Stanford Humanities Center
On Thursday, October 13, we are bringing renowned comic artist and writer Mike Mignola to campus to discuss his magnum opus, HELLBOY (Dark Horse Comics) and other works. Mignola has written and illustrated HELLBOY from the series’ beginnings in 1993, and has also collaborated on other comics series set in the same fictional universe, what is called the Mignola-verse. Mignola challenged the superhero franchises of DC and Marvel comics and helped loosen their control over the comics industry by developing a startlingly rich and coherent creator-owned universe — one that has been adapted to film, animation, and video games. His work has won numerous industry awards, including the Eisner, Harvey, Eagle, Inkpot and Inkwell awards.
The LA Review of Books writes that Mignola’s HELLBOY offers “a blend of raw cartooning, elegant design, pulp revivalism, superhero action, Lovecraftian weirdness, and oddly personal forays into folklore, mythology, and legend.” The LA Times writes that “few creators have the ability to conjure up whole worlds at the mention of their name, but the fantasy world of the Mignola-verse is a very real place with a style and host of characters uniquely its own.”
Mignola will be in conversation with Stanford Professor of Film and Media Studies, Scott Bukatman, who recently published HELLBOY’S WORLD: Comics and Monsters on the Margins (UC Press, 2016) which Junot Diaz calls “a revelation . . . as complex, challenging and ‘monstrous’ as the comics it explores.”
This event is presented by the Graphic Narrative Project and the Stanford Storytelling Project with generous cosponsorships by the Film and Media Studies Program in the Department of Art and Art History, the Program in Modern Thought and Literature, and the English Department.
6:45 pm Meet and Greet with Mike Mignola (Stanford affiliates only, first come first serve. This will include a limited signing session, time permitting.) 7:30 Main Event (Open to Stanford affiliates at 7:10, general public at 7:20 space permitting.)
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