Hellboy creator Mike Mignola explains his new project, Radio Spaceman

For decades, Mike Mignola’s name has been attached to one comic character: Hellboy. This comic, which is a long-running supernatural/gothic series, follows the adventures of the demon titular. He works for the US Government and attempts to avoid supernatural (and other) problems. Mignola worked to end the character in recent years.

As he’s done so, he’s been working on a handful of other projects, including one new one: Radio Spaceman. The two-issue comic event will hit stores next spring, and it’s based on a handful of pandemic sketches that went viral when Mignola posted them to the internet last year. The comic will follow the adventures of a steampunk-like robot, and it’ll blend Mignola’s affinity for monsters and strange happenings.

Mignola spoke to me earlier this week about the comic, where it comes from and what his plans were for Hellboy’s long-running universe. This interview has been cut for clarity and length.

Polygon: Could you please tell me about your company? Radio SpacemanWhat inspired you to create this character?

Mike MignolaThese drawings go back to before the pandemic. In the beginning, I was just starting to draw sketches in order to avoid going insane. Then, I posted them to Facebook. There were many drawings I made of cereal characters as well as the Jolly Green Giant. Sometimes I would create something completely new. There was not much thought involved. In the past I have drawn similar drawings of a skeleton dressed in a spacesuit. I just happened to do one of those drawings and wrote “Radio Spaceman” on it. It was kind of like when I made up Hellboy: There was no thought that went into it, I just thought, “Oh, these are a funny two words to put together.”

[Radio Spaceman]It was great fun, people loved him so I made probably five to six sketches of him. Then, I just sort of forgot all about him. It wasn’t an attempt to make up a character or anything. It was just something that was kind of fun to draw two or three times, and I didn’t really plan to do anything with it, until one day I was just kind of thinking, “Well, what if there was a comic of this thing?” I didn’t really have a story, but I came up with a couple visuals and then I came up with like, three or four words of dialogue and I went, “Oh, I love that.”

The opening was done, with these words that get the action going in the sequence. And then it was just a thing of just “well, what happens after that?” It was very much the way I did Amazing Screw-On HeadWhere? [it started] from a bunch of pictures I’m seeing in my head and a few funny phrases here and there.

That was all. It just happened.

Can you walk me through the elements of Radio Spaceman; the bandolier, the medal…

Well, it’s simply just what I draw when I draw an old fashioned space guy. The bubble helmet, it’s kind of based on or inspired by the old EC Comics, Hollywood-type spaceman outfits. So again, there was really no thought into, “Oh, he’s got to have these things,” or that it’s got to look any particular way. The drawing was done without thinking.

I’ve done a lot of these guys lately; mostly of these old Victorian-looking characters with this floating skull head, so it was no no giant leap to put the floating skull head inside the space helmet. That was it. The name Radio Spaceman came out of my mind. It doesn’t mean anything.

Although it may mean something in comics, there is no way to know. It’s just one of those things like Amazing Screw-On Head, we just go, “Well, it’s just going to be this thing and some stuff is gonna happen.” And we’re not going to go into any fancy origins or big explanations of what’s in his belt at all. I don’t know why he has a sledgehammer. I don’t know.

You started doing these sketches during the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic — how did the pandemic and lockdown shape your work and your process?

The thing was that it allowed me to draw these quick, spontaneously, and distracting drawings. [That] was really a big deal for me; to spend six months just drawing for fun, and not really caring what I — I mean, I did throw a lot of drawings away, it’s not like I posted everything I did. But because I was having so much fun doing these drawings, I think I did some of the best things I’ve ever done.

It was all done with a black Prismacolor pencil, there’s no underdrawing, there’s no real plan to these drawings. This was all about just sitting down at a desk and drawing. I’d love to think I could get back in that place again and have that much fun, just drawing for pure escapism. I don’t know, I have never been able to get back in there since.

