Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Dark Horse Comics, Documentary, Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: documentary, guillermo del toro, Jim Demonakos, Kevin Konrad Hanna, mike mignola, Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters

Drawing Monsters Directors on Hellboy's Onscreen Future & More

Drawing Monsters directors Jim Demonakos & Kevin Konrad Hanna spoke to us about the future of Mike Mignola's Hellboy franchise & more.

Directors Jim Demonakos and Kevin Konrad Hanna aren't only passionate fans of the Dark Horse Comics franchise, Hellboy, and wanted to tell the story of its creator in Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters. The documentary from Ketchup Entertainment covers Mignola's rise in the comics industry, his studio, demonstrations, comic book conventions, and the talent behind the first two Guillermo del Toro live-action franchise films in 2004's Hellboy and 2008's Hellboy II: The Golden Army that starred Ron Perlman. The two spoke to Bleeding Cool about how they feel about Hellboy's on-screen future, if they feel the franchise had suffered from burnout from comic fans, what they've learned from doing their first documentary, and their future.

Drawing Monsters Directors Jim Demonakos and Kevin Konrad Hanna on Hellboy's Possible Future After 'The Crooked Man' and If Guillermo del Toro and Mike Mignola Will Work Together Again

Bleeding Cool: How do you think the 'Hellboy' franchise moves going forward? Would it hinge on how 'The Crooked Man' goes? Are there possibilities to expand to TV or streaming?

Demonakos: I understand what you're saying. Regardless of the performance of 'The Crooked Man,' would there ever be a team up again of Guillermo and Mike doing 'Hellboy' again to finish off the original trilogy? I'm going to say no, and I'm not being negative. Everyone has moved on. It was a time in their lives, and they made a couple of incredible films. Financially, socially, and whatever circumstances made, they wouldn't finish that off.

In terms of 'Hellboy,' like they tried the 2019 one, we'll see how 'The Crooked Man' does. Things are moving forward, and no one has an appetite. Fans have a dream this would happen, and we're fans as well. I would have loved to have seen a third and "final movie." At the same time, there's been half a dozen Batman, and it feels like more than that with Spider-Man. The story of 'Hellboy' is strong enough and has so much stuff they're creating more moving forward. I don't feel we will see any team-up that would, unfortunately, satisfy anybody's nerdy dreams of seeing that happen again. I could see Guillermo and Mike working on something together; that thing would not be 'Hellboy.'

Hanna: Honestly, I'm more excited about the prospect of them creating something new together or something else from Mike or Guillermo that would be interesting and cool. Where studios are today, I won't say "Never," but there would be a lot of conditions that would have to line up in a way that seems unlikely. Who knows? Things change all the time.

To expand on that, the market has changed since the two first del Toro came out and the 2019 film. We've had hits and misses; some would say more misses as of late. Do you think there's a backlash on the genre itself where the fanbase might be burned out to where a smaller IP might have more of a difficult time penetrating the market considering how much has been out there?

Hanna: Regarding genre movies, horror movies, comic book movies?

I mean the comic book movie since we're on the subject.

Hanna: A good movie is a good movie, and if the movie has legs, it's entertaining. If it's engaging, it'll be successful. We're past the time where you could put a popular comic book character on a movie poster and people would just show up. A lot of people liked the 'Blue Beetle' (2023) movie, but they never showed up for it. There's been a couple of movies like that recently, but I think if 'The Crooked Man' movie resonates with fans. People won't be burnt out on 'Hellboy' by any means.

Demonakos: Agreed. I don't have anything more to add to expand. A good movie is a good movie. If 'The Crooked Man' is a good movie, it'll do, or it won't. As Deadpool and Wolverine (2024) showed, if you make something fun and entertaining, suddenly, everyone forgets the last three Marvel movies.

What was it about this project that taught you as creatives about the process and everything you may not have learned before?

Demonakos: So much. This is our first documentary film, and I went from being a novice to, I wouldn't say, "master," but novice to at least "competent" on how to put together a film and all the nuance that goes into it. There's so much that, for me, this is a learning process, and I couldn't have done it without Kevin. I'm so grateful to have someone who has already been in this world able to help guide this and make my first experience directing such a pleasure. I feel so much more confident doing it again, and I would have done it again with no regrets. I would have done a lot of things differently, knowing what we know now in terms of how it is to make a film. In the end, it's such a pleasure to be able to put this thing together and put it out for people to see with one of my good friends.

Hanna: I couldn't have done this without Jim. There were a lot of long nights, and I was traveling across the world. We'd sit on trains and airplanes and prep for our next interview and try to do all the research. Jim has so much knowledge and understanding of the world, but the comic book world, both of us, is iron sharpening iron. We were our own Mike and Guillermo; you can decide who is who. We made each other better by a lot and took a lot of inspiration from these great creators we worked with.

Working with interviewing Mike, Guillermo, and so many other awesome people about art that moves and creates. This is absolutely a story about Mike and his creative journey. It is a story about translating what happens when the thing you create moves out in the world and becomes not yours anymore. It's also a story about creativity, Mike's creativity and the people like him who collaborated with him, what that means when you have to fight for your vision, what it means when you butt heads against people you love and respect, and their fighting pushed us to make something better as well.

Anything you guys have lined up in the future for projects?

Demonakos: Nothing we can talk about right now, but we are working on more documentary films. Hopefully, when we're able to talk about it, you'll be one of the first to know.

Hanna: I'll pitch harder because we were so excited about how many people resonated with this film, and we did well initially as a crowdfunded documentary—the initial crowdfunding with the audience reception with us doing well in the film festival circuit. We won a lot of awards. I don't know if we were expecting that, but we tried to tell an important story. We feel comic books and their creators have influenced culture in a way that's equal to music and so many other things, and we want to keep telling these types of stories.

Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, which also features del Toro, Mignola, Doug Jones, Perlman, Patton Oswalt, Rebecca Sugar, Adam Savage, Jorge R. Gutiérrez, Chris Prynoski, Mike Richardson, and Neil Gaiman, is available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

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