Jesse Lonergan Talks ‘Miss Truesdale And The Rise Of Man’

Welcome to the table,

Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea was one of my favorite books in recent years. It showcases why Mike Mignola is not only a spectacular writer who elevates storytelling with each new tale he weaves, but also that the lore his work encompasses and inspires is nothing short of timeless. The book also works, in no small part, thanks to the astonishingly well-crafted lines of the artist Jesse Lonergan.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Lonergan and talk about the new upcoming Dark Horse series, Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man. You can find the interview below!

Anton: Jesse, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. Before we dig too deep, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?

Jesse Lonergan: I’m a comic book artist who was a wallflower in the indie comics scene for about a decade before my wordless comic HEDRA was nominated for an Eisner for best single issue, and since then I’ve worked on various projects with various companies. Mike Mignola and I did Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea together in 2023.

Anton: Miss Truesdale and the fall of Hyperborea is without question one of my favorite comics of all time. That is in no small part due to the visual style and character design you have been able to capture within these pages.

Between Anum Yassa’s almost entertainer-like armor, the architecture of Hyperborea in its waning days, the Forest God, and the Black Goddess, you have really defined a moment in the history of the Hellboy Universe in a way that feels so authentic, lived in, and larger than what is contained within the pages of this story.

With Hyperborea being a largely undocumented portion of time full of all manner of myth and folklore, what did you use as visual inspiration for the foundations of your work when you started on this story?

Jesse: I think the Hellboy Universe has a very distinct look to it, which of course comes from Mike, and has been built upon by other artists, so I think my process was taking what’s been done and extrapolating a bit from that, and also seeing how I can fit myself in there. Hyperborea hadn’t been seen much but there had been glimpses and I studied those, The Island and Frankenstein Underground specifically.

Anton: I love the jumping back and forth within the consciousness of Miss Truesdale and Anum Yassa as the story progresses through Fall of Hyperborea. Some of my favorite pages in all of comics, and this is coming from someone who has 30+ longboxes sitting in my office right now, are found within this run based purely on what you have done with breaking the “traditional” panel on page layouts.

What does your typical process for putting together a page look like? How do we go from idea to thumbs to the final page we get in the book?

Jesse: It all starts with Mike’s script, which for Miss Truesdale was pretty loose, so I had a lot of freedom to figure out how to layout a page. I spend a lot of time in the thumbnails, blocking out the panels and figuring out the sequence.

I kind of treat the page like a puzzle and I usually do a number of iterations of how a page could work. There are almost no details or figures even, just panel shapes. Then I move on to the full-sized page. I pencil pretty loosely and do most of the finished line work in ink. Colors I do digitally.

Anton: Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea was an absolutely perfect comic in my opinion, and since the moment Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man was announced, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. There is a passage towards the end of the Fall of Hyperborea story. I’m not going to give too much away for those who have not read it yet, but the moment Rise of Man was announced, it made me think of the panel that reads…

“You were the one. From the beginning, from the fall of Hyperborea through the rise of man, now and however long the human race lasts…”

Am I off base thinking this title has layers to it, as it seems to harken to that passage?

Jesse: I think you got it. The narrative and text all comes from Mike and with the first series and this coming one, he’s revealing a lot about the very beginnings of the Hellboy Universe. Revelations that resonate throughout the Universe’s history.

 

 

Anton: Anum Yassa’s axe is one of my favorite weapons in comics. It’s rustic, ancient, and yet feels timeless in the sense that we could see it sold in a garden store down the road or hanging behind glass in a history museum in most countries around the world. It’s not without a very unique-shaped head, though.

It seems like there had to be some conscious thought that went into where the design ended up. Is there a story there, or was it just a happy accident that it ended up looking the way it looked?

Jesse: Mike and I went back and forth on the design of Anum Yassa, but the axe is something that was fully formed in his mind from the very beginning. It’s a great counterpoint to this theatrical costume Yassa has. Her clothing was sort of meant as a joke for this person who was never supposed to survive the arena to wear. The axe is this rock-solid ancient piece of history that can’t be denied.

Anton: As these issues are coming together, what does the collaborative process between you and Mike Mignola like?

Jesse: Mike sent me the scripts, which were very loose. There would be five or six pages that were broken down into panels and sequences, but most of it was just in paragraph form without any text notes or dialogue. I was free to organize it and show the ideas however I saw fit.

He’d also include reference pages for sequences from previous stories that connected to ours, that I’d work to incorporate. I’d then send the finished pages back to him, and he’d write the text and dialogue. I don’t really get the full picture of the issue until the lettering proofs are sent.

 

Anton: Anum Yassa is so iconic, in my opinion. I love that we are getting more stories with her and Miss Truesdale, as I think they have the potential to be as widely recognizable as characters like Abe Sapien, Edward Grey, Koshchei, and Kate Corrigan.

Without giving us any spoilers, what can we expect from Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man?

Jesse: A lot more of Anum Yassa for sure. We get to see her as the merged Miss Truesdale/Anum Yassa character grow and explore new unknown parts of the earliest part of the Hellboy Universe. And while exploring, battle all manner of beasts and baddies.

Anton: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me, Jesse. I am so thrilled to see this book come out, not just because we are getting more of this fantastic story, but because I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see what wonders you work across these upcoming pages and hopefully the eventual sketchbook material in the collected edition when that is eventually released.

Before we wrap, can you please tell our audience where they can keep up with you and all you do?

Jesse: In terms of social media, Instagram is where I’m most active at jesse.lonergan. I’m also on BlueSky, @jesselonergan.bsky.social. My website is www.jesselonergan.com, and I’m always showing work and pages from personal projects on my Patreon. I also have a solo book, DROME, coming out August 19th from First Second Books.

Anton: Again, thank you so much, and I can’t wait to see all your hard work bound on the paneled page!

Until next time, I’m going to keep saying it, “If you have not read Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea, you should go fix that immediately because it is seriously one of the coolest comic mini-series I have read in recent years.”