He's awesome. I love the mood he conveys in his work.

Though I'm not as much a fan of his earlier superhero work- what's up with Captain Atom's torso?

It's his shtick.

Byrne has O-mouths, Davis has flat faces, Mignola has tree trunk torsos.

Which works perfectly for Hellboy!

You don't get exposed to that much radiation without some side-effects...

Amazing artist!

Plus I admire him as a creator and a businessman - the Hellboy Universe (and Screw on Head, and Baltimore, etc) has over 40 trades in print, novels, movies, toys, statues, cartoons, etc...all high quality stuff. He had a vision and stuck to it and became successfull with properties he owns. Bravo!

I think he may be the most successful of the creator-owned artists in building a long-lasting superhero franchise and brand...

I would say you are right. The movie helped a lot, not just because it was a movie based on his property, but because it was actually good.

It's achieved a lot of what McFarlane set out to do with Spawn. Todd's problem was that his comics and movie adaptation just weren't very good.

I immediately thought of Spawn when you mentioned creator-owned franchises and that is really what made me think about the movie. Spawn and Hellboy have similar histories and some similar themes, but Mignola just has a better quality product that has managed to "go the distance" better than Spawn, because Spawn just kind of sucks and Hellboy is pretty cool.

I actually think Spawn has a cool concept behind it but McFarlane doesn't have the writing chops to play it for all it's worth. I don't think it's Spawn that sucks, but more Todd McFarlane's writing ability.

Possible. I know little about Spawn.

If you know that it sucks, you know enough.

That has been my take on it.

I like the basic premise -- professional killer goes to hell, makes a deal with the devil to return to Earth to see his wife again... only it's five years later, she's re-married to his best friend and has a child, and he's this inhuman monster.

It's the kind of set-up that someone like Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman would probably get a lot of mileage out of... but McFarlane isn't even close to being them.

Hm. I might read that in the hands of a good storyteller. Oh well.

Yeah, nothing wrong with the premise of Spawn. As for the execution, I don't know because I've never been interested enough to find out; not nearly enough of a fan of Todd McFarlane, even as an artist.

Anyway, a couple of Hellboy magnets:

Also if you see the Hellboy movie and want to try out the trades - your in luck. Dozens of amazing stories with kick ass art (BPRD is also brilliant). The movie is a great feeder to even greater comics.

Spawn...not so much..!

I heard the Spawn HBO cartoon was actually pretty good.

Mignola is a groundbreaking artist.