INTERVIEW: Creatures of the night beware, Professor J.T. Meinhardt and Mr. Knox are on the case
Image courtesy of Dark Horse / Provided by Superfan Promotions with permission.
For fans of Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell’s acclaimed graphic novel Mr. Higgins Comes Home, expect to receive a nice present this holiday season. The writer and artist have put their minds together again and delivered a much-anticipated sequel, dubbed Our Encounters With Evil: Adventures of Professor J.T. Meinhardt and His Assistant Mr. Knox, out now from Dark Horse Comics.
Mignola, of course, is the creator of the much-beloved Hellboy series, and Johnson-Cadwell’s work has appeared in Nelson, Lovecraft Anthology 2, Sold State Tank Girl and Samurai Jack.
In the new story, Meinhardt and Knox are joined by the vampire hunter Ms. Mary Van Sloan, according to press notes. Together, the trio pursue the legendary creatures of the night, such as vampires, werewolves and other monsters of lore. Oh my!
The hardcover graphic novel, which features three original stories, is actually set in the same universe as Hellboy, which should excite fans of the red half-demon. Mignola provided art for the covers, while Johnson-Cadwell took care of the story and the art. Clem Robins is the letterer and Dave Stewart the colorist.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Johnson-Cadwell about the new book. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
When you created Mr. Higgins Comes Home, did you think there was enough in the story for another graphic novel?
I did. Drawing Mike Mignola’s characters from Mr. Higgins Comes Home was so good to do, and while I designed the characters and drew them in the story I was making judgments on how they might look and how they would operate. Background characters grew their own storylines and histories (even if they didn’t make it to the end of the book). So it wasn’t difficult to let Mignola’s characters breathe a little, and it was apparent that some could benefit from more room than the pages of Mr. Higgins alone.
What makes Our Encounters With Evil different than the first installment?
A few things. We meet the Professor and Mr. Knox in the first installment where they are part of a bigger story. Here they are the focus of the book’s series of short stories, a flavour of their encounters as they discover and battle supernatural evil in its varied guises. So we see more of their world in terms of their encounters and locations. And, of course, we are introduced to their dynamic companion, Mary Van Sloan.
What do you like best about the characters Professor J.T. Meinhardt and Mr. Knox?
What I’ve liked most about these characters, when reading them from Mike Mignola’s script and when writing them myself, is the fact that in the supernatural and extraordinary world they inhabit, these are two very normal people. They have a lot of knowledge on the subjects they pursue, but they are a couple of regular (if a little academic) gentlemen. Their adversaries, however, are anything but normal, and pitting these two elements together is an extremely enjoyable puzzle.
What’s it like working with Mike Mignola?
Wonderful. I am a massive fan of Mike’s stories and an avid student of his art. It took a long time for me to realise this whole thing was actually happening, and receiving story outlines and scripts that no one else may have seen felt so exciting. Mike has done both covers for these books (both beautiful), and I’ll always remember getting an email from him asking how Mr. Higgins in his coat might look. I ran off some sketches and emailed them, and then he turns up in Mike’s extraordinary hand on the cover.
As a child did you love (or fear) some of the monsters described in these pages? Were you a fan of vampires, werewolves, etc.?
Definitely. There seemed to be a fair few of them in kids’ cartoons back then, certainly comics. And getting sneak peaks of horror movies at a very young age (most often Hammer Horrors then) was both exciting and scary. On the fun side there’d be the monsters we would see doing gruesome things, but on the scary side was some of the wonky makeup. And that gloopy glossy Hammer blood would offer real nightmare fuel.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Our Encounters With Evil: Adventures of Professor J.T. Meinhardt and His Assistant Mr. Knox by Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell is now available from Dark Horse Comics. Click here for more information.
