"Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola's story demonstrates the double-edged sword of success pretty well. Essentially, following the film adaptations of "Hellboy" and "Hellboy 2" the artist became so successful that he no longer had time to regularly illustrate his comic, leaving it to artists like Duncan Fegredo to help carry out the story. But the time may have come for the series' principal writer to return to his artist roots...at least after he wraps up some other projects.

Mignola recently told SciFi Wire
that he's got Hellboy on the backburner, but not by much. "I've got half a dozen stories that are not Hellboy-related ... I'm going to do that stuff and just some really odd stuff. Then I'm going to roll back into doing Hellboy myself," Mignola said.Fans have generally accepted fill-in artists and guest writers throughout Hellboy's expanded continuity, especially in spin-off titles such as "B.P.R.D.," but there's something special about a one-creator operation in a highly collaborative industry that makes the reading experience somehow more personal or direct, and Mignola seems to recognize this.

"There's only so much that another artist can do with your story, but when you're in charge of the whole thing, there's a whole world of possibilities you can do," he said. "Yeah, I'm very excited about it."

No dates were given for his expected return, but with no official "Hellboy 3" announcements being made yet, fans have a little more time to anticipate a book chock-full of Mignola.

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