Mike Mignola is a legendary American comics artist and writer best known for creating Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, Witchfinder and various spinoffs of other titles.
Mignola's film work includes Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Blade II (2002), the 2004 adaptation of Hellboy, its 2008 sequel and 2019 reboot.
Credited within these Comics
Credited Characters
More on Mike Mignola
ignola was born in Berkeley, California. He began his career in 1980 by illustrating spots in The Comic Reader. His first published piece was in The Comic Reader #183, a spot illustration of Red Sonja. His first published front cover was The Comic Reader #196 in November 1981. In 1982 he graduated from the California College of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration.
In 1983 he worked as an inker at Marvel Comics on Daredevil and Power Man and Iron Fist and later on titles such as The Incredible Hulk, Alpha Flight, and the Rocket Raccoon limited series.
In 1987, he began working for DC Comics as well. He drew the Phantom Stranger and World of Krypton limited series. With writer Jim Starlin, Mignola produced the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries in 1988. Mignola drew covers for several Batman stories, including "Batman: A Death in the Family" and "Dark Knight, Dark City". Writer Brian Augustyn and Mignola crafted the Gotham by Gaslight one-shot in 1989. Through the early 1990s Mignola worked on covers and backup features for various DC and Marvel Comics. He collaborated twice with writer Howard Chaykin. In 1990-1991, they produced the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser limited series for Epic Comics, with inker Al Williamson. This was followed with the Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution graphic novel in 1992.
Prior to 1994 Mignola had done work-for-hire illustration. That year, Dark Horse Comics released Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, Mignola's creator-owned project. Though he wrote the story himself, it was scripted by John Byrne. The next Hellboy story, The Wolves of Saint August, was completely written and drawn by Mignola. Since then all Hellboy stories have been written solely by Mignola with the exception of They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships, which was co-written by Joshua Dysart.
Makoma (2006) was the first Hellboy story not drawn by Mignola, featuring the art of Richard Corben. Corben would return to draw many flashback stories for the series. Other artists have also had a hand in drawing flashback stories including Jason Shawn Alexander, Kevin Nowlan and Scott Hampton. In 2007, following after 2005's The Island, British artist Duncan Fegredo took over art duties on the ongoing story arc of Hellboy from Darkness Calls onwards.
Mike Mignola returned as the full-time artist for Hellboy in 2012 for the series' conclusion, Hellboy in Hell.