And we’re back. Welcome to Mignolaversity in 2015. Oh, what a year this is going to be! The are some very big things in store… But of course, if we were to tell you about them, Dark Horse would have us all executed. So in the interest of self preservation, in December we interviewed the only people that have immunity from such measures: Mike Mignola and his fellow writers and artists. That turned out to be quite a lot of people, so this will be the fourth of five parts.

If you’ve missed any of the others, here’s some links for you:

BALTIMORE

There is more to Mike Mignola’s books than just theuniverse though. There’s also, the series he co-created with Christopher Golden. Last year, the Baltimore universe saw significant changes as a chapter drew to a close and a new one began. It also saw a passing of the torch from Ben Stenbeck to Peter Bergting as artist on the series with. This year Bergting settles into his sophomore year on the title.

“I wish I was more confident but I still think I’m finding my footing,” said the artist. “I can never be totally happy with the results, but my editors have been awesome pushing me further and further with each issue.”

“We’re asking a lot of Peter, and he’s really stepped up his game. Every page looks better than the last,” said Christopher Golden of his new partner. “Truthfully, there are some artists who would read some of these scenes and run screaming, but Peter is making this dark, forbidding world just come alive.”

“I love the settings,” said Berting. “I’m all about drawing moody stuff, and there’s some really juicy scenery this time around. I also love getting feedback on designs from Mike, seeing his sketches come in really opens my eyes to what can be done. Our styles are visually similar but we come from totally different places design wise.”

In 2014 there was a significant expanding of Baltimore‘s cast as it transitioned from a solo book to a team book. Lord Baltimore was joined by various companions from his past, along with newcomers Sofia Valk and Judge Rigo, which has transformed the dynamic of the book.

“One thing I love about the larger cast is that each of them brings something different not just to the group, but to the story, and each of them sees Baltimore differently,” said Christopher Golden. “To Judge Rigo, he is a human monster, a tainted creature with whom Rigo shares a set of enemies. But Rigo has realized that the Inquisition he served were also human monsters, also tainted creatures… and so is he. Though he understands that he shares this with Baltimore, there is still always going to be a separation between them. He respects what Baltimore can accomplish and understands him in a way the others perhaps don’t, but he’ll never love him, never like him, never feel any real sympathy for him. Also… Rigo’s faith is realigning itself, and as part of that, he’s struggling with whether or not he still considers himself a priest. You’ll only see the surface of that, but it’s happening.

“Meanwhile, Sofia is probably the only one―Childress included, despite the fact that he and Baltimore were childhood friends―who really sees the human being inside Baltimore. They’ve developed a rapport that is so foreign to most of the others that they barely notice it. Most of the time, when Sofia speaks to him, she’s speaking to the ordinary man he was, and that helps him. There’s an intimacy between them, but it’s not in any way a sexual or romantic intimacy. In a way, Rigo and Sofia are polar opposites in how they view Baltimore… but they’re both right.”

“I love Sofia,” said Peter Bergting. “She’s confident, she smokes, and I got to take her from the first arc to the second arc and really bring her into the group. I gave her masculine clothes boots and a short hairstyle that fits the era, but still has that unkempt-couldn’t-care-less look. I can’t wait to see where Christopher takes her, as long as he keeps her alive. My favorite is Harish though, and I made a special request that I hope pops up in a future issue.”

Continued below

And what might the future entail?

“The next miniseries is called The Cult of the Red King,” said Golden. “At the end of Chapel of Bones, Baltimore was forced to come to the realization that his fight is much larger than he ever imagined or desired. He wanted to kill the monster who murdered his family, and he thought that when he achieved that, he would die. But the Powers That Be won’t let him do that. He’s beyond doomed. In a way, you could say he’s damned, but if he is damned, it’s not by the devil. He’s a pawn, a useful tool for God, or whatever cosmic sentience is on “our side,” to use to strike at the resurfacing power of the Red King, who has many names, among them “the god before gods.”

“The Red King is most certainly not on our side. Baltimore has accepted this larger crusade, even embraced it, because he sees that whatever Haigus may have been or done, the Red King was always the real enemy.”

For the last few years, Baltimore has been told through one, two, and three-issue stories, but with The Cult of the Red King, the series will return to the longer, five-issue miniseries format of its earlier stories.

“The Cult of the Red King is the biggest story we’ve ever done, spanning three continents,” said Golden. “Baltimore has split his allies up into two groups, each with its own mission. One is more immediate―the continuing fight to disrupt and destroy the growing power of the cult of the Red King. With the High Priests apparently all destroyed, new pockets of worship have sprung up. The most dangerous of these are centered around witches who were already close to the darkness, working with black magic. (Not all witches do.)

“But there are ordinary people who have turned to the Red King as well. The other group is on what appears to be more of a fact-finding mission, but I’m not going to tell you any more about that, except to say that it doesn’t go well. Historically, being a friend of Lord Baltimore’s has been… dangerous. In this story, we’re going to see just how dangerous.”

Golden has found his own excitement broadening considerably while working on the series, especially with this latest arc.

“I just love what this world is,” he said. “The Great War came to a screeching halt because of the plague. The population has dropped considerably and there are monsters and other evils rising in the world. People are more and more cut off from each other. Baltimore is exterminating whatever evils he can, trying to dig at the roots and tear them out, but as he does that, the other roots are growing, and he’s going to need to find a new path. The way he’s been doing things all along… if he keeps fighting the way he’s been fighting, the world will lose in the end.”

Look for Baltimore: The Cult of the Red King later this year.