Hero Initiative & Dark Horse Comics Unveil 'The HELLBOY 100'!

June 2, 2015 - The Hero Initiative, the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need, unveiled its latest project today, The HELLBOY 100, in collaboration with HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola and Dark Horse Comics. To create the HELLBOY 100, Dark Horse Comics printed 100+ blank covers of the landmark first issue of HELLBOY & THE BPRD: 1952, written by Mignola and John Arcudi and featuring the art of Alex Maleev with colors by Dave Stewart. The Hero Initiative then commissioned internationally renowned comic book artists to do an original drawing on each cover, including Gabriel Bá, John Cassaday, Fábio Moon, Eric Powell, Bill Sienkiewicz and Mignola himself. The originals will be auctioned off via eBay.com at the rate of approximately 10 per week for 10 weeks. Both hardcover and softcover editions of a book collecting all the covers will published by Dark Horse Comics in September, 2015. “Many of the comic book creators working in the’50’s, 60’s and ‘70s had no ownership of their creations and receive limited or no royalties,” said Hero Initiative President Jim McLauchlin. “When creators have medical or financial problems they can’t handle themselves, we help them. We’ve been able to save people’s homes, prevent evictions, and get people the medical treatment they desperately need. The goal of the Hero Initiative is to improve creators' quality of life and in some cases, save lives.” “John Arcudi suggested we work with the Hero Initiative to create the HELLBOY 100,” said Mike Mignola. “I’m glad we could support the important work that Jim McLauchlin and the Hero Initiative does on behalf of comics’ creative community.” Full list of contributors to the HELLBOY 100: Rafael Albuquerque; Kristin Allen; Grace Allison; Gabriel Bá; Art Baltazar; John Beatty; Lucy Bellwood; Dan Brereton; Jim Brozman; Dave Bullock; Chris Burnham; Jim Calafiore; Daniel Campos; Giuseppe Camuncoli; Richard Case; John Cassaday; Victor Castro; Ron Chan; Matthew Clark; Wook-Jin Clark; Ryan Cody; Aaron Conley; Clayton Crain; Jason Dennis; Mark dos Santos; Ben Dewey; Rich Ellis; Cat Farris; Max Fiumara; Sebastian Fiumara; Walt Flanagan; Tony Fleecs; Autumn Fredrickson; Jenny Frison ; Agnes Garbowska; Chris Giarrusso; Ben Glendenning; Sina Grace; Jesse Hamm; Gabriel Hardman; James Harren; Fred Hembeck; Christopher Herndon; Phil Hester; Edwin Huang; Chris Ivy; Drew Johnson; Casey Jones; Tom Kelly; Scott Koblish; Scott Kolins; Rich Koslowski; Peter Krause; Andy Kuhn; Steve Kurth; Ken Lashley; Jeff Lemire; Emi Lenox; Francis Manpul; John McCrea; Ted McKeever; Mark McKenna; Shawn McManus; Yehudi Mercado; Rodolfo Migliari; Mike Mignola; Fábio Moon; Albert Morales; Chris Moreno; Marat Mychaels; Todd Nauck; Mike Norton; Mike Oeming; Michael Oppenheimer; Richard Pace; Jeff Parker; Tony Parker; Hanna Nance Partlow; Khoi Pham; Joe Phillips; Whilce Portacio; Eric Powell; Javier Pulido; Gordon Purcell; Tom Raney; Paolo Rivera; Darick Robertson; Tone Rodriguez; Riley Rossmo; Craig Rousseau; Chris Samnee; Hainanu Saulque; Alex Saviuk; Stuart Sayger; Tim Seeley; Bill Sienkiewicz; Andy Smith; Ryan Sook; Aaron Sowd; Ben Templesmith; Ty Templeton; Jim + Aaron Valentino; Nate van Dyke; Michael Walsh; Jonathan Wayshak; Doug Wheatley; Charles Paul Wilson III; Jim Zub; Chrissy Zullo ABOUT HELLBOY: Hellboy has appeared in graphic novels and comic books, prose novels, two animated features, two live action films, and toy lines. ABOUT MIKE MIGNOLA: Mike Mignola was born in 1960 in Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland, the eldest son of a tough and leathery cabinetmaker. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 12 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered. Besides comic books, Mike worked on Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), as a production designer for the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and was the Visual Consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008). The author lives in Los Angeles, CA. ABOUT DARK HORSE COMICS: Founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent, such as Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Geof Darrow, Brian Wood, Gail Simone, Stan Sakai, and Guillermo del Toro, and comics legends, such as Will Eisner, Milo Manara, Kazuo Koike, Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties, such as The Mask, Ghost, X and Barb Wire. Its successful line of comics, manga and products based on popular properties includes Dragon Age, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Tomb Raider, Halo, The Witcher, Serenity, Game of Thrones, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading entertainment publishers. ABOUT THE HERO INITIATIVE: The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterday’s creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment. Since its inception, The Hero Initiative has had the good fortune to grant over $700,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today. For more information, visit www.heroinitiative.org or call 626-676-6354.