#Hellboy: Bones Of Giants

[middenway]

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants

The Hellboy Book Club Podcast is doing Hellboy: The Bones of Giants today by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Matt Smith, Chris O’Halloran, and Clem Robins.

Last year I did a series of interviews with the creative team as each issue came out. It was a lot of fun and I’m really proud of it.

Christopher Golden and Matt Smith discuss Hellboy: The Bones of Giants

Adapting Giants – Part 1: Foundations of Prose

Adapting Giants – Part 2: The Covers of Giants

Adapting Giants – Part 3: Designing for Comics

Adapting Giants – Part 4: Journey to the Comics Page

[breakfast-burger]

Impatiently waiting for my hold on a hellboy comic to arrive at the library.

[sirfrogsworth]

hi hi!!!

I'm a CFX artist (I do hair and cloth for 3D animated movies) and I wanted to clarify something!!

the encanto post? we talked about that one at length at work when it was first made, and it is incredibly evident that the guy who posted it is just bad at his job. the exact same effect can be archieved by changing the camera focal length- but animators never reach for technically competent solutions. (this is a roast.) and even if thats not possible, there is NO reason for why her shoulder area or chest are completely crushed or why her feet are inside of her hip bone.

and also, since I am in the department that comes right after animation- if I had gotten that shot, I would have either sent it straight back to the animator to fix it, OR cleaned it up myself, by which I mean it absolutely did not look like this off-camera by the time we send it for final light render.

essentially if animation looks that messed up off-camera, it is not "animation magic", it is actually someone doing a bad job.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree.

For one thing, the behind the scenes image was not close to a final render so I don't think you can fairly judge what was probably just the animator lining up and blocking the shot. I don't think at that state they were concerned with the shoulders, chest, and feet. I'm betting the final polished version looked much better.

And I also disagree the exact effect could be achieved by changing the focal length.

As a photographer, focal length is not just about cramming everything into the field of view. I don't only use a wide angle because I want more stuff in the photo.

It is also an artistic decision.

Wide angle lenses exaggerate distance and can make foreground objects seem massive and background objects seem tiny.

Look at this super wide angle shot of Otis lusting after a tennis ball.

The ball has a huge presence in the photo. It is only two feet away, but the distance between them seems immense. The ball takes up as much space in the photo as Otis.

Compare that to the ball in this telephoto image.

The picture now becomes less about the ball and more about the act of chasing it. The ball is literally only a foot closer to Otis, but it has no commanding presence like in the super wide shot.

So what artistic intention comes from using a telephoto lens like in Encanto?

Telephoto focal lengths compress distance. Background objects appear much larger in the frame. They also flatten the face and give a more flattering perspective of said face. Human faces can look a bit alien at wider focal lengths.

So what if you want the background to look large and encompassing and you want the flattering facial proportions from a telephoto lens, but you also want a foreground object to have a commanding presence like the ball?

You cheat!

This is not a technique confined to the world of 3D animation though. It is actually an old live-action trick. They will actually use another person's hands to do effectively the same thing as above.

In Hellboy II, Guillermo had two problems. He wanted a telephoto feel and depth of field and he also wanted a very intricate practical egg prop that could open mechanically.

To get the proportions and the framing and the feel of the shot as intended, he double cheated!

He made a big freaking egg with a big freaking fake hand.

(I know there is a picture of the giant hand somewhere but my googling failed me.)

In any case, I think this is just a case of good problem solving over incompetence. I think the director or the animation lead wanted this scene to fit within a specific focal length and it was easier and more efficient to just give her crazy long arms.

I'm not trying to dispute your expertise or animation-splain. Perhaps there was a better way to achieve the same look. But if the final result looked good, I don't think we need to bash someone who was probably under tight deadlines and had a lot of other work to complete. At least not without a lot more information.

