Results tagged “Mike Conroy” from Birmingham Mail - Speech Balloon

MIKE MIGNOLA is the creator of Hellboy, the star of two hit live-action movies and animation features, plus of course a plethora of great comic books.

Ironically, Mignola began his career drawing adaptations of British sci-fi and fantasy author Michael Moorcock's Prince Corum books for First Comics.

He subsequently worked for the two major US companies, Marvel and DC Comics.

Among the books he pencilled for Marvel were the Canadian superhero group series Alpha Flight and, for its Epic imprint, Fritz Leiber's sword and sorcery novel favourites Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser (a collection now back in print from Dark Horse).

Work for DC included an eerie mini-series featuring The Phantom Stranger and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight the company's debut Elseworlds Prestige book.

In 1993 things began to hot up for Mignola when he created Hellboy for Dark Horse's creator-owned Legend imprint. A devil of a character, Hellboy has been described as the "world's greatest paranormal investigator".

Enthusing B-movie aplomb, pulp pastiche and a dash of American comic book icon Jack Kirby's visual dynamics to Mignola's own unique stylised approach, together with the spirit of adventure he imbued in the series, proved to be a strong sales incentive and swiftly found favour with fans and critics alike.

Mini-series have been collected into popular trade paperbacks, and a regular line of spin-off mini-series and their subsequent collections under the BPRD title heading come about, all before Hollywood came a calling wanting to turn Hellboy into movie magic.

Directed by Guillermo del Tora the 2004 Hellboy feature film proved a box office success and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army hit the silver screen in 2008. Keeping the franchise alive in between were the animated films Sword of Storms and Blood and Iron, available on DVD.

Mike Mignola himself has also produced design, illustration and storyboard work for animation and live-action films.

These include Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (subsequently drawing the comic series for Topps), an adaptation of his own comic The Amazing Screw-On Head for the Sci-Fi channel, Blade II, Batman: the Animated Series and Batman Beyond and has been heavily involved himself with the production of the actual Hellboy movies.

The Hellboy related comic book series remain in constant demand by fans. John Byrne dialogued the very first Hellboy mini-series and with Mignola's time at a premium these days he has branched out, allowing more co-creators to share in and empower his vision further, with Britain's own Duncan Fegredo as regular artist of recent series for the character.

Mike Mignola was a star guest at the UK's Birmingham International Comic Show in 2007 with fans coming from far and wide to see him.

The photo to the left is from that show and features Mike Mignola on the left, with Comics International publisher Mike Conroy holding Hellboy art. The photo, along with others from that year's show that you can still find featured on Speech Balloons were taken and (c) Jordan X.

Additional Information:

To order advance BICS 2009 tickets visit: www.thecomicsshow.co.uk

For more information on Hellboy visit: www.Hellboy.com

DESPITE RUMOURS claiming otherwise, Great Britain's longest-running comic book awards, The Eagles, still promise to take place this year, albeit somewhat differently.

The Eagle Awards were founded back in 1976 by Richard Burton and Mike Conroy and are the comics industry's longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading US and UK titles across the last 28 years ranging from The Uncanny X-Men and Saga of the Swamp Thing to MAD and 2000AD.

Cassandra Conroy is the Eagle Awards' new organiser and she recently made public her comments on the various rumours surrounding their future.

"When I took over the Eagles last year from my father, Mike Conroy - people said that I had an uphill battle to keep the Eagles at the top of the UK awards scene.

"When circumstances meant that the main hall of the Bristol Comic Con, our traditional place of ceremony over the years would not be able to be used in the evening, we realised that there was no way that the Eagles could be run as they usually are, for 2009 at least. But I didn't want my first year as organiser to be a no-show, and so after a lot of discussions and opinions, we're still going to be running the awards."

Cassandra has taken advice from some of the biggest names in comics, and she feels that the Eagles really do have a place in UK comics' history.

"Over the years we have had some of the fiercest competitions out there. When you have an award ceremony that has categories nominated by creators and fans and then voted for by creators and fans, the pressure for a creator to gain such a prestigious award is immense. We've had some of the biggest names in comics step up onto that stage to accept their awards, and although this year we cannot achieve that vision, in future years we will be back, bigger and better than ever."

She explained that, as far as the nominations process and voting goes, the Eagle Awards would be following their well known format.

"The nominations process will begin Friday 8th May 2009 on our website, eagleawards.co.uk. Just nominate your 2008 choice in each category and click return. Nominations close on Friday 22nd May 2009, and then we'll take the top five nominations in each section and place them up for voting to begin Monday 1st June 2009."

Unique in the comics industry, they reflect both the professional and the reader's choice, the Eagle Awards comprise two distinct stages: a nominations form allowing the entire comics community to choose their favourites, and that the top five nominations then appear on the voting form for the readers and fans to choose from, thus focusing the fans with no wasted votes.

Above: BICS 2007 special guest and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola with Eagle Awards creator and Comics International publisher Mike Conroy (Picture (c) Jordan X).

Cassandra Conroy concluded: "The winners of the Eagle Awards might not have a stage to stand on or an opportunity to give a speech this year, but they will receive an Eagle Award, whether in person or by other means. And the full list of Award Winners will be released to the world on Monday 15th June 2009.

'We might not have a meal this year, but we will have awards. We will have winners. And the best of the UK and US comic scene will still fight for the right to be showcased on one of the longest and most prestigious awards out there."

For more details visit: eagleawards.co.uk.