Mike Mignola redefined how comics can be made, what they should look like and what they can be with Hellboy. Now, 30 years on the artist’s new shared universe, Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, is set to shake things up all over again.
“It is entirely made of the stuff I love about old stories—myths and folklore,” says Mike about the new folklore-inspired fantasy anthology, written by Ben Stenbeck and illustrated with Mike Mignola’s trademark bold, minimalist and atmospheric art style.
Published by Dark Horse, Bowling With Corpses will be the first book from Mike Mignola’s new Curious Objects imprint, and launches the new Lands Unknown universe. This first book, Bowling With Corpses, features a boy who wins a prize from a corpse king, a pirate girl who strikes a deal with the devil and a vampire girl who, well… you get the idea.
Read my interview with MIke Mignola below, including an exclusive extract from Bowling With Corpses. If you like it, pre-order at Amazon or visit the Dark Horse website for more details. Inspired? Read our guide to the best digital art software and start creating, or read up on how to make an indie comic with advice from leading artists.
CB: What was the inspiration behind the book, and what’s your process for taking that story and expanding it into a new universe?
Mike Mignola: Well I fell in love with this odd little Italian folktale years ago and wanted to do something with it. I couldn’t figure out a way to turn it into something in the Hellboy world so it just sat off in a corner by itself.
But for a long time I’d had a vague idea of creating a fantasy world – an “almost-our-world” place where I could adapt folk and fairy tales into a fantasy setting. For example, doing a very loose adaptation of a Chinese story and setting in a place that has an Asian feel but isn’t our real world Asia.
And so while I started with this one story about a kid bowling with corpses, I went ahead and created a whole world so I’d have places to set other stories from all over our world – a sort-of Africa, sort-of Asia, sort-of Europe, etc. I actually got quite carried away with the world-building and ended up with a creation myth, history and a whole lot of maps.
CB: How does this book differ from your previous comics and graphic novels?
MM: This is entirely its own world. The Hellboy world is fantasy but it is set in more-or-less our ‘real’ world. I’ve done other books (The Amazing Screw-On Head, Radio Spaceman) that take place in some other worlds, but this is the only world that I’ve gone for as to actually create – with the plan to set a lot of stories in.
CB: Can you tell us about your creative process?
MM: That’s a tough one. I read a lot – I take things in and the stuff I like I chew over and try to figure out what I can do with it. The story about the boy bowling with corpses – I read that in a collection of Italian folktales and it went into the back of my head where I spent years chewing it over until I couldn’t remember how much of it was the actual folktale anymore and how much but stuff I made up.
It’s all about taking in things, mashing them together with other things, and chewing them over till they become yours. Then, finally you draw and write them. But there is a whole lot of chewing before I pick up a pencil.
CB: Are there any panels, characters or scenes you’re particularly proud of and why?
MM: I was very proud of the actual bowling sequence in Bowling With Corpses – the panels of the skull scattering the leg bones. Also the transformation scenes – wolf into man in Immortality Is Dust, and girl into bat into girl in Una And The Devil. I love doing stuff like that. That’s why drawing or painting single illustrations will never be as satisfying to me as drawing comics.
CB: What advice would you have for artists looking to get into comics?
MM: I have no idea. I [started] so long ago (1982) – it was an entirely different world then. I pretty much live in my own little bubble world now so I have very little idea of what goes on in most of the comic book world.
CB: If you could bowl with any character you created, who would it be and why?
MM: I don’t know if I’d like to bowl with those corpses, but the kid Yeb seems okay. I guess I won’t mind bowling with him. Also Una the vampire girl – I kind of love her but hate to think what would happen if I lost.