[feather-writes-shenanigans]

things about abe that i have found in official material that i think are mildly funny

his response to being offered sriracha is "oh god no." (direct comic quote).

in the same comic, it is established that he's some degree of lactose intolerant.

he has fenced with a sword with professor bruttenholm on one occasion (bones of giants novel).

he likes dire straits, specifically walk of life (from the lost army, book). hellboy also states that he's into 80s pop in general, which makes me cackle.

he also likes sting. this was in the bones of giants novel, and it was not mentioned in the comic as far as i know. this is heartbreaking to me because of fucking course he's a sting fan. (did he watch the original dune movie?)

i'll add more later, but he's such a funny little guy. to me. i want to chew on him. why is the amphibian guy both incapable of handling spice and lactose intolerant? how did he fail at both?

[colleendoran]

NEIL GAIMAN'S CHIVALRY shortlisted for EXCELSIOR Award.

Adapted and illustrated by me, published by Dark Horse Comics, the Excelsior Awards are nominated and voted on by children in hundreds of schools in the UK.

Both Chivalry and Hellboy: The Bones of Giants from Dark Horse Comics are nominated in the 14+ age group.

Chivalry is published by Headline Books in the UK.

[extraordinary-heroes]

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants #1-4 (Cover art by Matt Smith)

[lowcountry-gothic]

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants, by Mike Mignola.

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN (2024)

This was okay.  It switches the focus of past “Hellboy” movies from the grand and cosmic in scope to just some weird Appalachian folk horror.

Hellboy starts off with Bobbie Jo as they are escorting a giant spider monster back to base.  It is 1959.  The spider attacks them!  Their train derails and the spider escapes into a tunnel.  Hellboy and Bobbie Jo look for a telephone and come across a local house, where they find a boy who has been bewitched by a…witch.  Did I mention that they are somewhere in Appalachia?  Just then Tom shows up.  He’s been away for a while, and he offers to lead them up the hill to the house of Cora, a local witch.

They reach Cora’s house and find that she is just skin.  They wait for the rest of her to return and Tom fills them in on his back story, involving another witch, Effie, and his encounter with a powerful evil spirit, the Crooked Man.  Tom also got a lucky cat bone out of it, which he still has.  Anywho, Cora returns and fills up her body again, but then Effie shows up on a horse.  She taunts Tom a bit and then flies away (which was neat).  Turns out, her horse was Tom’s dad, who then dies.

The next day they carry Tom’s dad’s corpse up the hill, but Cora levitates in the air and is attacked by a snake.  The snake bites Hellboy, who has a vision of his mother, a witch whom he never knew, talking to the Devil (in the form of a big raven).  The vision ends and then Cora disappears into some dirt.  Hellboy, Bobbie Jo, and Tom reach a church.  They talk to the blind old paster, and then it is suddenly night time!  Bobbie Jo freaks out.  (She’s apparently more into research than field missions.)  She stares at the sun as it suddenly sets and says, “The earth doesn’t spin…that’s not how it works!” 

The Crooked Man appears with a bunch of witches.  Hellboy confronts him, but the Crooked man skewers him with a bunch of fence posts.  Hellboy gets better and then fights off a bunch of zombies.  The paster uses Tom’s lucky cat bone to bless a shovel.  Hellboy uses it to defeat the zombies and then rushes outside and bonks the Crooked Man on the head.  Everyone wakes up in the morning, just as the Crooked Man turns into a crow and flies away.

Hellboy and Tom head up to the top of the mountain to confront the Crooked Man.  Bobbie Jo and the paster decide to enter the coal tunnels under the church to cast a spell or something.  They are caught in the tunnels by a bunch of crows, who pluck out the paster’s eyes and tongue.  Bobbie Jo runs away, only to encounter the spider from the beginning!  She thinks back on a sad thought (just as Cora earlier advised her) and casts a spell in German in weaken the spider so she can catch it.  Meanwhile, Hellboy and Tom reach a big spooky house and start to explore it.  Hellboy has another vision of his mother, who begs him to kill her.  He’s about to shoot her, but then Bobbie Jo finishes her spell, which ends the effect on Hellboy (who was about to blow his own head off).  Bobbie Jo’s flashlight dies, and she freaks out.  The pastor’s ghost leads her out of the tunnels.

