Movie Review: Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters

This documentary explores the humble beginnings of artist Mike Mignola’s life and career and continues the journey to his juggernaut success with Hellboy the the BPRD universe spawned from it.

Most of the time when you when you watch a documentary on the life and work of a comic artist you are treated to a 30 minutes to perhaps a full hour of film dedicated to this subject. This documentary, however, goes deep giving us a feature length run time of over 90 minutes to really get into the ins and outs of what Mignola and eventually Hellboy are all about. I find that as a comic artist and writer myself, that learning about the struggles and triumphs, processes and journey of one of my idols to be incredibly insightful. This is indeed the case here. Given how popular Mignola and Hellboy are, its difficult to imagine a time when they weren’t a household name at comic cons and even broader after the films were released.

We are privy to Mike’s early life and the events that shaped not only him as a person but as a creator and even his creations. How the loss of his mother at an early age affected him and how his stoic father would later be given new life in the form of Hellboy as the long suffering, working class monster hunter with blue collar sensibilities. Mignola opens up in this documentary is ways unexpected for a self professed shy man, but then success has thrust him into the public space and he’s had to get used to it I’m sure. We do learn that this was also a major aspect of his struggle to achieve his seemingly simple dream of drawing monsters for a living. This path would end up being far more rocky than I expected given that others had succeeded in this arena before Mignola.

One of the most remarkable reveals for me was that Mignola is not a good superhero artist. I found this amusing because I always liked his work for Marvel and DC, particularly the graphic novel Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment. Not surprising though since this story is right up his alley, it being full of monsters, magic and demons.

The film shows us what an avid collector of literature and mythology the man is, his bookshelves pridefully packed with classic gothic ghost stories and other esoterica. We see how this has become fundamental to Mignola as a creator of his own world, the world of Hellboy and the expansion of the BPRD. From the initial joke of a sketch, to the pitch to Dark Horse comics, the films that followed are particularly fascinating. Every good hero needs an origin story and with this documentary we are treated to the origin of the origin story.

There is quite a lesson to be had here in terms of commercial Its success as well as this might well create opportunities for partnerships and expansion into other media. Mike having to learn how to let go of his characters and trust other writers, artists and filmmakers with them is something I haven’t seen in other documentaries about comic creators though I’m sure this has come into play. Mignola continues to write and draw of course and he also oversees the work of others, to maintain that continuity of theme, art and purpose to the rich world he has created while accepting that Hollywood and even Hollywood friends such as Del Toro need to be free to inject their own creativity into a project.

Mike has achieved something quite rare in the industry, of creating his own expensive comic book universe under the guidance of one man. I for one and quite glad for this, that all of his trials, fears, turmoils and ultimately passion for creating the macabre has led to Hellboy and beyond. Like Dr Frankenstein he has birthed a monster that has a life and will of its own, a thing that will long outlive its creator.

IT’S ALIVE…ALIVE!

SCORE: 5 out of 5

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