Like most biodocs, and their narrative siblings biopics, Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters is a celebratory affair. Of course, that doesn’t come as much of a surprise given that the film, which focuses on the life and work of comic artist and writer Mike Mignola, includes interviews with Mignola himself, his wife Christine, and his brothers Todd and Scott, as well as professional collaborators and colleagues. 

Endearingly, it sometimes seems that Mignola’s involvement is what kept the film from becoming overly grandiose in its praise of his work and impact. Late in the documentary, when the focus turns to the several unofficially titled “Mignolaverse” series that exist within the world of Hellboy, Mignola says he doesn’t like the name and uncomfortably wiggles in his chair and gives a weak “ugh” at the mention of it. This same self-consciousness and humility play a significant role in making the documentary compelling. 

At the start, the only interview subjects are Mike and his family members as they discuss his upbringing, his relationship with his father, and his first forays into the comics industry. We learn from Mike and his brothers that early on, Mike was interested in ghost stories and mythology. They tell an anecdote about going into Berkeley from their home in Oakland on weekends and visiting used bookstores to scour shelves.  

In these early moments in the film, Mignola offers an authentic look into his headspace as a young artist attempting to break into the comics industry. He says of his first job as an inker (someone who adds depth and shading to an existing penciled drawing) that he made the art worse. He doesn’t make excuses or attempt to rationalize that the editors didn’t understand what he was doing; he states simply that he made it worse. He fully acknowledges that his initial move to New York, the comics capital of the world in the 1980s, was somewhat disastrous. 

This honesty from Mignola and others makes the documentary a much richer watch than a simple timeline of his career. We hear from Mignola that he likely would not have succeeded as he has were it not for the support of Christine. Mike and his brothers all talk about how their dad was tough and how it was impossible for him to tell his children that he was proud of them but that he was a good father and that Hellboy is partly based on him. 

But it’s not only Mignola’s family that lends the film a real emotional heart. Ron Perlman wells up as he speaks about being emotionally impacted as a child by Charles Laughton’s performance in the 1939 adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and how he hoped he could do the same for young viewers of the Hellboy movie who felt like outsiders and misfits. Younger creatives Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, and Jorge R. Gutierrez, creator of Maya and the Three, speak about how Mignola has inspired them through his art and as a supportive mentor who has given them the courage to make the art they want to make. 

Apart from these moments of tenderness and emotion, the honesty of the talking heads lends more credence in the film’s consideration of history with Mignola’s collaborators. Many collaborators speak about Mignola’s temper; they say he can be stubborn and often wants things done his way. Guillermo Del Toro and Mignola talk very openly about their difficulty working together on the Hellboy films that Del Toro directed. Mignola says that while there are things he loves about the movies, there are also some things he can’t stand. 

Drawing Monster also remains visually interesting by including frequent panels from Mignola’s work, artists he was inspired by and those inspired by him, as well as some old photographs and video footage of Mike and his family. At one point, when Mignola talks about first moving to New York, panels from one of his comics are shown as he tells the story because they pair perfectly.

It’s also more visually interesting to see the interviewees in their offices and homes than the sometimes blank backgrounds used for talking heads in documentaries. And these environments likely led to more candid conversations as the filmmakers went into spaces that belong to the interviewees instead of the other way around. 

The documentary’s most impressive aspect, though, is simply how dense it is for its hour and forty-minute runtime. The film fits in the entire story of Mignola’s childhood and comics career, devotes time to the movie adaptations of his work, highlights artists he’s inspired, and still finds time for fun personal life anecdotes. 

The fact that he and Christine met when they were each at bachelor and bachelorette parties that happened to be in the same space and thus coalesced doesn’t need to be in this movie about his impact on comics. But it makes the entire film more personal for both the people featured and allows the audience to connect with these titans of the comics and film industries as human beings. 

Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters is a beautiful documentary that is incredibly informative and surprisingly emotionally potent. Fans of Mignola should certainly seek it out, but more than that, lovers of art and documentaries who have never heard of Mignola or Hellboy should seek it out as it’s one of the most moving documentaries to be released on the topic of creativity in years.