At the spooky house, the Crooked Man appears and tosses Hellboy around for a while, but then Tom throws one of Cora’s “witch balls” into his mouth.  Hellboy blows off the Crooked Man’s head.  They walk back to the church.  Hellboy tells Tom that he’s a good egg, and they also find Effie, who is now old (as opposed to being young from earlier).  Tom uses her own bridle to turn her into a horse.  They reach the church and reunite with Bobbie Jo.  Hellboy and she head down the mountain.  Hellboy says that he’s looking forward to the 1960s.  They find a telephone, which they use to call a helicopter to take them away.

This was decent folk horror, but it suffered from being paired with “Hellboy,” which is also action horror, so we have lots of over-the-top action with guns and punches and acrobatic twirling.  Even so, the movie was still effectively creepy and weird.  The actors threw themselves into their roles: Hellboy was typically laconic and distant, and the two witches, Cora and Effie, delivered fine performances.  Bobbie Jo has an actual character arc, discovering her own internal courage and also the power to perform magic.  The computer effects were a bit…wonky, to say the least.  The practical effects, however, were well done.  Unfortunately, nothing really stands out in the memory.  “Hellboy” (2004) had a weird and truly memorable villain in Karl Ruprecht Kroenen.  “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (2008) had many outstanding set pieces, such as where Liz treats with the Angel of Death.  Even “Hellboy” (2019), which wasn’t a great movie, had that weird scene at the end where demons emerged from hell and started to rip people apart.  This has…Bobbie Jo casting a spell.  In Deutch!

[jokerlives2]

"Its face was skeletal, yes, and thin, its chin pointed, cheekbones high and jutting from beneath leathery skin. Hellboy shivered. The thing was pretty damn ugly."

From Hellboy: The Bones of Giants novel.

[thedeviousdevilxx]

Abe Sapien💙

Hellboy: Bones of Giants

[covrlover]

Hellboy - The Bones of Giants

[burningexeter]

My Favorite Movies Of All Time:

• The Godfather Part II

• Jurassic Park

• Saving Private Ryan

• Excalibur

• The Incredibles

• The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

• Creepshow

• Day Of The Dead

• Donnie Darko

• Frida

• Coco

• The Secret Of NIMH

• King Kong (1933)

• King Kong (2005)

• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

• First Blood

• Die Hard

• Hard Boiled

• Fantasia

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Godzilla (1954)

• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

• Godzilla Minus One

• The Deer Hunter

• Oldboy

• I Saw The Devil

• Logan

• Unforgiven

• The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad

• Jason and the Argonauts

• Blade Runner

• Prisoners

• Enemy

• Sicario

• Arrival

• Bride Of Frankenstein

• The Wolf Of Wall Street

• Pulp Fiction

• Inglourious Basterds

• Desperado

• Sin City

• ParaNorman

• The Mummy (1999)

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

• The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• Predator

• Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter

• Enter The Dragon

• Jaws

• Thief (1981)

• Heat (1995)

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier

• Avengers: Infinity War

• The Exorcist

• The Exorcist III: Legion

• Back To The Future

• It's A Wonderful Life

• Ghostbusters

• The Blues Brothers

• Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

• The Thing (1982)

• Big Trouble In Little China

• Batman Begins

• Blade II

• Pacific Rim

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army

• A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

• The Green Mile

• Evil Dead II

• A Simple Plan

• The Big Lebowski

• Wolfwalkers

• Princess Mononoke

• Spirited Away

• Akira

• Wolf Children

• Memento

• Snatch

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2

• Unbreakable

• Ed Wood

• Dark City

• THX 1138

• Mrs. Doubtfire

• Casino

• Requiem For A Dream

• The Wrestler

• True Lies

• True Romance

• Jumanji

• The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian

• This Is Spinal Tap

• Bone Tomahawk

• Panic Room

• Se7en

• Zodiac

• The Blair Witch Project

• Lake Mungo

• Mean Creek

• Fearless

• Rango

• It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

[splashofspotchka]

Get to Know Me!

