Mike Mignola Went to Central Europe
This is a teaser for the various posts I will hopefully be writing in the next few days on my Europe trip. In Prague and Vienna, I saw some things that looked very familiar. Well, not quite familiar, but the style was very clear. I’m pretty sure Mike Mignola must have gotten some of his ideas from these buildings and sculptures, which wouldn’t surprise me at all, since half of his stuff is set around eastern Europe.
First, in St. Vitus’ Cathedral, in Prague, there were
a lot of stained glass windows, of many different styles. One stood out in particular, however. Instead of halos, the saints all had little flames above their heads. This was very Hellboy-ish, and add to that some people in a separate window who were very Mignola-esque, and you’ve got Exhibit A:
And Exhibit B:
(I’m still having issues with the sizing of photos, bear with me.)
So, Prague seemed very dark and evil. But less so Vienna, the city of culture and coffeehouses, right? Of course not. In the plaza in front of one of the entrances to the Hofburg, (one of) the royal palace(s) of the Hapsburgs, there were two fountains flanking the door. One represented the Austrian Empire (represented I believe by Hercules) triumphing over enemies of the sea, and the other Austria displaying its land power (still Hercules). Now, these were built sometime in the 19th century (maybe 18th?). One wouldn’t expect anything too out of the ordinary, but I believe, if I were Emperor Franz Josef, and these were presented to me, my first comments would probably be something along the lines of, “AAAAAH!!! What is that? It’s awesome! Slash terrifying!” because that’s how Franzi spoke. (You can actually hear a recording of his voice if you tour the Hofburg or Schonbrun. He doesn’t sound like that.) It’s really the sea-power statue that impressed me so much. Once again, I think it would have impressed Mignola as well. Because right near some incredibly detailed and pretty sweet mermen and Hercules, there’s this BAMF crawling up the side of a rock:
Scary as hell. Look at the ear detail and everything! Looks like something Hellboy would fight, just to push the point home once more. I’ve tried to find some pictures online of what I’m talking about, in terms of Mignola’s style, but haven’t really come across anything demonstrative. Just read the comics, it’ll be worth it, I swear!
More to come.
