Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book artist and writer best known for creating Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, and various spin-offs. He has also created other supernatural and paranormal themed titles for Dark Horse including Baltimore, Joe Golem, and The Amazing Screw-On Head. Early life Mike Mignola was born September 16, 1960. He was raised Catholic. Career Marvel and DC Mignola was born in Berkeley, California. He began his career in 1980 by illustrating spots in The Comic Reader. His first published piece was in The Comic Reader #183, a spot illustration of Red Sonja (pg. 9). His first published front cover was The Comic Reader #196 in November 1981. In 1982 he graduated from the California College of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration. In 1983 he worked as an inker at Marvel Comics on Daredevil and Power Man and Iron Fist and later became the penciler on titles such as The Incredible Hulk, Alpha Flight, and the Rocket Raccoon limited series. In 1987, he began working for DC Comics as well. He drew the Phantom Stranger and World of Krypton limited series. With writer Jim Starlin, Mignola produced the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries in 1988. Mignola drew covers for several Batman stories, including "Batman: A Death in the Family" and "Dark Knight, Dark City". Writer Brian Augustyn and Mignola crafted the Gotham by Gaslight one-shot in 1989. In an early 2000s interview, Mignola was asked if his 1988 cover art and cover text for Batman #428 anticipated the telephone vote for the death of the second Robin (Jason Todd). Mignola replied: "It's so amazing to me that people are still talking about that damn thing. I didn't know if he was going to live or die, because I did the cover ahead of time. So the idea was: I'll draw him dead, and if he lives, then it's just a cover of him being badly hurt. I've gotta say---I don't think I was giving it a lot of thought. I never imagined I'd be talking about it all these years later." When asked if fans continued to question him about that cover, he replied, "You know, it does crop up. When people talk about my career, that is one of the covers that a lot of people kind of