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# Meet the Monster Artist Who Created the Hellboy Universe
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/mike-mignola-talk-hellboy-society-of-illustrators/
- Published: 2018-04-11T16:54:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:10:33.000Z
- Description: On Friday, the Society of Illustrators hosts a talk with Mike Mignola, whose signature style includes careful compositions, large swaths of dark ink, and shadowy humanoid monsters.
- Author: Daniel A. Gross
- Tags: Art, Events, Society of Illustrators, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/04/societyill-022-copy.jpg)

Mike Mignola, The Goon issue #7, pages 1, 2, 3, and 26 (2004), pen and ink (all images courtesy the Society of Illustrators)

The most successful comic artists aren’t credited with creating books — they’re credited with creating universes. The work of [Mike Mignola](http://artofmikemignola.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the creator of *Hellboy*, is sometimes described as the “Mignolaverse.” His signature style includes careful composition, large swaths of dark ink, and shadowy humanoid monsters. On Friday, Mignola will speak with comics scholar Karen Green [at the Society of Illustrators](https://www.societyillustrators.org/events/conversation-mike-mignola-and-karen-green?ref=hyperallergic.com), to coincide with a [current exhibition of Mignola’s work](https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/mike-mignola?ref=hyperallergic.com) at the Museum of Illustration.

Mignola started his comics career as a teenager in 1980s California, where he attended art school and illustrated for *The Comics Reader*. According to the Society of Illustrators website, Mignola moved to New York in 1982, “hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living.” Over the years, he’s worked for both Marvel and DC, and created his best-known series, *Hellboy,* for Dark Horse comics. The premise and art are both delightfully strange: Hellboy is an idiosyncratic demon originally summoned by the Nazis. (He was also the star of [a 2004 movie](https://youtu.be/VTZB7u3iFaA?ref=hyperallergic.com), directed by Guillermo del Toro.)

Mignola’s talk this week will examine some of his favorite works from his almost four decades in comics. [Karen Green](https://twitter.com/klg19?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&ref=hyperallergic.com), Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University, will help guide the discussion. [Tickets](https://www.societyillustrators.org/shop/buy-tickets/1873?ref=hyperallergic.com) cost between $15 and $30, and a cocktail reception will follow.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/04/societyill-046.jpg)

Mike Mignola, cover of the Eisner Award-winning The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects (2010), pen and ink

**When:** Friday, April 13, 6:30–8pm ([exhibition](https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/mike-mignola?ref=hyperallergic.com) on view at the Museum of Illustration until April 28  
**Where:** Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan)

*More info at [Society of Illustrators](https://www.societyillustrators.org/events/conversation-mike-mignola-and-karen-green?ref=hyperallergic.com).*