Too Much Hellboy And Tad's Future Projects

The Right Hand of Doom puts a mean beat down.

TwitchGuru: Can you talk at all about the third one you're working on now?

Tad: Well we're only greenlit to script so it's a bit premature, but it's the mad scientist side of Hellboy. We'll get a little glimpse of the origin, and we kind of play it a little differently. Some fans won't' mind, other fans will be up-in-arms, but I think it serves our story very well.

TwitchGuru: With having Hellboy live-action and then a different version in animation and then the comics and the videogames, do you see any parallels to what Todd McFarlane did with Spawn in the 90s.

Tad: No because to me it is all about the comic. I enjoyed those other creations, but for me it's all about the comic. The comic is canon and it's trying to capture as much of that as I could and put it on the screen.

TwitchGuru: With Spawn especially, it really got strange that there was all this Spawn merchandising and all this weird marketing that went into creating a mass-appeal for this really dark character. So there's no concern about over-saturating the market with Hellboy?

Tad: Well, I'm not concerned. Universal is planning all sorts of merchandising for Hellboy, and they're going to release "Hellboy 2" in a huge way. Hopefully that helps all of us. There's a line that you shouldn't cross when it comes to over-saturation, but part of that is the fans. As much as you want the character that you love to be discovered, you don't want him to suddenly become commonplace. Perhaps the line is set in different places by a fan versus a movie producer. Ultimately most people are very respectful of Mike's [Mignola] wishes. We certainly are. And even if there's a legal right to do certain things they feel like, "Mike's the creator so let's back off of this because it makes him uneasy." Certainly dark horse treats him that way.

TwitchGuru: Are there any other comic characters that you want to bring to animation

Tad: There's a couple properties that Dark Horse has that would be cool. I haven't gotten into it in detail, but certainly there's a lot of talk about "The Goon" which would be a crack up. There's also stuff like "The Dare Detectives" that was just a couple of issues they put up by Ben Caldwell. It's this weird, futuristic-yet-retro, funny-animal-babes-and-tommy-guns comic that would be really fun to get into. Basically they've got a huge catalogue, and I'd love to work with Mike Richardson saying, "What 's up with this?" Or maybe do some stuff of my own. For the mean time, I'm trying to get as much out of Hellboy as I can. I love stories of the paranormal and supernatural, and Mike [Mignola] created this great character that I have a lot of affection for. I just want to put him through his paces.

TwitchGuru: You recently wrote a comic called "Pyramid of Death" that is part of the "Hellboy Animated" comic series. What is that about?

Tad: "Pyramid of Death" is a Dark Horse comic, and, to use Mike's words, it's basically a young Hellboy as "Calvin and Hobbes". He just gets wired up listening to the Lobster Radio Show, and he puts on goggles and little cape. In his mind, that's his Lobster Johnson costume, and he goes out to have an adventure. Well, in the real world people are trying to do work and get experiments done, but in his mind he's dealing with saboteurs and evil henchmen. We kind of revisit that same kind of storyline except using a Lobster Johnson comic book. In the second issue of "Hellboy Animated" comics it'll be the menace of the mechanical monsters, and Mike actually twisted my arm and made me draw and ink that one. So I apologize to everyone now.

TwitchGuru: Well I appreciate your time, and we look forward to "Hellboy: Blood and Iron" in March.

Tad: No problem at all.

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