Mike Mignola looks back at 2015... and ahead to 2016

[mscorley]

Oh, no I guess all the soldiers there are in those suits.. nm

[middenway]

So what are your thoughts Mark?

Is this real or just fake Memnan Saa images shown to Liz?

I'm still thinking it's real. Eventually all this stuff will happen.

[mscorley]

I'm still thinking it's real. Eventually all this stuff will happen.

Soooooo..... Hellboy will get out ... of Hell? o.O

[middenway]

The final part of the interview is now live. Mike Mignola talks about Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953, 1954, and even 1956. He also discusses the future of Witchfinder. But the big stuff is all about Hellboy in Hell ending in 2016.

[Joker]

I guess part of me hopes it's just the end of the In Hell suffix, and not new Hellboy stories period. (not including and the BPRD, I mean new, set in the present of Hellboy's life)

But I also don't know how you go from forever, to 4 trades, to ten issues without there just being a lack of interest in doing the work, so I won't hold my breath.

[middenway]

I guess part of me hopes it's just the end of the In Hell suffix, and not new Hellboy stories period. (not including and the BPRD, I mean new, set in the present of Hellboy's life)

But I also don't know how you go from forever, to 4 trades, to ten issues without there just being a lack of interest in doing the work, so I won't hold my breath.

I can assume you, there's no lack of interest. Talking to him, he's obviously really excited about this. Whatever he's got in mind, it's going to be good.

And if he wants, he can always tell little short stories wandering through Hell set between #5 and #6. Like he said, Hellboy had a few adventures with those two skeleton guys between those issues.

Plus I'm very interested to see what a year of painting produces.

[Joker]

No no, I mean, there's a choice of words he's using when he's talking about it. Can I make this less books? To the point of cutting the story that had to be told in half. That's not someone who wants to keep drawing Hellboy wandering around hell having adventures after that. That was the original premise, so, it sounds like that premise lost its interest for him.

And he doesn't have to want to keep doing that. That's fine. It's his character, his work, his life, he can do what he wants. I won't begrudge him that.

I'm just sad to lose what I think is one of the most unique and special comics being published. There is literally nothing else like it. I can't say that about many other comics. Or voices in comics. In Hell was, for me, the best of the Mignola books. Losing that is a huge bummer.

[middenway]

I loved the idea of a bunch of short one-shot stories in Hell too. I guess I'm not fully convinced they'll never happen. I feel like he's purposefully leaving little gaps that he can fill with inconsequential short stories some day when the grand narrative has ended.

[Joker]

I'd love it if they did, but that seems a ways off, so like I said, I won't hold my breath.

It's just sad to lose such a strong book so much earlier than we'd been led to believe.

[topfueluhl]

This is sad and surprising news for sure. But at the same time I can't wait to see what he comes up with in issues 9 and 10!

Do you have any idea when issue #9 will be released?

[mscorley]

This is sad and surprising news for sure. But at the same time I can't wait to see what he comes up with in issues 9 and 10!

Do you have any idea when issue #9 will be released?

If I read it right, sounds like they should both be out before Summer 2016

[middenway]

Do you have any idea when issue #9 will be released?

The Vulture article said "early next year", so I assume June at the latest, April at the earliest. (I seriously doubt April though.)

[jeremypowell]

I have an idea that this might be happening largely because of Arcudi choosing to leave "BPRD" (and therefore to wrap up "Hell on Earth") sooner than Mike and Scott expected. My theory is that the plan has been to tie the plot of the end of "Hellboy in Hell" into the ends of "Abe Sapien" and "Hell on Earth". When Arcudi decided to step down, Mignola was suddenly faced with the possibility of cutting "HB in Hell" short in order to preserve the proper timing on the planned crossover, and realized that possibility actually appealed to him. I even suspect that the upcoming Ashley Strode arc may have helped with this revised timing (given Mike's well-known slow pace) by padding out the last run of "Hell on Earth" with a couple of non-Arcudi issues.

That is my theory, and what it is too.

[Kees_L]

Well... I don't quite understand what is actually being announced here. Since I feel to have heard about the 'painting sabbatical' months ago already.

Now that painting is going to happen once Hellboy In Hell has ended. But not B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth together with Abe? Or will those end in 2016 as well?
Whereas Hellboy & the BPRD is gonna continue, together with Witchfinder?

To me Hellboy In Hell as being drawn by mr Mike has felt like being *the grand narrative* actually. I don't expect the story world could keep me interested if mr Mike wouldn't do any interior art on it further, as how Hellboy In Hell made possible. Whereas such stuff as the Memnan Saa photos "being real or not" or the BPRD "reuniting" I really do not understand, at all.

I can't really see the point of ending Hellboy In Hell prior to ending BPRD really, since Hellboy is the BPRD and the BPRD = Hellboy. But yeah, we'll see I suppose.

[Angilasman]

Man, I'm blindsided, confused... but oddly, not too worried. Mike and Co. have consistently made these books great, and even if it feels like a cheat to promise an indefinite amount of something only to cut that order pretty short - well, damn, these issues of Hellboy in Hell have been the best work Mike's ever done! How can I be mad at such quality?