Legendary writer/artist Mike Mignola has been bringing his particular brand of spooky to comics for nearly forty years. Although most famous for his Hellboy universe, Mignola has created other iconic supernaturally-themed comics over the years, like Joe Golem and Baltimore. Now, he’s delving into ancient folklore in his new hardcover graphic novel, Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown. We got the chance to chat with Mignola about his newest dark fantasy book, and the shared universe for Dark Horse Comics he’s started with it, Curious Objects.
Nerdist: When did you first come up with the concept for Bowling with Corpses? Is this something that came to you relatively recently, or has this been brewing in your head for some time, just waiting for the right moment? And was this something you could only tackle with Hellboy now largely in your rearview mirror?
Mike Mignola: For a long time I have wanted to create a place where I could concentrate on very loose adaptations of folk and fairytales. I’ve worked a lot of that stuff into Hellboy but really wanted to do them as their own thing. And as I do feel that I’ve done about everything there is for ME to do with Hellboy, it felt like now was the right time.
Bowling with Corpses is really told as a sequence of fables. It’s like a love letter to traditional folklore. What made you want to switch up from more straightforward comic book narratives like Hellboy to a form of storytelling rooted in something far older?
Mignola: I’ve always loved these old stories, I feel like I’ve been sliding more and more in this direction. So it seemed like just a natural step to concentrate on the stories themselves rather than one central character. I went so far as to create a WORLD before I had most of the stories or characters. I had the one story—Bowling With Corpses—but didn’t want to make that boy in that the central character of the series. so I created a whole new world, its mythology and geography. And I let the new characters and stories grow out of that.
There are a lot of classic monsters in these tales. And you’ve drawn these creatures before in things like Hellboy. And even going back to your adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. How did you approach doing these old folkloric monsters, but in a newer way?
Mignola: My goal isn’t usually to present monsters in a NEW way. If anything I’m usually trying to go backwards, to go back to the folklore roots of the characters. The real joy for me is going back to old stories, and discovering so many fantastic creators that are largely unknown. Those are the things I want to play with—those are the stories I want to tell.
There are a lot of references in these stories to creation myths, and the role of gods in relation to man. These are all obviously big heady ideas here. Did you struggle with finding a way to distill them down into relatively short, entertaining tales?
Mignola: There is a lot of that to do with this world. I created a bunch of gods and a mythology and I did tell a very short version of the creation myth here in the first book. But there is so much more to it. So many more layers. And my goal was to present that as background to be referenced in stories rather than (in most cases) the actual subject of the stories. It’s important for me to know how everything connects. But the reader should never be presented with the complete picture—certainly not all at once. As Ben and I do more stories, more will be revealed. And the reader will, I hope, get a better feel for the world and how it works. But I never want to shine too much light into all the dark corners.
This book begins a new Dark Horse imprint for you, Curious Objects. Will all the books coming out under the Curious Objects banner be a part of this shared universe? Or will any stand alone?
Mignola: I believe the Curious Objects imprint is just a place to gather all the books I’ve created or co-created together. So all the new stuff, as well as Hellboy, Baltimore, Screw-On Head, etc.
Bowling With Corpses is described as the start of a shared universe. How will your shared universe differ from all the others currently out there?
Mignola: Ben Stenbeck and I will share this world. So far I’ve done the bulk of the “world-building”—creating the rough origins, mythology, drawing up the maps. But as Ben contributes, all that will become richer and more complicated. Most of my stories in this first book take place in a certain area, but it’s a whole world. Ben’s first story starts in a place I haven’t touched on. The plan is that eventually we will flesh out the world. There are a lot of places to go—a lot to play with, create, a million stories to draw upon. I hadn’t thought to start anything this huge following 30 years of Hellboy, so I’m very happy to share this thing with Ben. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun here.
Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown is now available from Dark Horse Comics.
