NEW YORK, NY.- “Hell, Ink & Water: The Art of Mike Mignola,” an exhibition at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in Chelsea, could be a game changer for Mignola, a comic book artist and writer. “It does open up my world,” he said in a recent telephone interview.

Mignola, 64, is best known for Hellboy, a tall, brooding, crimson demon who made his comic book debut in 1993 and had forays in animation and film. He is showing 100 pieces of his art at Labaune, which opened in 2021 aiming to blur the line between fine art and comics.

“Hopefully the Hellboy paintings will sell, but will people buy paintings of skeletons and ghosts, which is what I like to paint?” Mignola said. (The range of his art is reflected in projects like his next one, “Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown,” an anthology of fantasy stories inspired by folklore.) The gallery will display watercolor paintings, and pen-and-ink comic book covers and interior pages. Mignola gave details about some of the works in the exhibition, which opened Thursday and runs through Oct. 26.

Iceberg

This watercolor began as a cover for “In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft,” written by Joe R. Lansdale. Mignola drew an ink-wash illustration, which was then digitally colored by Dave Stewart, a frequent collaborator. (The digital coloring allowed for editorial changes, if needed, for the book cover.) “Having the ink wash laying here was kind of like having an unfinished piece of artwork,” he said. Not having to worry about logo placement was freeing. “I could just do whatever I wanted.”

Hellboy

Hellboy smokes, which is usually reserved for comic book villains. “Hellboy is based on my father in a lot of ways, and my father always had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth,” Mignola said. His vision for the character became clearer when he gave him the cigarette and a trench coat. Mignola has been drawing Hellboy for 30 years. “My original goal was to someday, before I died, draw one comic book story,” he said. “I sailed past that in about a year, and then I never really had a goal beyond that.”

Pinocchio

“I’ve been in love with Pinocchio since I was a kid,” Mignola said. “Pinocchio plus Dracula. I think that’s kind of my comfort zone.” He teamed up with Lemony Snicket and Stewart on an annotated version of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 “Pinocchio” novel for Beehive Books. When Mignola and his brothers discovered the fairy tale when he was a teenager, its effect was felt by the entire family: “It so defined our sense of humor and the sense of absurd, and mixing the super dark and super grim with the weirdly funny.”

Lightbox Expo tote bag

This detailed black-and-white illustration was created for the Lightbox Expo in Pasadena, California, an annual gathering that began in 2019. Mignola was asked to create a piece for the show in 2020 that would be colored by Stewart and printed 10 feet high so that fans could take pictures in front of it. But then COVID happened and the show was held virtually. “I’m sad that it never got colored because I had a very specific idea of what it would look like in color,” he said.

Red Sonja

Mignola has a long history with the sword-and-sorcery heroine Red Sonja: His first published piece of artwork was a pinup of the character in a 1980 issue of the zine The Comic Reader. Four decades later, he drew this one, a cover for Red Sonja No. 1, published by Dynamite Entertainment. Even so, he was stepping out of his comfort zone. “I love the idea of a strong female character, but the idea of a strong female character as just a pinup character kind of goes against the grain.” He would normally have turned down this type of assignment, but “every once in a while, I have to do something to see if I can do it.”

Death in the Family: Robin Lives

Mignola drew the covers for “A Death in the Family,” a four-part DC story in 1988 that led to the death of Robin, thanks to a telephone poll that allowed readers to vote. He does not look kindly on the original covers, which he described as terrible, awful and old. He took the assignment for “Death in the Family: Robin Lives,” a recent story that depicts what would have happened had the hero survived, as a chance to imagine a cover in his current style. Fans often ask Mignola to sign copies of the 1988 comic. He has a confession: “I’ve never read the comic. I don’t think I’ve ever looked inside of it.” He said he stumbled onto the assignment during a visit to the DC offices.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.