I can finally spill the beans!

Finally, after several months of struggling to keep my mouth shut, I can tell you what I’ve been working on at Dark Horse Comics!

Mike Mignola has teamed up with me (ME!?) on a new Hellboy Universe comic in the old west. It’s a 4-issue mini series called Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast, and you can read more about it in this exclusive press release published today.

But wait, how did this happen in the first place? How did some random illustrator in Utah, with only a handful of short stories under her belt, land a gig with the legendary Mike Mignola?

If you want the full story, here it is:

It all started with The Manderfield Devil. As a refresher, TMD was a book I wrote and illustrated in college. My express goal in creating it was to A) finish a comic and B) learn from and emulate the mastery of Mike Mignola. It was a total side project, which I did in addition to all my college assignments. And while it made for one slog of a semester, and even caused some of my grades to suffer, I’m SO glad I did it.

Not only has that single personal project gotten me literally every job I’ve had since graduating college, but it’s also THE reason Mignola even started talking to me. About 3 years ago, I had my husband Noah bring a copy of TMD to LightBox, an animation expo in Pasadena, where we had seen Mignola in the past. Noah’s mission was to locate Mignola, hand him the book, and tell him that he inspired me to make it.

With expert bald-man-with-glasses-and-beard differentiation skills, Noah was able to find Mignola milling about on the crowded expo floor. He very bravely (as a lifelong Mignola fan himself) approached the man, and timidly delivered my book and message.

Mignola thumbed through the book, and was impressed enough to say “We should have her do a variant cover or something!” Which honestly would have been a dream come true on its own. Later that night, I received a message from Mignola over Facebook (yes, he’s one of the old masters), complimented me on the book, and said that I was on his list for future projects.

I was over the moon.

And then I just sorta waited, expecting something to happen right away. But I didn’t hear from Mignola again until I decided to introduce myself to him at LightBox the following year. Once again using Noah’s expert skills, we located Mignola. I introduced myself, and he remembered who I was, and said “I’ve been looking for a project for you for a while, but can’t seem to find something…” he trailed off, then added: “But if you want to pitch me something, I’d love to work with you.”

WHAT.

Yes Sir, Mr. Mignola, Sir! Thank you Sir.

I got to work developing a pitch. But in my infinite naivety it never occurred to me that he’d want me to pitch a Hellboy Universe project. I’m not sure why, I guess I thought it might be presumptuous. But did I ever think to ask for clarification? No, of course not. I couldn’t possibly impose further on his time—what an idea!

So instead I developed a pitch about the expanded Manderfield Devil universe. I worked hard on it for about 4 months, created a beautiful pitch deck with 4 inked pages, and delivered it to him in a neat little email as if it were tied in a pretty bow. I was so proud of myself.

Mignola got back to me quickly and said, “This is great. But I was hoping you’d pitch me something in the Hellboy universe.”

Duh. I felt like an idiot.

I wrote back to him immediately, apologized, and said I’d be more than happy to pitch him a Hellboy idea! From that point on I was extra communicative, unafraid to ask clarifying questions, and before long I returned with a handful of pitch ideas.

But this time, Mignola wanted me to pitch over the phone.

As in, verbally.

Which was anxiety-inducing because it meant I couldn’t tie things up in a neat little bow. I couldn’t edit or proof read before hitting send, I just had to pray that I’d say everything clearly and get my ideas across well.

Thankfully Mignola’s a chill dude. If I came across as nervous it didn’t seem to affect things, and soon enough he and I were talking and bouncing ideas off each other as freely as if we’d often talked before.

By the end of that phone call we had landed on “the Lobsteress” idea (temp name for Carmen, because she’s related to Lobster Johnson). Mike introduced me to Katii O’Brian, my new editor at Dark Horse, and I had to call HER and give the pitch all over again. By the end of that phone call she was like, “Great! How much money do you want?” And it was all downhill from there.

Aside from all the work that goes into making the book, of course. But that’s another story.

I’m super grateful to be in the position I am now. This gig is a dream job for a lot of artists, and I’ve battled a lot of imposter syndrome because of that. I just hope that I can take what I’ve learned along this journey and share it to help other artists land their dream gigs too someday.

Also, huge thanks to Noah, Jake, Jonah, my parents, and my in-laws for reading through all my pitches and brainstorming ideas with me during the pitching process. I couldn’t have done it without your help!

In Other News…

You might have noticed things have changed a tiny bit around here. I’ve switched email platforms and am now using Substack. It seemed like the hip thing to do so I thought I’d follow along. Maybe Substack will stay cool? If not, I’ll swap it out for something else.

Also, I have a Bluesky now. Just barely, I’m super new there and have posted like two things. But follow me if you’re on there!

That’s all for now! Thanks for tuning in. Until next time,

<3/ Rae