Amazing Cosmic Mignola

Anyone who’s seen THE AVENGERS in theaters over the past few days or so should know by now that the dude with the big chin in the credits is Thanos, lead villain in THE INFINITY GAUNTLET, a famous Marvel event written in the ’80s by Jim Starlin, who also did a DC event called COSMIC ODYSSEY, which featured the art of Mike Mignola, who is the actual subject of this piece.

Mignola is best known for Hellboy, who is best known for his movie adventures.  Mignola is incredibly respected within the comics community as one of the most passionate creator-owned writer-artists in the business.  I have not actually read a lot of his work, but I do now have THE AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD AND OTHER CURIOUS OBJECTS under my belt, which is basically a short story collection and is a great introduction to Mignola’s style.

Irreverent, would be one way to put it.  Abraham Lincoln technically factors into the lead story, in the same way that I have technically made anyone currently obsessing over THE AVENGERS interested in what I’m actually writing about.  The lead character is a robotic head that screws into the necessary bodies to accomplish his adventures.  The other major story in the collection features Professor Snap, who is executed (“They did me like a pirate.”) in his efforts to discover what happened to his colleague Cyclops, and inadvertently thwarts a Martian invasion and gets a new body for his efforts (this one’s the real highlight for me).

Like Red 5’s excellent Atomic Robo (a fact I’ve been trying to make for years, and anyone who frequents Free Comic Book Day will always have an easy way to acquaint themselves with), Mignola, at least represented here, is easily one of the most fun talents around, with a distinctive art style that features bold, deliberate renderings in cartoonish fashion.  The only other time I’ve read stuff this fun (besides Atomic Robo) is the web comic PX! by Eric A. Anderson and Manny Trembley (collected into several volumes by Image).

Anyway, as I said, AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD is a good argument for Mignola’s place in comics history, just by itself, ably demonstrating the merits of his contributions and also a strong indication that creating collections like this is probably something more creators should do.  In notes on the project that follow the stories, he even explains how the effort allowed him to rework “Abu Gung and the Beanstalk,” redoing the art and expanding it by several pages.  It may be a small indication that what George Lucas has been doing with Star Wars hasn’t been as horrendous as some people tend to suggest.  It’s the creator’s prerogative.  Maybe you just need to hear someone else say it, casually, about something you probably won’t have seen the original version of.

Anyway, I highly recommend this collection, and I guess Mike Mignola in general.