A big thank you to@littlesoka7567 @thenonsensebatch and @ct-9902 for the tags! I loved reading yours! :)

PART ONE

are you named after anyone: Yes, I am named after a biblical figure, and my middle name comes from a character in a soap opera.

when was the last time you cried: Two days ago

do you have kids: No, I'm allergic.

do you use sarcasm a lot: I use it quite a bit, but I try to tone it down most times

what's the first thing you notice about people: the way that they speak (if they have certain inflections, accents, talking speed)

what's your eye colour: Green

scary movies or happy endings: Scary movies all the way!

any special talents: I learn languages pretty quickly. I'm also pretty good at singing and playing guitar.

where were you born: Bumfuck, Indiana

what are your hobbies: Baking, decorating cakes, reading, writing, and playing video games. I REALLY love anthropology and archaeology, so sometimes I just go into bouts of watching documentaries about it.

have any pets: I have 3 dogs, a cat, and a tortoise.

what sports do you play/have played: I was on the archery team, but idk if that really counts as a sport.

how tall are you: 5′0"

favourite subject in school: Social Studies

dream job: I currently work in vet med. I really want to work in a specialty called veterinary forensics. Mortuary science would have been my 2nd choice to go into, however.

PART TWO

first ship: Hmmmm. I wanna say it was Rogue and Gambit from X-Men.

three ships: Morticia and Gomez Addams, Kanan and Hera, Obi-Wan and Satine.

last (current) song: Oh, I'm always so embarrassed by my music taste. :/ "The Hammer" by Kublai Khan.

last movie: The last movie that I remember seeing was the new Puss in Boots movie. It was really good. Highly recommend.

currently reading: Technically, it's mostly my textbook for school. Other than that, I'm currently reading "Hellboy: The Bones of Giants" by Christopher Golden.

currently watching: Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, and I need to watch the new Mando episode. (The Bad Batch finale ruined me.)

currently consuming: herbal tea

currently craving: a strawberry matcha latte :)

[paragonrobits]

My Circle of Exalted characters I am currently plotting out, one of whom is not an Exalt, badly summarized

Infernal Slayer, a gremlin lady and absolute weird little wretch. her solution to everything is punches that nuke you with hate lasers. eats everything, including the things that are not possible to eat. whenever she powers up she mutates into a variety of weird freakazoid monsters. perpetually horny, gluttonous and weird at all times. is the single nicest person you’ll ever meet and believes the best in people, including her Yozi masters, the jury is out if she is hopelessly naive or if the same experiences that got her an Infernal Exaltation gave her such low expectations of humanity that she expects way too much goodness from the slightest signs of not being a complete garbage heap. She’s what happens if you make the Hulk, Asura from Asura’s Wrath and Hellboy do a fusion dance, and filter the result through Steven Universe while desperately trying to reconcile the narratively inappropriate powers of Endless Horror with the attitude of It’s ME, EVERYONE’S FRIEND

Solar Twilight. A cat beastfolk or some kind of cat-adjacent wyld mutant constantly apologizing for her existence to the point of naming herself after the garbage you get rid off after smelting because no one wanted it. She’s actually really good at a lot of things from punching to teaching to crafting All The Things, and she still feels like she needs to be Better to be worthy of the Sun’s favor (Though the jury is out if the Sun actually had any input this time).

Lunar Full Moon. Was originally a beastman of a vaguely tyrant lizard disposition but managed to create a human form after Exaltation; he didn’t have a deep seated hatred of his body, he just felt like it. His spirit shape is a tyrant lizard, he’s just the hugest buffest guy you ever did see, and he deliberately puts on a variety of personas and fronts to mislead enemies or troll people for giggles. He’s essentially Grimlock from Transformers translated into Exalted terms (albiet not as an Alchemical, even if that would make more sense); he’s a very smart guy who weaponizes an assumption of him as a rampaging brute specifically to pull one over on enemies. Is quickly developing a reinassance man and polymath vibe.

