Welcome to Mignolaversity, Multiversity Comics’ dedicated column for all things Mike Mignola. Since its December, we’re doing a series of retrospective interviews to say goodbye to 2022. In case you’ve missed any of the others, here they are:
• Discussing the Outerverse with Christopher Golden and Bridgit Connell
• Discussing “Our Encounters with Evil” with Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
• Discussing “Leonide the Vampyr” with Rachele Aragno
Today we’ll be talking to Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski about the four-issue miniseries “Frankenstein: New World.” The first three issues are already out, and if you haven’t read them yet, I suggest you do, because this interview assumes you’re up to date.
with Dave Stewart
Christopher Golden: It’s strange to say, but it never occurred to me that we were doing anything but showcasing a world that is a logical extension of the way Hellboy’s world ended. From the very first issue of “Hellboy,” Mike treated the supernatural in his universe as “de facto.” These things simply are. The Hollow Earth, the Ogdru-Hem, giants, vampires, every bit of Eastern and Western folklore that piqued Mike’s interest, the Lobster, Abe Sapien, a pyrokinetic who might be more than she seems, a homunculus with a door knocker where his genitals should be, Nazi occultists, tiny Russian demon girls under glass, the world being overrun by frog-people and unstoppable monsters. . . as long as it’s treated as if the extraordinary is part of the ordinary—with a kind of weary resignation bound up with the horror—then it all fits. And when you get to the New World, what we’re doing is a natural extrapolation of everything that came before. The old world finished and it lay fallow for a while, but now something new has grown in its place, fertilized by all that came before.
Thomas Sniegoski: Since I became familiar with Mike, and his work—especially Hellboy—in interviews he always talked about creating a character which enabled him to tell the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. As a creator, I was always fascinated by this, and even inspired to do some of this myself with my own work. In Hellboy, going back to his very first adventures, you could see Mike laying the groundwork, creating a world and universe that would allow him to be able to tell just about any kind of story that he wanted. And the beauty of it all is that he does it so flawlessly, each story, each character and situation paving the way for something else to come. The way it all came together it made perfect sense that we’d have Frankenstein wandering a post apocalyptic world having adventures. I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t!
This book is also kind of getting the team back together again. After all, it was twenty years ago you both teamed up with Mike Mignola for a journey into the Hollow Earth in the first ever “B.P.R.D.” story, which was the first major “Hellboy” spinoff. It seems appropriate that you’ve now all teamed up again to journey out of the Hollow Earth into the New World. But this time you’ve brought Peter Bergting along as well. He’s been a long-time collaborator on the Outerverse books, but “Frankenstein: New World” is his debut in the Hellboy Universe.
Christopher: Just to correct the record, Peter actually drew a short “Hellboy” comic for the Steve Jackson Games RPG a million years ago, but yes, for anyone who hasn’t seen that, this is his first time in the Hellboy Universe. The fascinating thing for me is that when he was first suggested to me as a replacement for Ben Stenbeck on “Baltimore,” we kind of made Peter “audition” for that job, because all of the gorgeous comics I’d seen by him were more fantasy oriented, without a sense of how he would bring his talents into a more tangibly real-feeling world. Of course, his sample turned out brilliantly and led to me collaborating with Peter on five different Outerverse titles. But when it came to “Frankenstein: New World,” the moment the subject of an artist came up, I knew Peter had to be the one. In many ways, this is the culmination of everything he’s done so far. We need the kind of gritty realism for Frankenstein himself, but we needed the fantasy world building that Peter has always showcased in his art. Peter is absolutely the perfect artist for this series and the world he’s envisioning for us is extraordinary.
Continued belowThomas: I had NO idea that Peter had done a “Hellboy” story. Huh, I’m going to need to find that. I really would love to see it! My familiarity with Peter’s work came primarily from what I saw in the Outerverse books that he and Chris worked on, so when it was suggested that he be the artist on ‘New World,’ it didn’t take me all that long to be convinced that he’d be perfect. And then when I started to see the preliminary sketches, and designs that he was doing I knew that there wasn’t anyone better suited for this tale. Peter brings this weird sense of the familiar to things that are very alien, and unfamiliar, if that makes any sense at all. Getting emails from our Dark Horse editors with Peter’s art was something that I would very much look forward to. He took Chris and my words and brought them to vivid life, often doing things with the design, or layout, that looked so much better on the page than it looked even in my head.
