Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola is an American comic book artist best known for creating the series Hellboy. He has worked for artistically on many projects for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, as well as many major motion pictures. Mignola graduated from the California College of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration in 1982.
He worked on inking at Marvel Comics, working on Daredevil and Power Man & Iron Fist. He also worked on The Incredible Hulk and Alpha Flight. Later he moved to DC Comics and drew several covers for Batman stories.
In 1994 Mignola decided to try his hand at illustrating his own work. He created the first Hellboy story, The Seed of Destruction, scripted by John Byrne. It was published by Dark Horse Comics. That was followed by many other Hellboy stories, as well as two major motion pictures, and other spinoff comic books.
When I look at his work, the first thing I notice is the very strong contrast. Also a lot of times things are so much in the dark they become very simplified. It takes work to figure out what they are. But I also like that because it lets your imagination fill in the blanks. This also works in a comic format because in a comic book you see the same character multiple times, so you don’t need to see every detail every time. Sometimes, in a fight scene, Mignola will just show a weird shape with a splash of color that lets you know what character that is. It ads speed to what is happening. Some people have called his style “German expressionism meets Jack Kirby.”
I think Mike Mignolas illustration style is much different than any other comic book illustrator out there. I can tell he has worked hard at his craft. He is still doing it today.