Dragon-Blooded Air Caste from a confederation of nomadic tribes living way out in the Wyld, and consequently does not know or care what the Immaculate Order is or why people assume she should be yelling at those obviously chosen by the gods (or at least god-adjacent glowy things) as anathema or whatever. A shaman and dealer with spirits who is trying very hard to maintain an air of professionalism and suppress her desire to be extremely sassy all the time. She’s also what they technically call ‘fucking huge’ because her tribe regarded mutations as an indication of innate talents and nothing more, and she’s got the Giant merit, she’s ten feet tall and disappointed in how doorways are so closed in. Has a bone to pick with a Deathlord that is a very blatant stand-in for Sauron.

Lunar Changing Moon, spirit shape is a spider. THIS LADY. OH MAN, THIS LADY. she is just goddamn weird and gremlin, even worse than the Infernal. Her favored ATtributes are Intelligence and Dexterity, caste is Appearance and Manipulation, and this winds up creating a weird mad scientist witch who loves terrifying and seducing people at complete random, stealing forms and tricking enemies into feuding against each other, and duping foes into attacking duplicate fakes who were carrying way too much firedust. no one even knows where she gets it or why she likes explosions so much. She’s really looking forward to learning Charms to make her other forms big so she can turn into a spider the size of a tyrant lizard, hide in someone’s palace and jump out going ‘BOOGA BOOGA!’. She’s heavily inspired by Loki, specifically the older stories of him that we got.

Alchemical Jade Caste; a proof of concept prototype of the Dragon-Blooded that remained in Creation and woke up as a result of shadowland incursions and desperate refugees accidentally hitting a ‘You Got The Touch’ button. She’s a perfect Champion and arguably shaping up to be a leader of the Circle as a whole, assuming they don’t just decide things at random. She’s especially clueless as to the political realities of the Age of Sorrows as all she has to run on are the vague memories of her past lives, which are all firmly remembering the Dragon Kings running the show and she’s a bit concerned how things seem kind of... more screwed up than she might have liked. She’s otherwise an ideal heroine, though just as goofy and weird as the rest of the crew, and a highly versatile wunderkind. She’s basically a cute robot mom version of Optimus Prime, though she’s got a ways to go before she can go all giant robot. (using Transhuman Manifold Implants for the size increase Alchemicals can get isn’t quite the same.)

Dragon King sleeper of the Anklok breed, arguably the most experienced of the bunch though what remains of his conscious recollection suggests that he was something of a laid-back sage before he went to sleep. He’s honestly not sure; something went extremely wrong with the chamber holding him in stasis, and a lot of his previous skills, memory and abilities have been severely damaged. They’re still there, just... locked away, only gradually coming back. The languages he DOES speak are either lost or scholarly curiousities, leaving him having a very difficult time communicating with anyone, but he’s nonetheless managed to amass a bunch of followers and he feels obligated to look after them, and he’s managed to pick up a Solar Eclipse ally despite his gentle hints that she should go back and be a proper heroine to her city-state rather than trying to be his disciple. Leaning towards being a bit of a crafter with an atypical interest in the Solid Earth, Growing Wood and Shaping Wood paths, which are being narratively justified as him gradually remembering the Paths he DID study in his old life. (The current assumption is that he was a very serious scholar and savant, and will in turn teach the interested members of the Circle the basics of artifact creation and manse building later on.) He’s basically Spear from Primal as a dinosaur-man, to the extend of inevitably going to get a white jade/adamant spear as a gift once the circle gets powerful enough to feasibly make something like that.

(Every single one of them has at least one cat familiar, regardless of how little sense it makes. Some of them are air elementals that take on cat form, others are regular cats that have been gradually mutated, and others are perfectly ordinary cats. but this is a Circle of weirdos who have cats. And one of them that IS a cat. Possibly. Depending on how you look at it. Ironically its neither of the two Lunars.)

