Hi, Folks!

It’s the week of Christmas, so I don’t know how many people will be keeping up with blogs.  I can only assume that some of you are busy doing last minute shopping, or traveling, or decorating, or what have you.

I week or so ago I purchased “Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus,” written by Mike Mignola.  This is a fun book, yet Mignola has gotten so much cache nowadays that it’s not a “guilty pleasure,” per se.  It’s all mystery men, zombies, Nazis, dragons, Asian crime lords, and action.  The writing is very spare, and it seems that the only words that made it to the page were those absolutely necessary for telling the story.

(In fact, Lobster Johnson reminds me a lot of Johnny Saturn.  Both are tough, humorless, laconic tough guys.  This is no surprise, because both characters are pulled from the same hard-boiled genre.)

This leads me into an appreciation of Mike Mignola, the cartoonist.  The original draw for me was his art—I assume everyone here is familiar with his style, but if for some reason you live under a rock here is his website.  Adjectives for his beautiful work would include: moody, Gothic, abstract, chiaroscuro, and Jack Kirby-like.  His dead-weight line art and copious use of black make his art less than appealing on most mainstream superheroes (other than Batman, of course), but it is perfect for nourish supernatural tales.

As a writer, Mike Mignola has an odd style that is hard for me to pin down.  As I mentioned, his language is sparse, reminding one of Robert E. Howard’s Conan and REH’s muscular writing.  His plots are often simple to the point of absurd, and often reminiscent of old fables and folk tales, but with special Mignola twist.  My favorite thing about his writing is that monsters are people until proven otherwise.  Really, you could summarize his whole Hellboy arc as one of Nurture, not Nature.

Incidentally, if your knowledge of Hellboy depends on the Guillermo Del Toro Hellboy movies, this is not a substitute for Mike Mignola’s own work.  The Del Toro Hellboy is good (especially the first movie), but your research cannot end there.

Mike Mignola is big time, and it’s very unlikely that he would ever read these words.  But, if you haven’t yourself explored Mignola’s work, and you enjoy Johnny Saturn, then I really strongly suggest you pick up some of the Hellboy graphic novels.  It is, after all, the week of Christmas.