On Thursday September 19th, 2024, the renowned Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York City will host the first ever gallery show for the legendary cartoonist and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. The exhibit will feature over 30 watercolors as well as 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 Philippe Labaune Gallery will host an invitation-only preview event of Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit on September 18, and a free opening reception at 6 PM on Thursday, September 19. The gallery will also host a book release party for Mignola’s Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola during New York Comic Con.
“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.”
The Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit is part of the yearlong thirtieth anniversary of Mignola’s Hellboy. The art exhibit and anniversary come in advance of the release of some high profile, eagerly anticipated releases from the artist, who was recently inducted into the prestigious Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Beehive Books recently published PINOCCHIO: THE ILLUMINATED EDITION featuring more than 50 exquisite original illustrations from Mignola, alongside over 100 full text annotations by celebrated novelist Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events). On October 15th, IDW will publish Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola, the official, 64-page hardcover art catalog from the exhibit, featuring featuring 31 new watercolors, which focus on many of the themes near and dear to Mignola: skulls, monsters, and the supernatural. And in 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.
“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 Philippe Labaune gallery is located at 534 West 24th Street in New York and is open from Thursday through Saturday, from 10am to 6pm. The roots of Philippe Labaune Gallery have a strong European influence: among the artists are esteemed creators such as Lorenzo Mattotti, Nicolas de Crécy, Guido Crepax, Dave Mckean or François Schuiten. In recent years, American artists such as Landis Blair, Rebecca Leveille Guay, Frank Miller, and Peter de Sève have helped Philippe Labaune Gallery to foster a community of overlapping art collectors and comic fans from all over the world.
The Hell, Ink, and Water: The Art of Mike Mignola Exhibit will be open to the public from Thursday, September 19, to Saturday, October 26.
About Mike Mignola: Reading Dracula at age 12 introduced Mike Mignola to folklore and Victorian supernatural literature, from which he has still never recovered. He began working as a comic book artist in 1982, working for both Marvel and DC Comics before creating Hellboy, published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994. What began as a single comic-book series would eventually expand to a “Hellboy Universe” of related graphic novels, prose novels, short story anthologies, and both animated and live action films. He also wrote and drew The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects. He has co-written novels with Christopher Golden (Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire) and Thomas Sniegoski (Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal), worked with Francis Ford Coppola on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, was a production designer on Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and was a visual consultant to Guillermo Del Toro on Blade II, Hellboy, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. A new Hellboy film directed by Neil Marshall was released in April 2019. Mike’s comics and graphic novels have earned numerous awards, and are published in a great many countries. He lives in Southern California with his wife and a very demanding cat.
About Philippe Labaune Gallery: Established by Philippe Labaune in 2021 in New York City, Philippe Labaune Gallery is the first contemporary art gallery in the United States specializing in high-end narrative art and illustration. The gallery set itself a course to highlight graphic design through showcasing the work of artists whose commonality is to explore new territories and de-compartmentalize the borders separating various modes of expression: illustration, painting, comic strips, and animation. The pivotal contributions of narrative artists in such cultural domains are showcased through a carefully curated collection spotlighting the convergence between fine art and comic illustration.
