Anlässlich '20 Jahre Hellboy' hier mal eine kurze Biografie vom Autoren & Zeichner Mike Mignola von der Webseite goodreads.com, die es glaube ich sehr gut zusammenfasst. Mike Mignola gehört mit seiner Figur 'Hellboy' zu den wenigen Kreativen in der Comics- Branche, die es geschafft haben, über eine so lange Zeit mit so viel Erfolg 'ihr eigenes Ding' durchzuziehen. Bravo, Mr. M!

Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered.

In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics.

In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. While the first story line (Seed of Destruction, 1994) was co-written by John Byrne, Mike has continued writing the series himself. There are, at this moment, 13 Hellboy graphic novel collections (with more on the way), several spin-off titles (B.P.R.D., Lobster Johnson, Abe Sapien and Witchfinder), three anthologies of prose stories, several novels, two animated films and two live-action films staring Ron Perlman. Hellboy has earned numerous comic industry awards and is published in a great many countries.

Mike also created the award-winning comic book The Amazing Screw-on Head and has co-written two novels (Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire and Joe Golem and the Drowning City) with best-selling author Christopher Golden.

Mike worked (very briefly) with Francis Ford Coppola on his film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), was a production designer on the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). He lives somewhere in Southern California with his wife, daughter, a lot of books and a cat.

Quelle: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10182.Mike_Mignola

Anlässlich '20 Jahre Hellboy' ist auch der sehr günstige und schön gemachte Bildband Hellboy: The First 20 Years erschienen mit Entwürfen, Skizzen und Illustrationen zu Hellboy aus Mike Mignolas Hand. Die im Buch enthaltenen Abbildungen überschneiden sich nicht mit dem in 2003 (?) erschienen Bildband The Art of Hellboy.



Vorschau zum Buch: http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/Previews/24-471