However, it had a profound effect on my professional life and the way that I think about things. It was the beginning of three or four new characters, and I’m not sure if I will ever do so again. But again, to create characters the way I created the Amazing Screw-On Head, where stuff just popped up one day without any conscious thought — I did this Zula Queen of the Bat People, I don’t know what the hell she is. However, I made five to six drawings and fell in love. But there’s no story. Giant Cave Man is what I did. I have some story in my head, but it wasn’t planned. It’s just one day I thought “Giant Caveman” was hilarious name, the way I thought “Radio Spaceman” was a great name. But I wasn’t trying to create a thing, which sometimes works the best for me. The same thing happened to Hellboy with the Amazing Screw On Head. It was just silly names, and an oddly drawn thing.

You posted Radio Spaceman on Facebook and people responded. How did you get feedback from fans about the appeal of Radio Spaceman?

I didn’t get anything specific like that. I remember it was just, “That’s cool, I want a story!” That’s what I would usually get. It’s not that “They wanted a story, I’ll have to give them a story,” but the process was more like “Well, I don’t have a story. I don’t really plan to do a story. But if I was going to do a story…” It’s almost like a mental exercise. What if I could make up a story about that thing? I’m taking a shower, I’m going “Hmm, could I make up a story about that guy?” It was then that I came up with these five or six words, and I remember coming out of the shower going, “Oh, shit, okay. If that sequence is in there, then I need to make up the rest of the thing.”

It’s just a parade of fun things. There’s no, there’s nothing in this comic, I think that’s laying the groundwork for a bigger story. Like the Amazing Screw-On Head, it’s meant to really just exist as one thing; it’s not like something where I think you’d be going, “Oh, you’ve hinted at this whole other world.”

Maybe there’s another world there? I don’t know. I haven’t given any more thought to it. One day, if I suddenly think of another idea for this character, that’d be great.

Compare that to Hellboy’s original origins.

Hellboy was a different situation for me because I had to find a job. My goal was to find something I could do full-time. I didn’t think I would be able to, but I needed to at least replace all the commercial work I was doing. The idea was to come up with a series character, so I did put a lot of thought — maybe not into the name Hellboy — but it put a lot of thought into what kind of stuff I could do with that character. And after 27, 28 years of doing that character, I don’t feel the need to come up with an entire world again.

Now, back then in ‘93-‘94, had I thought of Radio Spaceman as [my Hellboy]Then, yes. I would probably have spent more time on that world. But at this point, the last thing I want is another gigantic universe to deal with; I’m still still dealing with the Hellboy universe that I started, you know, 28 years ago.

These things are intended to be fun and odd.

You mentioned that you started off with those five or six words: what can you tell me about the story that you’re playing out in these two issues?

Radio Spaceman can be described as almost an unremarkable character. He’s a good visual. But he’s basically just a puppet. Do you think he has a personality? I’m not sure. He’s only shown a trace of personality and the first issue, and I don’t know if that will develop more in the second issue.

The character can’t talk, so it’s a visual-oriented book. It’s like an escalating situation of dropping a guy to a planet and then there’s this incident that leads to this thing, which leads to this bigger thing, and it culminates in basically a gigantic explosion. I actually don’t think it has an explosion, but it probably has explosions. I can’t remember.

It was a funny series of events. I don’t want to give it away even though there’s not much to it.

Greg Hinkle, the artist is also a must-see. The book is from years past. AirboyHe was a great guy, and I enjoyed it. I never thought about working with him because I assumed he’s so great, he’s always gonna be busy with his own stuff. And I met him at a convention, and I was like, “Well, if you ever want to do something…” and he was like, “Well, yeah, I’d love to.”

So, I thought about having him write something in the Hellboy world, and when this thing popped up, I’d probably have played with the idea of drawing it myself, but then I thought, well, there’s Greg Hinkle.

The last we Last spoken in 2017, B.P.R.D. The end was nearing. HellboyThe main storyline for this character was ending. At the time, Hellboy was coming to an end, and it seems like he’s still popping up. Do you see a point where you’ll stop doing Hellboy stories?

You know, I’ve been trying to end [Hellboy]. The lid is always on, and I don’t mind if it gets a little bit too tight. There’s always this one little thing where I go, “Yeah, but I haven’t quite finished this” or “Oh, I couldn’t help it tease out this one little bit.”

For me, the next step in that world’s development is to finish it. I’ve created all these characters, and now I kind of just want to resolve them. We’re getting near the end of resolving the Edward Gray character, I think, I hope?

