The Preternatural in the Works of Mike Mignola. Semiotic Frames, Literary Functions and Pop Cultural Context (PDF)

Scientific Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Cultural Studies - Miscellaneous, University of Erfurt (Max-Weber-Kolleg), language: English, abstract: This article explores the functions of the preternatural-themed images, how they are related to each other and in which general contexts of culture they are located. By doing so, it focuses especially on the works of Mike Mignola.

Mike Mignola is one of the most prominent writers and graphic artists in contemporary comics with a comprehensive oeuvre particularly in the adventure/fantasy horror genre. In series such as Hellboy, on which the author will focus this article, he fuses the superhero tradition in mainstream comics with a large variety of narratives about the preternatural, combining elements of folk tales, mythologies, Christian figures of thought and last but not least the tentacle-armed Ancient Ones of H.P. Lovecraft.

Eventually, the story arcs and series are connected in the frame of a cosmological meta-plot. His protagonists are heroes in contact with the preternatural: some of them are preternatural beings themselves, while some are humans who gained knowledge about the preternatural and learned to deal with its dangers. Mignola's narrative universe is not a very safe place, it is threatened by primordial powers. Types of the preternatural employed in these stories range from magical effects to cosmology, from transcendent spheres to metaphysics, and the artistic means of depicting the preternatural in its various shapes include stylistics of light literature and B-grade movies as well as pictorial language from classical cinema and modern avant-garde graphics. Moreover, the diachronical and synchronical contextualization of Mignola's narratives pointing out the story elements discussed here go beyond their entertainment values and touch on basic cultural notions such as freedom of will, forms of sociality and ideas about the general character of the world.