably the best short stories, theyre usually based on a European folk tale. Sometimes its a departure point; sometimes its almost a straight adaptation.
GB: The nifty thing about tapping folklore is that youre in the drivers seat with a character that can bridge all of these cultures simply by visiting them.
MM: And that was certainly my idea from day one. From the very start, I wanted to use Hellboy as a device to investigate folklore. The bigger storyline that kicked it all off was just that: a kick-off. I have to add, though, that I never suspected that this thing would go on for ten years. So in my wildest dreams back when I was starting Hellboy, I wouldve been happy just to see him visit a few different parts of the world during his tour of duty because youve also got to remember that, the way the comic is structured, theres fifty years between his origin and the setting of the original storyline, Seed of Destruction. For me as a writer, you have to understand that that was structured to give me fifty years of Hellboys life to have him wander the world. And as time permits and my schedule allows, I tackle folklore and essentially fill in the blanks of his life. At the same time, Ive got all of these other things that I want to deal with. English folklore has always been a favourite for me there are some big giant English monsters I want to introduce for a visit.
GB: Do you feel that English folklore loans itself better to the horrific?
MM: It might seem that way because of gothic literature, and the simple pervasion of English folklore in, go figure, commonwealth countries. But certainly, some of the most horrifying things Ive ever read are oriental and Japanese stories. Thing is, Im talking about stuff thats so insanely horrifying that it actually becomes comical. England on the other hand, not just because of the folklore, but the literary tradition, holds a lot of appeal. Youve got the fairy tales, the folk tales, the ghost stories, the gothic literature. Then again, you can find all of that in Germany. I guess what it boils down to is that England and Europe is the stuff that I understand the best; probably hearkening back to this nurture discussion being brought up with it has caused me to spend time ruminating on it and therefore, in the grand scheme, it makes sense to me. Whereas with the international stuff, this insane stuff for example, this Malaysian story [new material based on the myth of the Pennangalan], the creature is so out there, so insane, that I might as well be writing a story about an alien.
GB: Theres more to folklore than horror, but nonetheless, horror often seems to be a linchpin to it.
MM: There are different kinds of horror, and the kind that always appealed to me is the kind that involves creatures. My start with horror goes back to sixth grade when I read Dracula I was hooked. I remember making a conscious decision to spend the rest of my life reading and thinking about it, and I pretty much never turned back. It was an easy jump from Dracula to books like Bernhardt J. Hurwoods anthology Passport to the Supernatural, which not only has vampires and werewolves from all over the world, but all kinds of other kinds of creatures. So with a lifetime of exposing myself to diversity in monsters, making the jump to the bigger picture of folklore was a natural move. And as an artist, Ive always loved the challenge of reading a description of some absurd creature and giving it my best shot to try and make that thing look spooky, or cool, or, which happens all the time, silly.
GB: Ah, the challenge of describing the indescribable. It reminds me of Stephen Kings IT, where he describes the monster during the final confrontation and says that it was indescribable but if you had to put it into words, it was a giant spider. Talk about lame!
MM: I guess that wasnt one of his strongest descriptions. But if the passage that contains that kind of description is well written, then that kind of approach can work. I mean, look at the pulp guys Lovecraft, one of my favourites, would write things like, It was kind of like a goat and kind of like a pig and kind of like a tree He would give you things that you couldnt possibly equate in your mind. Now thats a challenge as an artist. A giant spider variant is one thing, but just try to imagine what that Lovecraft monstrosity could possibly look like. Of course, the thing with Lovecraft or with any of that kind of stuff, the best thing to do, always, is to not show it. Or show just a piece of it.
GB: Tell us about a real Lovecraft-level challenge youve tackled.
MM: There have been a few, but the Malaysian vampire is still fresh in my mind, and it was definitely a tough one: its made up of guts and intestines that leave the body and fly around with a human head on top, too. So you go, Well, thats maybe horrific. Because the thing is, when you try to draw it, it just looks kinda goofy.
