Hellboy creator and recent Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Mike Mignola is having his art featured at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York City. The showcase will feature over 100 pieces of Mignola’s works including comic pages, illustrations, and watercolors. There will also be a free opening reception on Thursday, September 19th at 6 pm, with the gallery staying open until Saturday, October 26th, 2024.
The exhibit features over 30 watercolors plus over 100 black and white pieces, including 50 covers and 10 pages of original comic book art from Hellboy, alongside illustrations by Mignola for Beehive Books’ eagerly anticipated new edition of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio. The official, 64-page hardcover art catalog from the exhibit will feature 31 new watercolors focused on signature Mignola artworks including: skulls, monsters, and the supernatural.
Atop of this, The Philippe Labaune Gallery will host an invitation-only preview event of Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit on September 18, just before the free opening reception the day after. For those who’d like to attend the exhibit at any of these dates, the Philippe Labaune gallery is located at 534 West 24th Street in New York and is open from Thursday through Saturday, from 10am to 6pm.
“Encountering Mike Mignola’s work for the first time is like being dropped into a beautifully crafted dream; you find yourself inclined to remain there rather than waking up,” said Philippe Labaune. “Mignola’s work is eerily captivating. Reading Hellboy in my 20s, I was struck by Mignola’s artistry; his drawing ability, specifically the strength of the black-and-white, his linework, the character design, the depth of his compositions, combined with the narrative force of his images. These all set him apart. Now, some 30-years later, I have the privilege of presenting Mike Mignola’s first gallery exhibition—and not just showcasing his unparalleled linework, but also to share publicly his magnificent ability as a watercolorist, which has been revelatory to me.”
“It does seem like suddenly there is a whole lot going on,” said Mignola. “Most of these things have been in the works for ages but nice to have them out in the world at last—Especially as all this stuff (the paintings, Pinocchio and Bowling With Corpses) is about life beyond Hellboy. I still love Hellboy (of course) and have my hand in several new Hellboy related projects, but I’m excited to see a very new and different side of myself out there.”
The timing couldn’t be better as this gallery is coinciding with a book release party for Mignola’s upcoming title with IDW Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola. For any New York Comic-Con attendees, the gallery will also host a book release party during that time.
The Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit is part of the yearlong thirtieth anniversary of Mignola’s Hellboy. There has been a lot of Mignola’s work featured this year including Beehive Books recently published Pinocchio: The Illuminated Edition, which features more than 50 exquisite original illustrations from Mignola, alongside over 100 full text annotations by celebrated novelist Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events).
Atop of this, on January 2025 Dark Horse Comics will publish Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, an anthology of folklore-inspired fantasy stories written and illustrated by Mignola, colored by Dave Stewart, and lettered by Clem Robins. The book will be the first publication from Curious Objects, Mignola’s new imprint at Dark Horse and will set the stage for more weird, wicked, and whimsical stories in the “Lands Unknown” universe from Mignola and frequent collaborator, the acclaimed cartoonist Ben Stenbeck.
