Mike Mignola carved out his space in comics history in the 1990s with the creation of the iconic Hellboy series. Dozens of novels and hundreds of projects later, he has created a new world as epic and expansive as his breakthrough touchstone. Lands Unknown, a world built on folktales from across the globe, finds new life in the dark, strange corners of Mignola’s imagination, created with frequent collaborator Ben Stenbeck.

The Lands Unknown universe first collides with ours on January 22 with the publication of its first anthology volume, Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown, written and illustrated by Mignola and colored by Dave Stewart, under a new Dark Horse Comics imprint, Curious Objects. PW spoke with Mignola about the inspiration behind the graphic novel, the vision for the worldbuilding, and the future of the universe.

Tell us a bit about the Lands Unknown universe and its origin.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to do fast-and-loose adaptations of folktales from all over the world without having to worry about setting them in the real world—to do a Japanese story that feels like a Japanese story but takes place in a “sort of” Japan, etc. For years now I’ve had in mind adapting this one particular Italian folktale about a kid who goes bowling with corpses, so I finally decided to create an entire world where I could set that story—not just a country but a whole world—so I made up names and maps, a whole mythology and creation myth, and really got very carried away with all that just for this one story. The other stories in this collection just sort of sprouted out of the world like mushrooms.

The individual stories in the anthology brim with dark humor, oddity, and nods to folklore. What inspired this curious and innovative blend?

The thing I really love in old folk and fairytales is that odd combination of weird humor and horror. That just appeals to me so much, and has really been my approach to writing since almost the beginning of Hellboy.

How did you approach the anthology format? Did you start with a roadmap of tales to be told, or did one inspire the creation of another?

I really did start out with just the one story. Then I’d planned to dig around in my folklore library for more stories, but before I could do that the other stories just sort of happened. In the future I do want to go back to the loose adaptations of old stories—unless these seeds I’ve planted here in the first book keep sprouting.

Have you found a way to balance the original folkloric tale or character that inspires these stories with where your imagination will take them in Lands Unknown?

The hope is that some of these characters, original characters or those borrowed from old folktales, will take on a life of their own and grow more stories. Once I’d finished Bowling, I knew there had to be more stories about that kid and his magic hand—I just haven’t come up with them yet. I’m sure I will. Right now, I’ve written and drawn a book about a new original character who travels around in this world, and I’ve started on a second. I know how much more there is to do with this guy, but want to get back to adapting other stories to be set in the far corners of this world.

What’s your writing routine like? How do you step back into the world of Lands Unknown day after day?

I read a lot—I spend a lot of time chewing over bits and pieces of the things I’ve read while I’m doing other things. Every so often the stray bits fit together into an original story or I stumble across an old story, like Bowling, that just hits me as almost perfect. Then I chew on that for a while to make it my own.

Could you talk a bit about working with your collaborator, Ben Stenbeck? Any fun, unforgettable moments from brainstorming with him that you’d like to share?

Well, I actually feel a bit bad about how I’ve handled things with Ben so far. When I approached him with this idea, I said we’d create the world together, but he was busy with another project and I wasn’t, so I spent a few months focused entirely on this new world, making up names and maps. I did send him a lot of “What do you think of this?” emails and “Here are some names, pick of the ones you like best.” But I did a lot of the worldbuilding.

But it is a very big world and a whole lot of it is undeveloped and unexplored. I know where he wanted to focus to begin his stories so, other than some place names, I’ve left those places for Ben to define. Right now, I’m just dying to see what he does. It's so much fun to see this place take shape. There is more than enough work here for the two of us.

The book is part of a new imprint for Dark Horse called Curious Objects. Any chance we can hear a bit about what’s on the horizon for the imprint?

I believe the imprint is just a way to gather all the stuff I’ve done or will do under one banner. So it would include the Hellboy world as well as all the other non-Hellboy stuff.