The Art of Hellboy [Hardcover]

Mike Mignola (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2003

This stunning two-hundred-page hardcover looks at the evolution of Mike Mignola's art over ten years on his award-winning, soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture, creator-owned comics series. Featuring previously unpublished art, unused and unfinished covers, and drawing upon ten years of sketchbooks, The Art of Hellboy provides the ultimate inside look at Mignola's design, storytelling, and color work. Page after page of never-before-seen art reveals the labor involved in creating one of comics' most acclaimed creations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ottakar's Outland Magazine Issue 31, Autumn 2004 : "Rather like an X'-File' investigating the 'X-files', the lantern chinned, wisecracking Hellboy is one of the most endearing heroes to have emerged in comics for a long time, coming across as fresh, inventive, and, above all, highly entertaining." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mike Mignola is the acclaimed creator of Hellboy and Zombieworld, and has drawn Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Cosmic Odyssey, Aliens and Cloak and Dagger. His artwork has graced movies such as Atlantis and Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (April 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569719101
• ISBN-13: 978-1569719107
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike Mignola is best known as the multiple award-winning creator, writer, and artist of "B.P.R.D." and "Hellboy", but has fostered several other projects like "The Amazing Screw-On Head" and "Baltimore" with Christopher Golden. Although he began working as a professional cartoonist in the early 1980s, drawing 'a little bit of everything for just about everybody' - including characters like Batman and Wolverine - he was also a production designer on the Disney film "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Mignola also acted as a visual consultant to Guillermo del Toro on "Blade 2" and the film versions of Hellboy, which were broadly adapted by del Toro from the original comic series. Mike Mignola currently lives in southern California with his wife, daughter, and cat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Before you spurge on this, do consider..., May 12, 2004

By 

Jonathan (Langley, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Hellboy (Hardcover)

I would be warry of spending too many of your hard earned dollars on this book. I am a new fan to Hellboy, and absolutely love Mignola's art. However, the reason I would be heasitant about recommending this art book is that there is very little new art in it. Most of it is just rehashed covers, pages and posters. Probably about 10% of it is stuff that you've never seen before; which in my mind, does not warrant the hefty price tag. If you have all the books in the series then you already have 90% of the art found in this book. The sketches and other doodles that are only in this book can most likely be found floating around the net if you look hard enough for it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Art, Not Enough Process, May 2, 2007

By 

The Critic (Claremont, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Hellboy (Paperback)

Mike Mignola's amazing art for Hellboy looks very different from anything else being used in comics today. His distinct linework and inking style, combined with a well-honed eye for panel layout makes his artwork a perfect complement to his stories.

That said, this book is mostly a collection of finished art, covers and promotional pieces. What I really expected from an "Art of" book was process, sketches, and perhaps some discussion of technique. A fair comparison would be the recent Usagi Yojimbo art book or the Blacksad Sketch Files.

Maybe one of these days Mr. Mignola will put out a "Making of Hellboy" book that fills the gaps. The few sketches and thumbnails in this book really aren't enough.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great art collection, April 16, 2003

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Hellboy (Hardcover)

I paid retail for this book and have no qualms about doing so. It's defintely worth it, whether bought from Amazon or some other vendor. The Art of Hellboy is an oversized cloth-bound harcover with embossing, metallic ink, and a glued illustration on the cover. A fairly short introduction gets you set up for the barrage of Hellboy-related art that is to follow! You get color works, covers, pin-ups, sketches, preliminary drawings, comic page roughs, completed comic pages, concept art... the list goes on and on. The only downside is that many of these pieces have either been used in other Hellboy books or have appeared elsewhere. Still, it's nice to see them in a larger size. This is a beautiful book, end of story!