Prior to unleashing his signature creation, Hellboy, artist Mike Mignola spent several years at DC Comics on titles like World of Krypton, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, and even Jack Kirby’s New Gods during his Cosmic Odyssey miniseries. Mignola apparently also played a large part in the early stages of a New Gods animated project that never went forward. Now, Mignola’s lost New Gods designs have shown up online.

Via Newsarama, the original images were posted on the tumblr account of artist Shane White. It’s an extensive collection of Mignola’s New Gods designs, which carry the flavor of Kirby’s characters while still demonstrating Mignola’s style. Almost all of the major New Gods characters were included here, including Scott Free/Mr. Miracle, Big Barda, Orion, Lightray, Highfather, and of course, one of the best DC villains of all-time, Darkseid.

Scott Free has the most designs out of all of the characters in these pics, which suggests that he would have been the central character in the New Gods animated project if it had gone forward. You can find the rest of Mignola’s designs in our gallery below.

Within the DC Universe, the New Gods of New Genesis and their evil counterparts from Apokolips were essentially space gods who were eternally at war with each other. As part of a fragile peace agreement, Highfather of New Genesis sent his son, Scott Free, to Apokolips to be raised under Darkseid’s rule. In turn, Darkseid sent his son, Orion, to live on New Genesis under the care of Highfather. Years later, Scott Free escaped from the fire pits of Apokolips and became an escape artist named Mr. Miracle. Orion embraced the ways of New Genesis, and he emerged its fiercest warrior against his father.

There’s a lot of inherent potential in the New Gods franchise which has never quite managed to fully catch on with comic fans. Make no mistake: they have a following. It’s just not big enough to carry a monthly comic book series. That could potentially change, if Darkseid and the New Gods become important to DC’s Extended Univervse. But only time will tell for sure.

What do you think about Mignola’s take on these classic Kirby characters? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Mike Mignola