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Mike Mignola

There’s always room — I mean, my problem is I’ve killed all these characters off, or I’ve created characters who can’t die. So it’s really hard to come to a point where you go, “Oh, they’re done.” Hellboy for me since I’ve had him disappear into an Iron Maiden and bring about the end of the world and the start of a new world, my feeling with Hellboy is I think he’s about as done as I can make him. Some of these other characters, I just haven’t gotten there with.

But of course, the other thing I’ve done is I’ve created a world where there’s a million years worth of Hellboy stories that haven’t been told. So what I’d ultimately like to do is wrap up these few characters that I still haven’t wrapped up, and then kind of leave this world for other people to play around in. Very much like how people keep writing stories that kind of take place in HP Lovecraft’s world. They’re mostly not about specific characters Lovecraft created, but they deal with his mythology and his world. I’d loved that [for Hellboy]. I’ve invited people in and there are some writers right now working on things where I’m like, “Well, okay, here’s an idea, or here’s something I never really dealt with.”

But I just don’t know how many more stories about Hellboy and Abe Sapien and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don’t know how many more stories we need about those characters. If people come to me and say, “Hey, I’ve got a great story for this character that hasn’t been done,” that’s fine. But for the most part, I’d rather see it expand in different ways.

Lovecraft is an interesting comparison, because I’ve heard somebody describe his world as the sort of first open-sourced fictional universe, where he invited all his fellow writers to come in. Is it difficult to imagine you letting go of the steering wheel when your profession is so closely associated with Hellboy. Are you hesitant to do so?

I mean, it’s been a slow process. Many of these books have my name on them, and I was co-writer. There were also phone calls in which ideas were exchanged with others. I am increasingly uncomfortable with some of these books where it says “co-written by Mike Mignola.” It’s like, I’m sure there was a phone call that led to that story, but 90% of the work was done by somebody else.

Now, we’re getting to a point where there are whole books that I had nothing to do with, where my name won’t be on them as co-writer, but they grow out of writers that I’ve had a long relationship with, where we’ve just talked about the world, the different things that the world needs, or the different unexplored areas of that world. I like that: I don’t have to do the heavy lifting. I enjoy the freedom to collaborate with writers and give others permission to take on certain topics or offer a new perspective.

Image by Mike Mignola/Dark Horse Comics

In most cases I only have a small amount of involvement. I bounce ideas around. For the most part I want to make it easier for writers with ideas and a passion for this world to get in touch.

Are you looking to transition from art into writing?

Right now, I’m looking at that quite a bit. I’ve never really done that, but I’ve been doing a lot more writing than drawing [lately]. There’s several big projects right now that are with other artists that I’ve written, and I’m looking down the road and a couple other big projects that again, I would never tackle [on my own]. As an artist, I’ve just become so obsessive-compulsive about my own stuff, it really becomes really painful for me to draw something that’s long and involved, just because I scrap whole pages all the time. That’s bad.

I’ve got a couple short things I’m lined up to do that I’m excited about because they’re short, so I can obsess and be compulsive about those all I want. If they’re only 10 or 12 pages, they’ll eventually get done.

I dislike typing but love to make shitups. There are a couple of things that I’ve got that rely a lot on mythology, so that’s been an excuse to sit down and do research, which I haven’t really done in a long time.

This explains why you are reluctant to like characters like Radio Spaceman.

Yeah. My energy right now is focused on ending my universe. This concludes these stories. This is the last thing that I want to do. I just turned 61 years old, and I’m just going, “Man, I just don’t want to be in the middle of something again” But I like kind of being at the end, or in a place where if God knows, if something happened at Dark Horse or to me, if the Hellboy universe ended tomorrow, it would be fine. Although there were some issues that I didn’t get to, most of the time, I was able to make a world and then destroy it. It was something I didn’t expect to have time for and the ability to finish this project. It was a great accomplishment. So now it’s for the most part a place for other people to play with the toys I made.

Dark Horse Comics will publish the first issue of Radio Spaceman’s Radio Spaceman series. It will be available in comic shops on March 2, 2022. Mike Mignola, Greg Hinkle, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robs will all be writing the series.