The reports of Hellboy's death have been greatly exaggerated -- sort of. The popular character is indeead dead, and in hell, and he's not coming back. But contrary to recent reports, there are still many years of stories left before "the end."

At the recent Emerald City Comiccon, comic creator Mike Mignola and Dark Horse Comics Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie discussed the future of Big Red and the rest of the so-called Mignolaverse. While some reported from that panel that Dark Horse's flagship character's end was imminent, there is a lot more hell to raise before these titles wrap. And, over the course of the next few weeks, we will feature a series of exclusive previews and interviews about Hellboy, the B.P.R.D, Abe Sapien and more.

To kick things off, Allie joined us to discuss the current state of the Mignolaverse and expand on the ECCC panel. He also is going to walk us through the July solicitations for Dark Horse's Mignola books and offer some exclusive insights and peeks at those covers.

But first up, Allie said the past and future of the Mignolaverse titles is complex but approachable.

"One of the goals with the Mignolaverse is to make it accessible, any given time," he said. "We know there's a deep backstory, but we don't want that to be necessary to reading what's coming out today -- the thing about our backstory is it's one backstory; it all adds up to one thing, there's no reboots, no side stories that don't count."

But where does that leave us now, in terms of where our heroes are and what's shaking both top side and in the underworld?

Allie had this to say:

Currently, Hell is mostly closed for business, in part because monsters of an entirely different persuasion (see HP Lovecraft) are overrunning the world, and meanwhile Hellboy did something in Hell that really messed up things there. He's on a long walkabout in Hell, encountering ghosts, demons, badly angled architecture, and all of the really most lost souls in the history of comics. On Earth, those monsters threaten to bring the curtain down on mankind, with the BPRD our best hope for survival. But the outlook is not good. The BPRD are combatting the threat on a big military scale, while Abe Sapien runs across country trying to either discover or avoid the truth about himself, and his role in a prophecy that's been hinted at since the very first Hellboy comic, and seems more and more to be coming true. Meanwhile, we continue to explore the history of this world through our stories set in the past, like WItchfinder and Lobster Johnson and Frankenstein Underground. These stories let us explore the prophecies, the mythology from a very different perspective, and to make sure no one character has as much of the big picture as the readers do. But more and more the pieces are coming together, and the ultimate showdowns are heating up.

Still want to know more about the future of the Mignolaverse? Click ahead in our exclusive gallery to see what July holds for the men and monsters of this comic-book realm. Also soak up the cover images and check out Allie's take on why these issues cannot be missed.