Yeah, Peter’s approach to the natural world always impressed right from when I was first introduced to his work in “Baltimore: The Witch of Harju.” To see him take that strength and extend it out to the New World has been fantastic. I’m curious what each of you as writers feel like you bring to the New World too.
Thomas: Chris and I most definitely have our strengths, and I think—in this instance—I’d be pretty hard pressed to come up with definitive aspects because we both contributed to the shape of this book, but in many cases I bring the crazy. I’m the guy that comes up with the odd, strangely funny bits, the over the top action beats. On ‘New World’ I was the guy that was embracing Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi”. . . Frank, our hero wandering a strange new world, encountering bizarre new life forms. But, like I said we both did a good job with the crazy as we were plotting this one out.
Christopher: Tom and I were on the phone soon after Ben Stenbeck had drawn that jam image with various Mignola characters that included Frankenstein with the Sword of Hyperborea strapped to his staff and we were talking about how cool that was and how much we’d like to do something with him. I’m pretty sure I was the one who started with the “you know what we should do,” which is often such a big part of our conversations.
I know Tom is such a huge fan of the classic DC series “Kamandi”, and so we both understood immediately what this series could be. I’m also a huge fan of the Marvel 1970’s series “Killraven.” “Frankenstein: New World” isn’t modeled on either of them, but is certainly informed by both. The important part is that it really give us a view of what this New World is like. At the end of “B.P.R.D.,” the human world is over and all evil is expunged from the world. It’s a world of purity. A savage place, but without any evil at all. Until there is.
In many ways, “Frankenstein: New World” is not just a sequel to “Frankenstein Underground.” It’s picking up on threads from “B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know,” “Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible,” “Hellboy in Hell,” and even the recent “Sword of Hyperborea” miniseries. It could’ve been a very lore-heavy story, but instead it’s often quiet and still―you make space for the reader to simply exist in this world alongside Frankenstein and Lilja and observe it. And I know how precious page real estate is for comics, so I am very grateful you did this. For an arc called ‘New World,’ these moments are tremendously important.
Christopher: That was definitely purposeful and part of the plan from day one. This is a New World, and though yes, it does build on what came before, and yes, there are threads that connect it directly to the past, none of the characters in this world have any reason or need to know that. We know that. Readers may notice or they may not, and either way, that’s okay.
Continued belowThe evil that combined with the spoor of the giant walking mushroom things to create Murk—that evil is an old evil. The god underground that is part of the story of this first miniseries, that’s part of the old story. But its presence in the old story doesn’t matter at all to the characters in the New World. Murk is the New Evil. That god is the god of one people in this New World. Yes, somewhere on the other side of the world, Liz Sherman still exists and she senses the imminent birth of a new evil, but who she is only matters to us, not to the people of the New World. This story is all about exploring this New World and following the earliest stages of a new Good versus Evil. We wanted the experience that Frankenstein and Lilja are having to be the classic “walking the Earth like Kwai Chang Caine.” The wandering hero(es) motif. That quietness, the beauty of this wild new world, you’ll continue to see as much of that as we can give you as the story unfolds.
Thomas: Mike did such an amazing job of setting up this new world, it seemed a shame to weigh it down too heavily with what came before, if that makes any sense. Here was this pristine place, ready to be explored—all kinds of cool stuff just sitting there waiting to be exploited. I love how quiet we were able to make it—along with warring frog tribes, and new evil growing from the seeds of the old. Chris’s comparison to the old Kung-Fu show of the ’70s really nails it. Frankenstein as the wandering hero, and the reader experiencing these new wonders through his eyes. I feel that these are all perfect elements for a kind of Frankenstein story that we haven’t seen before.
I found it interesting how the point of view changed from “Frankenstein Underground” to “Frankenstein: New World.” In “Frankenstein Underground,” we get a sense of the life inside Frankenstein’s head. There are not only sequences where we are privy to his inner thoughts, but we even hear the voices of others that stick in his head and see how they torment him. In “Frankenstein: New World,” we shift to an external view of Frankenstein, especially since part of the story rests on him being a bit of a mystery to Lilja. But I think you found these beautiful moments that show how he has evolved.
It was heartening to see that the peace he found at the end of “Frankenstein Underground” is so much a part of him in ‘New World.’
