Hellboy and the BPRD: Her Fatal Hour, written by Mike Mignola, with art by Tiernen Trevallion, colors by Dave Stewart, and letters by Clem Robins, hits your local comic book shop this week. Thanks to the great people at Dark Horse Comics and Superfan Promotions, Monkeys Fighting Robots got a chance to talk to Trevallion about the upcoming two-parter.
About the Issue:
Master of horror Mike Mignola is joined by artist extraordinaire Tiernen Trevallion and award-winning colorist Dave Stewart to bring you the follow-up to smash Hellboy hit ”The Beast of Vargu”!
Monkeys Fighting Robots: What about “Her Fatal Hour” and “The Sending” makes these great companion pieces to one another? What through lines do you see that thematically link them and lead to you and Mignola releasing them together?
Tiernen Trevallion: That decision was entirely Mike Mignola’s. Both stories deal with old friends; both Nadia and in particular Harry Middleton are significant to Hellboy. There is, if you like, a theme of a distant outside influence, of manipulation from afar. One instance is the solution to the story, and one is the cause.
MFR: Your art style feels like such a perfect balance of Mignola’s minimalism and Duncan Fegredo’s (artist of “The Beast of Vargu”) more detailed approach. Some panels you draw with lots of details, like Hellboy’s room with the High Noon poster, and then other panels you remove the background altogether, like the women in the church. What factors lead you to choose one approach over the other as you went through?
TT: Thanks for that, I’m also a huge fan of Duncan Fegredo’s work. What I’m usually trying to do is focus. I’m asking the reader to concentrate on certain elements. With the women in the church, this is a poignant moment, so I’m attempting to emulate the feeling of loss and vulnerability in the simplest way possible: by isolating them. With fight scenes, I usually avoid any background, or maybe just leave a suggestion, because the reader wants to see a dynamic punch-up, not get distracted by an interesting vase…unless the vase is getting broken in a pleasing way… Damn those vases…
MFR: There’s a brilliant casual atmosphere to these scenes. Nadya is drinking in front of the fire after a big fight scene; Harry is leafing through broken books on the floor elsewhere. How did you hone in on this aspect of the characters? And when did you know you kind of wanted them to be laid-back despite the horror going on around them?
TT: I think these guys have seen enough to make them not so much laid-back, but rather prepared for how to deal with the situation. Harry leafing through books on the floor came from the script; Mike suggested that Harry is looking around, but listening. I liked the idea of him being interested in not only the case, but also all the books spread everywhere. Again, that final scene with Nadia, that’s at Mike’s direction. A horrific chapter in her life has been closed.
MFR: Harry isn’t a character we’ve seen a lot of, but he has a lot of significance. He was a friend of Bruttenholm, and a big influence on Hellboy. How much of his voice did you feel like you pulled from earlier appearances, and how much did you feel like you brought out on the drawing board?
TT: I have to confess, I didn’t know much about Harry until I did this story. There are a few gaps, I fear, on my Mike Mignola/Hellboy shelf. I have of course caught up a little on Harry Middleton now, and I rather enjoyed drawing him. Nice old chap! I hope I did him justice.
Thanks again to Tiernen Trevallion for taking the time to give such great answers to our questions, and for the brilliant work put into HELLBOY AND THE BPRD: HER FATAL HOUR!
Trevallion is also currently selling limited edition giclee prints, signed and numbered, of this issue’s cover. Each print comes with an A5 sketch of something from the Mignolaverse. You can get ahold of these awesome prints and sketches on Tiernen Trevallion’s Facebook page. Below are some of the jaw-dropping sketches from his page:
Dark Horse’s Hellboy and the BPRD: Her Fatal Hour is out December 2nd at a comic shop near you! Pick it up, and keep an eye out for our upcoming review!
