Welcome to Mignolaversity, Multiversity Comics’ home for all things Mike Mignola. Dark Horse Comics just sent us Mignola’s April 2020 solicitations featuring covers from Ben Stenbeck, Sebastián Fiumara, and Adam Hughes. Check ’em out below.
THE LAST KNIGHT OF ST. HAGAN #1 (of 4)
Written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Illustrated by Andrea Mutti
Colored by Lee Loughridge
Lettered by Clem RobinsOn sale April 15
FC, 32 pages
$3.99
MiniseriesSome hauntings are more potent than others.
A wily Polish spy, pursued by a group of Nazi enforcers, flees through the small town of Torun. The year is 1939, the beginning of the German occupation, and he carries important information for the resistance. But a bullet, a tomb, and a ghost—perhaps even God—have their own plans for the spy, and they will involve the mystical crusader knight St. Hagan.
Mike Mignola and Scott Allie join with artist Andrea Mutti and colorist Lee Loughridge to bring you this dark tale of bloody intrigue and otherworldly horror.
Mark Tweedale: Last year I wrote a piece about the comics I’d like to see from the Hellboy Universe, and among those was a series about the Knights of Saint Hagan. So, wish granted. This may seem like an oddly distant corner of the Hellboy Universe to explore, but Mike Mignola’s been dropping hints about wanting to do a series like this for close to a decade. And if you caught our Mignolaversity Debrief interview with editor Katii O’Brien earlier today, then you already know this isn’t all they have planned for the Knights of Saint Hagan. . .
The World War II setting is a surprise though, and yet also not surprising at all—this is a period of time where so many significant things happen for the Hellboy Universe, and there are references in so many stories to this era, but Mignola has struggled to find the right character to explore this period. In the past, he’s lamented that he killed off the Lobster in 1939 (see “Hellboy: Conqueror Worm”) as he would’ve been the perfect character for the task. We’ve also seen the era explored through Patrick Redding (pilot of the second Vril Energy Suit, Epimetheus, more commonly known as Sledgehammer) and Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (who I’d like to see more of in this era). However, “The Last Knight of St. Hagan” opens up the door to something unlike anything we’ve seen before.
FRANKENSTEIN UNDONE #4 (of 5)
Written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Illustrated by Ben Stenbeck
Colored by Brennan Wagner
Lettered by Clem RobinsOn sale April 29
FC, 32 pages
$3.99
MiniseriesFrankenstein discovers that one of his shipmates has been using him for his own selfish gain. Meanwhile, a mysterious artifact pulled from the arctic ice begins to exert its dark influence on Demmings, awakening the machinations of an ancient cult.
Mark: First “Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness,” now “Frankenstein Undone”. . . I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of the Black Goddess in 2020. And I gotta say, that Stenbeck cover looks awesome.
HELLBOY AND THE B.P.R.D.:
THE BEAST OF VARGU AND OTHERS
Continued belowWritten by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie
Illustrated by Duncan Fegredo, Ben Stenbeck, Christopher Mitten, and Adam Hughes
Colored by Dave Stewart and Brennan Wagner
Lettered by Clem RobinsOn sale June 24
FC, 160 pages
$19.99
Trade paperback, 7″ x 10″Face the mysterious Lambton Worm, track down an ancient corpse collector in the untamed wilderness, and more in this collection of monster meet-ups! Some of Hellboy’s most notorious exploits, including the story of Eisner Award-winning one-shot Hellboy: Krampusnacht, await in this new short story collection!
Mike Mignola and Scott Allie are joined by veteran Hellboy artists Ben Stenbeck, Adam Hughes, Christopher Mitten, and Duncan Fegredo to present stories collected for the first time in paperback, complete with bonus sketchbook section.
Mark: Screen Rant revealed Adam Hughes’ cover last month, which put to rest a big question as to how Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. would be collected. In essence, it’s two series co-existing under one title. We have the 1950s Occult Cold War plotline, which will continue with “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957” and onward, perhaps even into the 1960s; and we have the stories that jump around the timeline, which seems they’ll be collected together as soon as there’s enough material to fill a trade. “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Beast of Vargu and Others” collects ‘Return of the Lambton Worm’ (set in 1960), ‘The Beast of Vargu’ and ‘The Secret God of the Roma’ (both set in 1962), and ‘Saturn Returns’ and ‘Krampusnacht’ (both set in 1975).
So it would appear the next collection in the pipeline will be ‘Long Night at Goloski Station,’ ‘The Seven Wives Club,’ ‘The Return of Effie Kolb,’ and ‘The Miser’s Gift’ and probably one more one-shot (or perhaps the as yet uncollected short stories ‘Mood Swings’ and ‘The Last Witch of Fairfield’).
It looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” in future. While the book isn’t exactly monthly, it’s not hard to imagine it making that leap, alternating between stories from Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, and Scott Allie. And given the quality of Mike Mignola’s entries last year, I can’t help but be excited about what’s ahead.
