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A masked avenger named Lobster Johnson should always fight a skeleton army with two guns and some kind of glowing-goggle mask. And yet so few people seem to understand this. That's why comic book artist/writer Mike "Hellboy" Mignola, creator of Lobster Johnson and many other mysterious heroes, rules. He is the man who understands how a fight scene should happen. How the monsters should be. How explosions should be. How giant robots should enter the picture, or giant scorpions, or brains inside bubbling vats. More Mignola fights below.
Though Mignola has drawn a million fight scenes for his most famous creation, Hellboy, I think some of his greatest fights can be found elsewhere. I love this action-packed cover Mignola drew for a Lobster Johnson comic because it contains all the most important ingredients of an awesome smackdown: a skeleton, a robot, a disembodied brain, and a scorpion. Really, it doesn't get better than that.
Mignola is also the creator of another brilliantly-named hero, the Amazing Screw-On Head, a robot head who fights giant monsters for President Lincoln in the nineteenth century. The comic, which won an Eisner Award, was made into an animated short featuring the voices of Paul Giamatti (as the Screw-On Head) and David Hyde Pierce (his arch-nemesis Emperor Zombie). Here you can see a great fight from the animated version of the comic book, right after Emperor Zombie raises a monster and the Screw-On Head fights it. Luckily, the Screw-On Head's sidekick Mr. Groin is there to help!
OK, the picture below isn't of a fight, but it demonstrates one of the reasons why Mignola is so great at composing fights. It's a picture of H.P. Lovecraft, his face defined by darkness rather than features. The backgrounds are complicated, murky, and evocative. And then there's the crowning glory, the tentacle snaking out of old H.P.'s pants. That is Mignola all over: a swirl of hyperbolic darkness, punctuated by a carefully-placed joke.
And no celebration of fight scenes would be complete without this great cover that Mignola drew back in 1990, for an Aliens vs. Predator comic book. Teeth! Stabbing! Darkness! Oh, yeah.
Comments
I'm going to have to take a photo of my original Mignola panel I have from the Third Wish and post here for bragging rights (will it give me bragging rights, please?).
I love Screw On Head. It's just so weird and fun. And say what you will about Indy 4 or Iron Man, the movie i'm most looking forward to this summer is Hellboy 2.
Awesome! Must get my hands on the Amazing Screw-on Head pilot ...
Mignola's work is some of my favorite. Interestingly enough, it wasn't his popular stuff that drew my attention. It was his take on Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser. I think it captured the mood of those stories perfectly.
...and then, of course, Iron Wolf was crack to a closet steampunk junkie.
"A masked avenger named Lobster Johnson should always fight a skeleton army with two guns and some kind of glowing-goggle mask."
Erm... for the record, he's only holding one gun in the picture. Unless it's the skeleton army that has the two guns?
But yeah, Mignola is my favorite comics artist by far.
I'm not into comics at all, but I remember reading, as a lad of 7 or 8, back in the mid '70s, separate comic books about alien invasions and WWII. The images above evoke memories of those old books. I've no idea what the titles were of the flying saucers & aliens books, but I think the WWII was Sgt. Rock. I can clearly remember looking at drawings of the horror of war done in only black, white, and red.
Not really fond of his artwork
@Oasx: Then you have no soul. Or if you do have one, it's a light and fluffy soul. Maybe one you stole from a CareBear?
MM teased us this weekend at the LA Festival of Books by saying he has another movie in the works- and it's not another Hellboy.
No other info. Damn him.
God I really wish the Amazing Screw-On Head had become a series. It would have been great. Oh well, it still has the option of going the animated movie route.
Where's the HPL picture from?
Definitely my favourite comics artist, with Guy Davis and Frank Cho coming in second and third, respectively. I absolutely agree on his compositions, how darkness defines every shape - it's just so... beautiful! Also, how almost every character piece, like the one of Lovecraft, is so reminiscent of those old photographies of yore when everyone was so carefully placed and situated. Fabulous!
Lobster Johnson. That guy is a legend. Mignola is brilliant for making a pulp hero named Lobster be so cool.
@CmdrHunt: Mmmm, I'm so eager for HBII to do well at the box office, not only because I love the franchise, but because that would make Del Toro go through with his wish of Lobster Johnson played by Bruce Campbell in the third! (Mignola has OK'd it, as long as they don't have to change his backstory)
Love love love Mignola. It's great to see careful composition combined with aggressive, unpolished linework in an era of super-smooth inks and computer coloring.
@jbq: It's kind of funny watching Del Toro do Mignola, because while he has a similar chiaroscuro sensibility his use of color and shape is sooo different. I still love the combination.
Ms. Kali has already championed "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" and "Ironwolf" but I had to add my 1.3ยข. I'm not a big fan of Howard Chaykin's dialouge (he always goes... crazy with...ellipses!) but Mignola's artwork based on two excellent exercises in world-building are great.
@Miranda Kali: Hahahah. I thought I was the only one who'd read Iron Wolf.
I like the rest, not a big fan of the HP picture, the tentacle coming out of his pants is too obvious. In a picture composed almost entirely of greytones, it was shaded pink? Can't fault the drawing though.
@jbq: The trailer for HBII is brilliant. First time I saw it, I had no idea what it was for and just thought "this movie is made of awesome, what is it?" and the big red guy doesn't show up till halfway through. Just cool images of... stuff.
@taxbaby: Agreed! It pleases me :-) I'm also one of the people who liked Blade II (apart from the dust-face in the end), mainly because of the (at the time) pretty unique visual style of Del Toro.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: I know! I just love that Del Toro and Mignola decided to work up a completely original story between them, and this non-Tolkienesque elf-deal is pretty cool in my book.
Wow. I forgot the awesome that was Screw-on-Head. Remeber the "VideoPhone?" It was just a picture with moving mouth and eye parts.
And more VSF then fantasy, so yay!
I can't agree more with this entire post. Not many artists have such crazy skill crossing so many areas...he creates gorgeous interior art that is moody and expressive, and in no way do I think anyone can duplicate the way he approaches cover art. Some series arc has limited palettes that harmonize with each other(1946), controlled compositions that echo through the whole arc, and are just...damn, I can't analyze anymore, it's just damn beautiful. Take a look at all 5 covers of Garden of Souls at once if you need to see what I mean.
@jbq: Have you seen 'The Devil's Backbone'? TELL ME YOU'VE SEEN THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. It's Del Toro condensed.
[www.imdb.com]
Lobster Johnson rocked, I hope there's more mini-series coming out.
@taxbaby: I have indeed. It's obligatory, isn't it?
@Plague: It's an adaptation of Baltimore, his illustrated novel with Christopher Golden. We're likely to see that long before a HBIII; Del Toro is going to be busy a while with hobbitses, and I think Mignola has said he's a bit disappointed HBII has more of Del Toro in it than of him.
I just wish Mignola got back to doing more comics. I know comparatively it pays for shit (oh, believe me, I know), but he runs the risk of going down Frank Miller's path where he forgets how to do quality comics while doing mediocre movies.
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