Giant Robot Hellboy Comic Series Announced

What began as a pandemic sketch for fun by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has found its way into comics. Dark Horse Comics confirmed today at San Diego Comic-Con that Mignola will re-team with his legendary collaborator, artist Duncan Fegredo, for GIant Robot Hellboy. Inspired by Mignola’s pencil drawing, wherein a Mecha-Hellboy fought Mega-Monsters, the series will run three issues and begin publication this October. Mignola and Fegredo previously collaborated on some of hte biggest Hellboy stories including Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm and The Fury, so their reunion alone is cause for celebration for comic fans.

In the pages of Giant Robot Hellboy, Hellboy is kidnapped and hooked up to a massive mecha-Hellboy for a mission on a mysterious, faraway island, but the island might just put up a fight of its own. The first issue will feature a variant cover by Mignola and Stewart. Issue 2 will feature a variant cover by award-winning Shaolin Cowboy cartoonist Geof Darrow and Dave Stewart and issue 3 will feature a variant cover by Art Adams.

“Giant Robot Hellboy is my very obvious nod to all those Japanese giant monster movies-which I actually have no particular love for,” Mignola said. “What I DO love is listening to Geof Darrow and Art Adams TALK about those movies-so really, I guess this series was inspired by those guys. I had the idea for this one a long time ago but figured it was too silly to actually do-then the pandemic came along and I started to do all those sketches I would post online. I had never given a serious thought to what a giant robot Hellboy would look like but I knocked out a few sketches and I liked them-and so the thing started to seem like something that could actually be done. But I knew I wasn’t the artist for it and I knew both Arthur and Geof were busy with other things, so the only other artist I thought of was Duncan. I had no idea how Duncan would respond. Too silly? I didn’t know, but I figured I’d pitch it to him and if he said no that would be an end to it. The rest is history.”

“Hellboy awakes to an out-of-body experience and simultaneously has to deal with the usual fallout from mad scientists doing their thing whilst learning to walk again,” Fegredo added. “Come to think of it, that pretty much describes my return to collaborating with Mike Mignola… if you enjoyed my previous forays into grand scale storytelling, whoops, I did it again!”

“It was a thrill to be working with Duncan again,” said Mignola. “The man can draw anything which is very nice for a writer. What is special about Duncan is no matter what you ask him to draw, no matter how difficult or complicated-he will make it MORE complicated (and, of course, more difficult) . Everything ends up being so much more than you asked for and Duncan will endlessly curse HIMSELF for overdoing things-and we will all sit back (eventually) and marvel at this amazing thing he has created.”

The debut issue of Giant Robot Hellboy is on sale on October 25, 2023.