GB: Lets jump from the indescribable to something that you have never fully described in Hellboy the Ogdru Jahad, a.k.a. the seven who are one.
MM: I started out drawing it as a crystalline structure. Over time, I imagined that it would be more like shark eggs something inside those linked cocoons. And Ive been very careful not to show what it is. I mean, there have been one or two panels where you sort of see something curled up inside, but thats all just a hint. I will show it to you one of these days, but, as is my style, theyll be morphed with shadow. Of course, thats one of the more horrific by-products to using a lot of solid black as an artist you dont know and I dont know what the hell is going on in that corner over there And I dont mind admitting that subconsciously, there are times when I dont know what Im drawing I just know that it would be spooky if I was to ink such-and-such shape in such-and-such place. I suppose you could say thats a callback to the characters hijacking the script.
GB: You have stated that The Conqueror Worm story wraps up the original Hellboy arc but we still havent seen the Ogdru Jahad released. So maybe by wrapped up, you mean that weve seen the last of the Nazis as a Hellboy nemesis?
MM: Do us both a favour and dont hold me to any of that Conqueror Worm brought a lot of closure, a lot. But yeah, theres still a lot left to deal with.
GB: Such as, say, Hellboys stone hand.
MM: I am about to drop a gigantic bomb a good bomb in terms of what that hand is. Sorry, not here in this interview, but in my next Hellboy story, which is called The Island. When I was doing thumbnails for it See, its something Ive plotted and replotted a zillion different times. It always starts the same way. It was going to be a two-issue mini-series and I drew the first eight pages but I didnt like them, so then it became a three-issue miniseries that was completely different, then it became a one-issue story and now its back to being a two-issue story. Every time, the story changes completely. In the latest incarnation, as I was thumbnailing it, someone was talking to me about some stuff, and suddenly this idea of that hellish hand just popped up. Its going to be pretty cool, I think.
GB: Can you give us a taste of what it is without spoiling the surprise?
MM: Um Its very old. Ive always wanted it to be something that could be the worst thing on earth or it could be this divine instrument. Its like nuclear power used correctly, its great, but in the wrong hands, its the most devastating thing there is. (So I guess the question becomes: is Hellboys hand in the wrong hand?) His hand is this amazing thing, but like all truly amazing things, most people want it for a bad purpose. Its been great to not explain it up till now, but for sure, as the series goes along, you will find out aspects of it it can do this and this and that and the more you know, it will be all the more reason for Hellboy to hang on to it and make sure that no one else gets it.
GB: Mike, I wont be happy if it turns out to be a Swiss Army knife.
MM: Well, in the movie it almost was! In one of the script treatments, there was a total Swiss Army finale with the hand. That quickly went away. It was actually the only thing in the screenplay where I went, Whoa! Thats not really working. And within a couple of minutes, [writer/director] Guillermo del Toro and I had whipped up a much better ending.
GB: Lets talk about the movie. Four years ago you said you were 99 per cent sure that there would never be a movie. Even today, long after the filming wrapped, are you still surprised?
MM: Im so surprised that I still need to be reassured that it even exists. It takes a lot of getting used to. I spent five or six years telling myself, Dont get your hopes up, theres no way this could happen I spent a lot of time on the set, a lot of time in pre-production youd think Id get used to the idea that they made a movie. They sent me the trailer, and when I first saw it, I actually almost threw up, not in any kind of bad way but because I was like, Oh my God, they actually made a movie out of Hellboy. I thought they were kidding!
GB: How faithful is the movie to your work?
MM: Thing is, I had seen Cronos and Mimic, and I really liked both of them. I love that he [del Toro] adds his own personality to his pictures he has his own unique bag of tricks that he brings to all of his movies. So when I first met him, I said, Dont feel like you need to be faithful to my material. Id rather see a great picture thats different from the comic than a bad picture thats real faithful. He didnt lose a second before saying, No, I want to do the comic. And the result has been a really interesting collaboration because his personality is all over this picture, but so is mine.
