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Main articles: Abe Sapien returns Mister Wink Wonders of the Troll Market and Beyond: Part 1 | Part 2 The Last Elemental The Angel of Death
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Abe Sapien Returns
Abraham Sapien returned in Hellboy: The Golden Army. Jones reprised the role, and the creature design was largely kept the same, although lighter color tones and different schemes were used for certain areas of the skin. Although the design was the same, the much larger onscreen presence throughout the film dictated a different approach to the make-up process.
The Angel of Death
It is all the same to me, my heart is filled with dust and sand.
As with many other key characters of Hellboy II, the Angel of Death was first envisioned by Guillermo Del Toro as a notebook sketch. From there, the character went through different iterations at the hands of concept artists like Wayne Barlowe, and ended up being art-directed by Norman Cabrera at Spectral Motion.
Wonders of the Troll Market and Beyond – Part 2
A Hungarian mine cave housed the gigantic Troll Market set, one of the biggest built for Hellboy II — a vibrant, busy environment filled with practical and digital creatures — which Del Toro wanted to deviate from usual design standards. “Each artist was free to bring forth as many sketches of creatures as they wanted,” Del Toro explained. “The only condition was to veer away from ‘movie monsters’ and make the creatures more surreal and exotic, reference things other than film: engravings from the middle ages, Hieronymus Bosch, the arabian tales, etc, etc. Barlowe had the best batting average… 8 out of 10 of his designs made it to the screen. But we treated these creatures like extras. We seldom, if ever showcased them — I felt this was crucial to treat the market like you would any other location… to make it real.”
Mister Wink
Mister Wink — Prince Nuada’s musclebound henchman troll — was born as a drawing in one of director Guillermo Del Toro’s notebooks: an ape-like humanoid with a large prosthetic mechanical hand that could be deployed from the arm through a chain and then retracted. As defined by concept artist Wayne Barlowe, “his huge artificial arm and hand seem like a direct counterpoint to Hellboy’s Right Hand of Doom.” The mechanical arm and hand also served the purpose of making Mr. Wink visually belong to Hellboy’s world.
Wonders of the Troll Market and Beyond – Part 1
Although the first Hellboy film was rich in creature effects — both practical and digital — its sequel increased the workload with an ambitious roster of monstrous characters. To design the creatures and bring them to the screen, work was split between Spectral Motion, Solution Studios, Creature FX and DDT Efectos Speciales. Creature designs started from sketches by director Guillermo del Toro or Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and then passed over at the companies for further refinement and selection of effects methods that could portray them effectively. Certain creatures were entirely practical or digital, whereas others employed both effects systems. Certain expedients used in Pan’s Labyrinth — such as the use of green screen creature suit portions that would be erased in post-production — were also recycled for the project.
Exclusive: Art of Darkness
Magazine Journalist Joe Nazzaro had composed an article regarding the design and realization of the homunculi from the 2010 remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Written for Monsterpalooza Magazine — which eventually went no further than its first issue — it was left unused. As an Exclusive to Monster Legacy, Joe Nazzaro was kind enough to pass it over and make it available here. Read on!
Art of Darkness
Troy Nixey and Guillermo del Toro
lead a team of artists on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
By Joe Nazzaro
Abraham Sapien
Abraham Sapien first appeared in the Seed of Destruction arc of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics — and was featured in Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptations. Abe was the director’s favourite character from the comic series, but despite that he wanted to take a different direction, character-wise: “[he was] completely different from the Abe Sapien in the comics, because I wanted this delicate, beautiful, very sensitive character to juxtapose with Hellboy.”
Monster Gallery: Hellboy (2004)
Mar 5
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Main Articles: The Desolate One Abraham Sapien The Seven Gods of Chaos
Monster Legacy 