The Lobster's Claw

This is my entry for the Autumn Society's Hellboy birthday show.

I was so excited when I first got the announcement for this show because I am a huge Hellboy fan. It's actually the only comic I still read (including the spin offs like B.P.RD.) so it was an amazing thrill to get to be a part of this.

Mike Mignola, creator and (until recently) artist of Hellboy is one of my artistic heroes. Aside from just generally liking his style of work, I have always respected the fact that he draws what he loves and has been able to turn it into a engaging story that comic fans enjoy. What I mean is that everything in the Hellboy universe is based on something Mignola likes to draw. He likes to draw big demon guys with mechanical features, so we get Hellboy and his big right hand. He likes to draw cyborg apes and heads in jars, so we get them as villains in a story. To me this seems like the ideal way to create, and the ideal job.

Therefore I wanted to make a piece that had all of my favorite things from the Hellboy comics; all the things that I think are cool or fun to draw. I combined them into a Mignola style cover, but of course keeping my own cartoony sensibilities.

We were limited to one piece in this show, so I went with the most complicated idea I had. I could have easily made two or three more pieces, time permitting. A close second was to have Hellboy fighting Mothman, a creature based in folklore that originated in my home state of WV (we have a yearly festival and statue dedicated to him, and you may have had the misfortune of seeing The Mothman Prophecies staring Richard Gere.) Hellboy even says he would "dearly love to see a mothman" at the end of one of the comics.