2020 was a bad year, but having new drawings from Mike Mignola almost every day was an absolute joy. And since these drawings weren’t for an upcoming project, they’re free to go in some really strange directions. Yes, there are demons and witches and skeletons as you’d expect from Mike Mignola, but there are also the Flintstones and Giant Robot Batman and Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan. And there’s something about having gone through 2020 and coming out the other side with this artifact that stirs up wonderful feelings from a time that was far from wonderful—it embodies a special kind of hope and optimism, the kind presented (as only Mike Mignola would) by a bunch of skull-headed fellows in smoking jackets.
Written and illustrated by Mike MignolaDuring the coronavirus quarantine, legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola posted original pencil sketches online and auctioned off the art to raise money for Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen. The sketches went viral and were the talk of the comics internet.
Now those sketches are published in print for the first time, with all profits going to the World Central Kitchen.
This new, oversized hardcover collection is a must have for Mignola readers and art fans alike. The book features an introduction by Mignola, alongside sketches of Hellboy, beloved and unexpected pop culture characters, macabre chess pieces, gothic vegetable creatures, strange vampires, and more.
Most of you probably know Dark Horse as a comics publisher, but there’s much more to them than that. They’ve become especially good at doing art books, so much so that I find their art books are produced at a higher standard than some publishers specifically dedicated to producing art books. Their Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra art books are among the best I’ve ever seen for television shows.
This is very good news for fans of Mike Mignola. We’ve had The Art of Hellboy in 2003, Hellboy: The First 20 Years in 2014, and Hellboy: 25 Years of Covers in 2019 (not to mention the lavish sketchbook sections of the “Hellboy” library editions). Whenever a new book is released, it always builds on the foundation of all those previous. Mike Mignola: The Quarantine Sketchbook fits alongside The First 20 Years and 25 Years of Covers, feeling like an extension of that set, and yet it’s also very much its own thing. We’ve never had a Mike Mignola art book quite like this, which revels in an artist at play.
And because Mignola was at play, we caught moments of creation we very rarely get to see playing out almost in real time. Something appeared in a drawing, then evolved over the next few days. In a recent interview with Mignolaversity, Mignola spoke about how some of these drawings are evolving into stories.
You’re obviously not new to doing pinups, but did any of these images give you the desire to create something sequential from them? Sections like the giant cavemen or the Zoola variations seemed almost like character design for bigger projects.
MM: I did make up a Giant Caveman story but haven’t done anything with him. But I loved that guy as soon as I drew him, and instantly knew his world. It’s the same with Radio Spaceman, and there IS something in the works with him. I also LOVE Zoola, Queen of the Bat People, but I think maybe she works better as a character for pin-ups. Any kind of story with her starts to explain her, and I think she works better as a complete mystery. I do want to go back to her one of these days, and do more drawings and maybe some paintings. It was so much fun creating these few new characters — Radio Spaceman, Giant Caveman, Zoola. None of them were even a thought before I just started drawing them.
For me, this is about as close to magic as we’re ever going to see in this world.
These drawings were a quintessential part of my 2020. Some days, when I was working alone in my apartment and hadn’t spoken to anyone in a week, they were the highlight of my day. It was something to look forward to and I thought of each day of the week in terms of the sketch associated with it. “Ah, Monday, that was Goom. And Tuesday, that was Googam, son of Goom.” Time and time again, Mike Mignola gave me a reason to smile on days when I otherwise wouldn’t have.
Continued belowHowever, not everything could make the cut for Mike Mignola: The Quarantine Sketchbook. Many drawings were of copyrighted characters, and for some it was simply too difficult to obtain permission to print them. As much fun as it would’ve been to revisit all the cereal mascots or Pokémon Mignola drew, it just wasn’t feasible. Personally, the one that I miss the most was Mignola’s take on Asterix and Obelix as a tribute to Albert Uderzo. It was a truly beautiful piece. Still, I’m in awe of how many licenses editor Katii O’Brien and the team at Dark Horse were able to secure. Marvel, DC, Disney, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, General Mills (Yes, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula all made it into the book!) and more. . . This is a major part of the work behind a book like this, and they did a fantastic job.
And all of this is in the service of charity. All profits for this book will be going to Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, so I really want to give some attention to the person that came up with the idea of doing these drawings in the first place, Mike’s wife Christine Mignola. While these are Mike’s drawings, Christine was behind the auctions for the pieces and posting them out to everyone. It is a huge amount of work and as a long-time fan of Mike’s, I just want to say how lucky we are to have Christine working behind the scenes. She was so active on social media too, answering questions from fans, and trying to be as flexible as possible. At the beginning, the drawings were shipping all over the world, but as the postage in the U.S. became more complicated, it ended up being restricted to America. Still, I remember a time in transition there, when she was dealing with all the postage complications, and it was truly a herculean effort.
We don’t really see this in Mike Mignola: The Quarantine Sketchbook. Her efforts made it possible, but all we really see is page after page of stunning drawings, laid out with space to breathe, giving the book a feeling of effortlessness. But I see the work you did, Christine. So many fans do. And we just want to say…
