With work on "The Hobbit" really starting to move forward, Guillermo del Toro updated MTV News this week with exclusive scripting, casting and pre-production news, including confirmation that "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola will be coming aboard for early visualization.

"We are sketching and designing with Weta's John Howe, and [Adam Lee]," del Toro offered. "Mike Mignola is coming soon. He's going to do a stint on the design team."

This is good news for fans of Mignola, who worked with del Toro on both "Hellboy" films as well as providing some art for "Pan's Labyrinth."

For more of MTV's chat with Guillermo del Toro about "The Hobbit," head over to MTV.com.

It's not just Barack Obama's kids who love "Twilight" -- First Daughter-Elect Malie might bond with her dad over vampire lore, but so do the daughters of comics writers Neil Gaiman and Mike Mignola, and I have a feeling that those conversations might be slightly scarier.

"My daughter Katie is in love with the 'Twilight' books," Mignola told us.

"My daughter Maddie read the 'Twilight' series," Gaiman told us, "but she alternately loved it and got frustrated with it, so I would get alternate reports back from her: 'I love it!' to 'Oh, no, they're doing something wrong!' And then she'd come back triumphantly, 'I knew they were just werewolves! I knew they were a werewolf family!'" Read more...

While the success of the "Hellboy" franchise hasn't made series creator, Mike Mignola, a household name...yet...that doesn't mean the highly influential writer/artist has had any downtime in terms of upcoming Hollywood projects. Quite the contrary, Mignola has his hands -- and slate -- full between his current creator-owned properties in development, as well as his ongoing comic book work.

And for those of us out there who look forward to pretty much anything with Mignola's name on it, the folks at SciFi.com managed to catch up with him for updates on his numerous projects, kicking off with a status report on "Baltimore," which as has been reported will be produced by David Goyer.

"It is banging around," said Mignola in the SciFi.com interview. "[Writer] Chris [Golden] and I have co-written a screenplay, and it's sort of in development, and we're kind of going in to do another rewrite on the screenplay." Read more...

With all the hoopla surrounding the rise of the current Steampunk fad, one would assume it would only be a matter of time until a comic book was published that capitalized on the trend…

…only you’d be wrong – truth be told, comics have been well-ahead of the curve when it comes to including Steampunk elements. As a matter of fact, there have been several comics, original graphic novels, and even some well known comic book movies that have delved into the retro-sci-fi genre.

Let’s start off with Mike Mignola, the creator of “Hellboy,” which is chock-fulla Steampunk imagery and elements. Take the character of Johann Strauss from “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” -- with his retro-futuristic containment suit, covered with turn-of-the-century gadgets and puffs of steam shooting out from him sporadically, Strauss is clearly the more obvious of Mignola’s characters influenced by the subculture. Read more...

"That really isn't my Hellboy," laughed creator Mike Mignola when asked about the "Hellboy II: the Golden Army" scene our MTV Movies Blog team picked as the summer's best movie moment. The memorable scene features a drunken Hellboy and Abe Sapien belting out Barry Manilow's "Can’t Smile Without You."

It's a scene that never would have happened in the comics -- it was "too emotional," said Mignola -- but it worked for the movie.

"Guillermo del Toro wanted a drunk singing scene," Mignola said. "I just went, 'You're the boss. Whatever you think is going to work.' I'm shy about those Hellboy-Liz Sherman moments, but he knows how to pull those things off."

But if it was just intended to be your run-of-the-mill drunk singing scene, why Barry Manilow? Read more...

David Goyer's got the next "Batman" and "Super Max" on his mind, but after that, he's got a little trip to "Baltimore" to make.

"We're now in the process of working out with David Goyer and the producers the notes on the first draft of the script, so we can start the next draft immediately," said Christopher Golden.

"Baltimore, or the Steadfast Tin Solider and the Vampire," is an illustrated novel co-written by Golden and "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola, with art by Mignola, in which a captain in the British infantry, Lord Henry Baltimore, mistakenly wakes up a vampire with the blood on a battlefield during World War I. Golden is writing the script for New Regency with input from Mignola.

"The first thing that had to be fixed from moving from book to screenplay was the vagueness of the book," Golden said. "You need something to hang the movie on, a propulsion engine. So there are lots of things we hint at in the book, regarding the Red King and the source of supernatural evil, but in the script we bring it to the surface and make it more clear what they're up against." Read more...

You don't usually think of Superman needing saving. But a campaign has just been launched for a rescue mission of sorts -- to save the house where Superman was born.

"When I saw that the house where Superman was created was in disrepair, it just seemed wrong," Brad Meltzer said. "The house where Google was created is saved. The farm where Hewlett Packard was founded is preserved. The Superman house deserves the same respect." (See exclusive art from the auction after the jump!) Read more...

Guillermo del Toro talks about the “Hellboy” movies being a trilogy – what with the first film being about his birth, the second his teenage choices, and the third about becoming an adult and facing the consequences of those choices. “The third one would be facing your destiny, if such a thing exists, and making the ultimate decision,” del Toro says.

Tantalizing, but vague. So we asked “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola to clarify – what would the final installment be about, besides bouncing Hellboy babies? Turns out, quite a bit.

“The problem is, what del Toro’s talked about to me is that ‘Hellboy III’ would be the end of Hellboy,” Mignola said. “And here’s where we have the big conflict. My version of Hellboy in the comics is a finite story, but it’s going to take me 15 years to get to the ending. If he makes ‘Hellboy III’ and it’s the death of Hellboy, I’m left doing the comic going, ‘But I’m not done yet.’ Read more...