DelToroCon interview with Mike Mignola

[middenway]

Read it here. (By our moderator too!)

[middenway]

I can play around in Hell forever! and I suspect I will, in one way or another I will. The weird thing that happened, that I didn’t expect to have happen, is the original idea was that I was gonna do the first couple issues as one big story and I was gonna ramble around and do whatever the hell I wanted, but I realized that there were a bunch of things that Hellboy had to do and certain things that need to happen and certain hoops he needs to jump through. So, instead of saying that I’ll get to it eventually,I kinda condensed all that stuff into twenty issues of comics. About four trade paperbacks, one of which is out already. So, three more of them to get us through all the hoops I need Hellboy to jump through and then I can just play. Then he I can just roam around and have his odd, weird little stories. I just want him to get his big job out of the way. That’s my five year plan. By the twenty fifth anniversary I should have wrapped up all that big story, then it’s playtime.

So over the next five years, he's planning to tackle another fourteen issues at least. 3 issues a year seems quite doable. I suspect by then the Abe Sapien ongoing and B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth will have wrapped up (if not, B.P.R.D. would have accumulated roughly 21 trades of material. I just don't think the cycle will run that long). Hell, if Lobster Johnson continues delivering a book a year, chances are it'll be close to ending by the 25th anniversary too.

It kind of makes me wonder if Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. will be the flagship title of the line by then. It is, after all, entirely possible that there is no B.P.R.D. stories set after the end of Hell on Earth, no new story cycle to follow.

Mignola speaks of having his Hellboy wandering in Hell, untethered by an ongoing story line. Perhaps this is what Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. could be for B.P.R.D.; free to explore over fifty years of the Bureau's history.

Given another five years, I think the Mignolaverse will be a very different place than it is today.

[Kees_L]

I see what you mean, Middenway, although:

Given another five years, I think the Mignolaverse will be a very different place than it is today.

Wouldn't you say as a reader, that all this story potential has been there already, even five or ten or twenty years ago? Albeit less established or not as accumulated in ways perhaps?

In the sense that eventhough much can happen and much can change within the storylines, all of it still appears to represent a very distinct and coherent world so to speak?

It kind of makes me wonder if Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. will be the flagship title of the line by then.

Does it matter that much what the *flagship title* would have to be, for the Mignolaverse I mean? I'd think there might be readers feeling especially or most initially enticed by either Hellboy or BPRD or Witchfinder or Lobster Johnson, as a genuine possibility? Like as if the books and stories are written and get presented in such a way that readers could really be to make their own minds up?

It is, after all, entirely possible that there is no B.P.R.D. stories set after the end of Hell on Earth, no new story cycle to follow.

As logical as it appears that the most currently ongoing BPRD events are unfolding towards some definite ending, there could still be some characters or actors from that setting as particularly needing to be performing certain stuffs, as personal quests or be it as joint efforts, even if all else could seem 'over and done with' basically?
I mean, if and when any such actors would be having a hand in or plight towards some overall ending to be brought forth, then who knows what story cycles would still be to follow or not?

Mignola speaks of having his Hellboy wandering in Hell, untethered by an ongoing story line. Perhaps this is what Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. could be for B.P.R.D.; free to explore over fifty years of the Bureau's history.

Yep. "Explore" seems a good word, for finding out what stories would still be there for the telling regarding Hellboy's and the Bureau's past. Evermore profoundly potentially as well, because of the accumulation and the "establishment" to the narrative overall, in how the stories and booklines have come to be unfolding.

Like due to how the books have been unfolding, the stories or arcs are brought forth in convenient or digestible chunks. And over time the reader might or could become to feel more and more knowing* - as much as the creator/orchestrator - potentially more than any characters themselves, how anything'd be looking for anybody potentially or at points particularly.

How characters could become to feel like persons or friends even, not merely as anything (chrono-)logical or on the surface, but by means of various perspectives more rather?

* feeling knowing regardless of outcome I'd mean, like as a creative experience seeming profound or possible, despite however favorable or definite a narrative could be to amount to.

[Joker]

I recall them saying there is a third cycle of BPRD that follows Hell on Earth.

[Skinkie]

I wonder what else is gonna come out of SDCC. Weren't there two upcoming series we didn't know about hinted at, or am I making that up?

[middenway]

I see what you mean, Middenway, although wouldn't you say as a reader, that all this story potential has been there already, even five or ten or twenty years ago? Albeit less established or not as accumulated in ways perhaps?

Yes, I would. It's what I love about it all. It's always changing.

Does it matter that much what the *flagship title* would have to be, for the Mignolaverse I mean?

No, it doesn't. It's just exciting I like when things get shaken up.

I recall them saying there is a third cycle of BPRD that follows Hell on Earth.

Yeah, I think there's been very vague talk about the possibility, but nothing definite.

I wonder what else is gonna come out of SDCC. Weren't there two upcoming series we didn't know about hinted at, or am I making that up?

There is, but news on the second one is a while off, as it won't be coming out until at least mid 2015. It's strange. 2015 will mark the third year in a row we'll be getting a new series. It's like in 2007 and 2008 when we got Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, and Witchfinder.

[Thomas UK]

Yeah, I think there's been very vague talk about the possibility, but nothing definite.

Who knows what's going to happen over the next few years, the Mignolaverse is so dynamic, it so fun to read a continuity that is progressing and not just re-hashing a tried and tested status quo. Things are probably going to get a lot worse, I think were poised to see the complete and utter ruin of civilisation as we know it, with the human race reduced to a few small population centres of a completely nomadic lifestyle. Man I'm beginning to sound like O'Donnel.

That said, we know that there are certain landmark events/stories in the future, Liz's visions from the end of the Plague of frogs saga seem to have teased a walking Panya and maybe Hellboy's return? Given that Mignola sometimes under-estimates how long it takes him to tell stories I hope that the BPRD and Hellboy stories manage to stay 'in sync' if he will eventually return. I've always been sceptical about that possibility though, I think when he does return to earth it will be in a big, universe ending, mythic final story.