GB: Can you define each of those personalities in a couple of words?
MM: He is atmosphere and I am shadow. Uh dont hold me to that.
GB: So you complement each other?
MM: Sure. We speak the same language. You know, when we talk, we reference the same books and movies. It was funny: when we were first getting to know each other, he came over to my apartment I was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time and he was looking at my bookcase and he went, Oh, you put William Hope Hodgson next to Clark Ashton Smith! So do I!! I mean, how many people have even heard of these two authors, let alone for some weird reason, put them next to each other on a bookcase, where they dont belong next to each in any real sense in the first place? Thats indicative of the level of compatibility that was going on.
GB: What were the conditions of your involvement in terms of Hellboy being optioned in the first place? I know that Neil Gaiman optioned The Sandman and washed his hands of it immediately, knowing that Hollywood would very likely fumble the ball.
MM: Well, that certainly could have happened. There were no conditions in the option saying, Mignola must be involved. A different director could have easily come in and said, Lets change it 100 per cent. Well give Hellboy two gloves, and well grow his horns back, and we dont want Mignola on the set. Now, my publisher at Dark Horse, Mike Richardson I guarantee you that if that had happened he would have fought to keep me involved. Basically: I wasnt looking to get in the movie business. It was del Toro who wanted me involved.
GB: If I understand correctly, the movie quite strictly follows the Seed of Destruction storyline, but the short story The Corpse does seem to be in there too.
MM: It is, and I wasnt surprised that it ended up in there, because Guillermo, like a lot of people, thinks its the best Hellboy story. Because hey who doesnt like a talking corpse?
GB: How is the story of The Corpse deployed in the movie? I would imagine that it could work like the mini-adventures that James Bond always has before his own opening credits.
MM: Strangely enough, Peter Briggs, the first guy to write a version of the Hellboy screenplay, did exactly that. But thats not what Guillermo did he made it an actual part of the story. So instead of taking place in Ireland, as it does in the comic short, it now occurs in Russia, as part of the exploration arc where theyre trying to catch Rasputin.
GB: Hellboy has elements of horror but its not a horror comic. What do you consider to be its most horrific element?
MM: Horror is a weird thing. To me, the most horrible thing in Hellboy is the idea that you are pre-destined to do something evil. If you are the Beast of the Apocalypse, then eventually you are going to be forced, by some kind of fate, to bring about this horrible destruction, or unleash this plague or whatever its going to be all of that stuff is going to come out of you. Imagine the personal, psychological implications of that.
GB: This is the nature/nurture argument again. On the nature side, I think of Wake the Devil, where Hellboys horns regrew without his volition he chopped em right back off, of course, but something made them grow.
MM: Thats the question of the genetic element: Is there something in a personality that you cant escape, and is it just going to wear you down over the years? And, even spookier, if you believe in real destiny kind of stuff and say, Im not going to do this, Im not going to go over there, Im going to go over there well, whats to say that going over there isnt going to bring about the same thing in a different way? Free will implies control, but is it necessarily the case that you have control? Are some things beyond your control?
GB: Which brings us to the million-dollar question for Hellboy, the comic character: can he escape his destiny of bringing about the apocalypse?
MM: I think you understand why I cant answer that. Maybe its because I dont actually know yet, but maybe its because I do...
Reprinted with permission Rue Morgue Magazine Magazine #38
By Gary Butler
Submitted by Jen Vuckovic
Managing Editor
Rue Morgue Magazine
Suicide Girls Member SCREAMQUEEN.
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
mothersuperior:
Mignola is awsome. Hellboy the book kicks ass ESPECIALLY in the short story format. (Almost Colossus, represent). I dug the movie too. one of the best comic book flicks out there.
blutchuristus:
I never got why people had a problem with his art back when he was doing batman. His style and colours are awesome to say the least. It was sad when they made the hellboy movie though. Out to make money del toro.