The creator of the Hellboy universe, Mike Mignola, has shared some incredible fan art featuring the Joker. The art combines the style of the paranormal investigator with DC’s iconic hero and villain duo. It’s eerie and only gets better when the current colorist of Hellboy: The Bones of Giants joins in on the fun.
Hellboy first began publishing in 1994, though the titular character had appeared the previous year within San Diego Comic Con Comics #2 and Next Men #21. Since then, it has spawned several miniseries and one-shots, including Hellboy in Hell, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D., and several Winter Specials. The Dark Horse Comics series has been adapted into several films as well.
On Twitter, Mike Mignola shared fan art of the Joker and Batman, drawn in the style of Hellboy. In addition to DC’s major pair, it also includes a few skeleton figures, who are highly reminiscent of the skeletons seen on some of the covers for various Hellboy comics. The playing cards featured on the cover are also reminiscent of visual elements from Hellboy covers. The fun continued when colorist Chris O’Halloran colored the piece of fan art. O’Halloran has been providing colors for Hellboy: The Bones of Giants, which began publishing in November of last year.
While this is fan art and is not official art, it is incredibly interesting to see. Mike Mignola does have writing credits for Batman, as well as other DC Comics series, within his lengthy portfolio of work. Mignola worked on stories included in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54, and Batman: Gotham Knights #36, and illustrated many Batman covers, including the iconic Batman #428 cover. He also worked on Phantom Stranger (1987) and World of Krypton (1987). His Hellboy work is incredibly notable, making this composition particularly interesting. Batman has occasionally dealt with the paranormal and occult, but these elements of DC’s universe are also most often dealt with by the members of Justice League Dark, like John Constantine.
Batman regularly deals with the horrors created and left behind by the Joker, but Hellboy is a great detective in his own right. He also faces nightmare situations of his own, making it fitting that this art blends some of the best of both worlds. The only thing that would be better would be fan art from Mignola that placed these two great detectives together in one image. Mignola’s art is haunting and O’Halloran’s colors provide an incredible contrast. Fans of both Dark Horse Comics’ Hellboy and DC Comics’ Batman and Joker are sure to love this new fan art blending the best of Mike Mignola’s style with O’Halloran’s colors.
