Few American comic artists build up a style as revered or a legacy as consequential as Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, has. Mignola's art style, often colored by his collaborator Dave Stewart, relies on striking simplicity and heavy black inks to create shadows. (This quote does not appear in the reputed primary source, Moore's preface to "Hellboy: Wake The Devil," but it's endured because it's so apt.) Mignola made a name for himself drawing superhero comics, but he'd always preferred drawing monsters. After writing and drawing "Sanctum," a one-shot Batman set in a haunted graveyard, Mignola conceived Hellboy.