[therealriver1]

(P.S This is part two continued from the previous post. Please scroll down to read the first half)

⦁ The Lovely Bones 2009 (This isn't a feel-good type of movie but still worth the watch) ⦁ The Brothers Grimm 2005 (Starring the late Heath Ledger with Matt Damon) ⦁ Pirates of the Caribbean 2003 series 1-5 (Definitely one if my favorite Disney films I'd say.) ⦁ The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe 2005 (I confess I never read the books, but I really liked the movie) ⦁ My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2002 (I loved it! I still rewatch it every now and then) ⦁ 13 Going on 30 2004 (Young me was obsessed with this film and watched it quite a few times) ⦁ The Holiday 2006 (I don't really like all those cheesy Christmas movies, but this one was the exception) ⦁ Into The Blue 2005 (I admit during this time I wanted to see every movie Paul Walker was in) ⦁ Mamma Mia 2006 (A musical movie that didn't make me cringe. It was so nice to see them singing ABBA songs) ⦁ Gothika 2003 (Not your typical horror but psychological horror. Not everyone thinks it's great, but I liked the plot) ⦁ The Others 2001 (I used to think this was so scary! I grew up on horror thanks to my dad, I watched a lot of them, and this was a good one) ⦁ The Sleeping Dictionary 2003 (Young Jessica Alba looked stunning. It's a slow drama but you might like it) ⦁ The Mummy 1999 (I actually watched The Mummy Returns first without knowing about the original. I like everything Egypt, relic or mummy related) ⦁ The Transporter 2002 (I do believe this movie was a hit at the time and the action is top notch) ⦁ Real Steel 2011 (Giant fighting robots, c'mon! This was so much fun to watch) ⦁ The Thing 1982 (If you can't handle gore, you might not like it, but I thought it was great! I even enjoyed the version that came out in 2011) ⦁ The Ghost in the Darkness 1996 (Based on a true story of killer lions, this one was definitely memorable) ⦁ Down With Love 2003 (I don't watch a lot of rom coms, but this was so good) ⦁ Uptown Girls 2003 (A charming film starring the late Brittany Murphy) ⦁ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012 (I of course watched all of the LOTR movies beforehand, but I enjoyed the Hobbit series more) ⦁ Wedding Crashers 2005 (If you are looking for a fun time then this one is a good choice) ⦁ Joe Dirt 2001 (Apparently there was a sequel that I never watched but I very much liked the first movie) ⦁ I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry 2007 (Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretend to be a married couple in this comedy) ⦁ X-men 2000 (I love all the X-men movies in the series) ⦁ Kate and Leopold 2001 (Your typical romance starring a young Hugh Jackman) ⦁ Hellboy 2004 (A cool action/fantasy film by director Guillermo Del Toro and it's based on a comic book in case you didn't know) ⦁ Van Helsing 2004 (Werewolves vs vampires in this one starring Hugh Jackman as the legendary monster hunter Van Helsing) ⦁ Meet The Fockers 2004 (I enjoyed this one more than the first film) ⦁ Awake 2007 (Imagine being fully conscious while under anesthesia and hearing and feeling everything that's happening around you. Starring Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba and Terrence Howard) ⦁ She's The Man 2006 (I know I can't be the only one who loved this movie when it came out) ⦁ Wild Hogs 2007 (This is definitely one of my fave comedies to watch) ⦁ Face/Off 1977 (A great thriller starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta) ⦁ The 6th Day 2000 (Another one of my favorites starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) ⦁ Beetlejuice 1988 (I just hope Beetlejuice 2 will be as good as the first one) ⦁ The Shining 1980 (Thrilling and psychological, I just had to add this to my list, it's a classic. Wonderful performance from Jack Nicholson)

[extraordinary-heroes]

Hellboy: The Bones of Giants (Cover art by Matt Smith)