Thomas: I feel that it’s kind of a natural progression for the character to be in a better, more peaceful place. When we first see him, it’s been thousands of years that he’s been sitting in a temple that’s been built around him, truly at peace with what had come before. It just seemed like this was how he would be. In a lot of ways, he’s like the world around him, in the past tormented and tumultuous, and now calm, waiting, ready for what this New World has to show him. It was really cool to show how he had evolved, along with his environment.
Christopher: We’ve purposely avoided setting out exactly how much time has passed since the end of “B.P.R.D.”—where we saw Frankenstein guiding human survivors into the Hollow Earth—and the first issue of “Frankenstein: New World.” It’s at least a thousand years, maybe twice that. So for at least a thousand years, Frankenstein has been meditating, pondering, reconciling everything that came before, both for himself and his personal experience and for the previous world. He saw the downfall of a world and the human race. He’s always had a kind of dreadful wisdom, a sadness to him, but though the wisdom remains, he has in many ways moved beyond the melancholy of his earlier existence.
The earlier stories needed more of that interior pondering simply because he had no foil, nobody to play off, but now we have Lilja. He wanted to stay alone, but Lilja refused to take no for an answer, and now they have become a pair, relying on each other. I love their dynamic. For me, there’s also an element to this story reminiscent of the old Norse tales of Thor on Midgard. Frankenstein isn’t a god, but in the context of this New World, he’s not that different from gods of ancient mythology wandering amongst ordinary mortals.
Continued belowAnd if Frankenstein is going to be a god among mortals, it’s fitting for him to have a suitably dramatic weapon. I’m curious what came first, this story or the tag at the end of “The Sword of Hyperborea” that shows a frog person wielding the sword?
Story by Mike Mignola and Rob Williams; Art by Laurence Campbell; Colors by Quinton Winter; Letters by Clem Robins
Thomas: HA! Seeing as we had no idea how “The Sword of Hyperborea” would end, I’m guessing that they just kinda happened on their own. That seems to be a thing—at least for me—with working on the Mignola stuff. You come up with a cool idea for a moment, and suddenly that moment fits/connects with something from another story to form an even more elaborate picture. It’s pretty darn cool.
Well, as Rob Williams tells it, that last scene was something Mike Mignola specifically asked for. It wasn’t in the original plan for the series.
Christopher: Now it makes sense. As Tom says, we had no idea that scene was coming in “The Sword of Hyperborea,” but it plants a flag somewhere in the future of New World. Of course, it could be centuries after the story we’re telling, but it feels perfect.
The sword has had a few bearers over the years, but it’s the most recent one that fascinates me the most―Lilja. Given that her name means lily and the significance of lilies in the Hellboy Universe, she’s clearly an important figure.
Christopher: It’s hard to really explain, but when we first started talking about doing this series, it felt as if there was a Lilja sized hole in the story. Frankenstein is stoic and wise. He’s intrigued by what the world above has become during his time underground, but he’s not going to show it. We’re in a world full of fascinating creatures and topography, full of the strange and wonderful, and we wanted someone who could and would react to that. It also felt important to have someone who would elicit a reaction from Frank (we call him that for shorthand, but that’s not how he thinks of himself). Once we created Lilja and started to work out how she fit into the story of the New World—with her dreams and visions of “the star lady,” we realized she wasn’t just a sidekick—that this story would be just as much about her as it is about Frankenstein.
Thomas: I think we needed a character with eyes of innocence. Frank has seen and experienced much in his many years of existence. We felt that we needed to have a character who was relatively new to everything—someone who hasn’t quite experienced as much as Frank has. Everything that they come across in their journey together is new and wondrous through Lilja’s eyes and maybe this is helping a somewhat jaded Frank see things differently. Lilja has really turned into a fascinating character, though, and she plays a really important part in the stories that lie ahead.
“The stories that lie ahead.” I like the sound of that.
We have one last interview in our retrospective series coming out tomorrow. And don’t forget to pick up “Frankenstein: New World” #4 in comic book stores December 28.
Written by Mike Mignola, Tom Sniegoski, and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Peter Bergting
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Clem RobinsLilja and Frankenstein’s exploration of the surface world takes a dangerous turn–between monstrous people and genuine monsters, not everyone will survive.
Frankenstein: New World, from Mike Mignola, Tom Sniegoski, Christopher Golden, and artist Peter Bergting, explores a new chapter in the world of Hellboy!
