Hellboy is fun. He’s an antihero that skirts the line between man and monster both on the inside and the outside. And even though when you get to brass tax he little more than a red man with horns, its always refreshing to see a superhuman that looks more than human. I know, I know, he’s a demon. But my point is, too many times people just take the easy way out and say ‘look at this guy, he’s an alien despite looking like my next door neighbor.’
And I was always intrigued by the notion that he sands off his horns. Such an effective insight into him as a character. Here we have a giant red ape that either wants to look more like a human or less like a demon. Then we get into the whole body modification subculture which is ripe for the picking [phrasing!] in the speculative fiction genre.
1-2-3 no CG! Heh, I’m actually in the digital art industry, I just feel the need to celebrate the people that do it old school.
This students, is an alien. A Narn to be specific, with foreign facial structures, patterned pigmentation, and eyes of red Cool-Aid. Not pictured, is a man with pointed ears.
For those unfamiliar, the Narn are one of the three main alien races from Babylon 5. These noble war-newt things were everywhere in that show, which goes to prove how seriously the creators took everything. Now I’m particularly fond of garage band effects, but you just have to hand it to a show that would design something so extravagant and then trot it out every day like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
I once had to come up with a list of my favorite pieces from art history. The Sistine Chapel got tenth, Mystique from the X-Men movies got third.
If I were in a room designing the costume for a blue person and someone suggested making her naked and scaly, I would duck in cover for fear of stray objects bouncing off of them. But man, did it WORK. And as a kid, I didn’t even recognize that she was naked. It never registered for me, it just looked to natural and I didn’t question it. It also added a real raw sexual power to the performance. And they didn’t need any CGI to make it happen. Suck it Avatar.
![Hellboy is fun. He’s an antihero that skirts the line between man and monster both on the inside and the outside. And even though when you get to brass tax he little more than a red man with horns, its always refreshing to see a superhuman that looks more than human. I know, I know, he’s a demon. But my point is, too many times people just take the easy way out and say ‘look at this guy, he’s an alien despite looking like my next door neighbor.’
And I was always intrigued by the notion that he sands off his horns. Such an effective insight into him as a character. Here we have a giant red ape that either wants to look more like a human or less like a demon. Then we get into the whole body modification subculture which is ripe for the picking [phrasing!] in the speculative fiction genre.
1-2-3 no CG! Heh, I’m actually in the digital art industry, I just feel the need to celebrate the people that do it old school.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1q9xhG4wH1rn1jsqo1_400.jpg)
