Making of a Cover...Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil

11/17/2010 2:53pm

Here at Dark Horse, we're all pretty big fans of Richard Corben, especially the amazing work he's done on Hellboy and Conan. Richard was kind enough to take us through the creative process for the amazing cover he did on Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil. Check it out!

Corben: Since the title and a major element in the story was old horror movies I thought it would be neat to play off the idea of the old movie posters. I put most of the lead features together with the title and some lurid grab lines. In this case it didn't work too well, so Mike and Scott opted for a more standard vignette.

Corben: The finish contains mainly the mummies, the Egyptian priest and the sacrificial girl, characters from the second feature. These covers are usually done ahead of the main body of the story and I hadn't completely rationalized what the giant vampire creature should look like.

Corben:Also the strangness of the house itself is an important part of the story, something that would be very hard to convey in a single cover image, especially when paired with a second story elements. So I put the collapsing house in the background behind Hellboy with its dust filling in around the other characters. The girl who is the victim and later helps explain what the priest is up to, I thought should be a modern Egyptian. This may not be too clear in my drawing but Dave did pick up on it.

There you have it folks! The finished product! Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil is in stores now, swing by your local comic book store and pick up a copy! And look for a special variant cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola!

Dark Horse Comics