Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters was originally going to be the first thing I watched at this years Chattanooga Film Festival, but it wasn’t available until Monday night. It was something that I knew I had to see because I’m a fan of not only the Hellboy comics but also the movies as well. I know I’ve defended to Hellboy movie from 2019 and talked about my love for the character there but this documentary was about the man that created the character and universe.
Drawing Monsters gives you all kinds of funny stories about Mike Mignola. A personal favorite of mine in the movie was the story of Fizzball. Hearing the stories of him getting into the comics industry are both hilarious and harrowing. Mignola’s time in New York almost broke him, which I’m glad it didn’t. Hearing him talk about the rough times in the early part of his career makes it seem like no matter what there’s always a bit of luck involved in that industry.
Hearing all of the people that have been involved in making the wide variety of Hellboy and other Mignola related projects was really interesting. I had no idea that Mignola was involved in Atlantis: The Lost City, though his style wasn’t brought to the screen. The people that were directly inspired by him talking in the movie was amazing especially Rebecca Sugar. She talked about how much Hellboy influenced Steven Universe.
Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters is an amazing look at the creator of a huge universe. I feel like I didn’t touch on even a quarter of the information in the documentary but if I did this would be a dissertation length review and no one really wants that. This being the North American premiere is amazing. If you’ve ever wanted to know anything about the creation of Hellboy this is the documentary for you. I give Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters 10 paintbrushes out of 10.