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Video Poster for Series Pilot

HSM* would love to have you get in on the fun with us. We invite you to add artwork, cartoons, stories and even short animations to the site. Our long-term goal? To produce an updated Deluxe Edition of Raising Hell with color illustrations, expanded material and deleted chapters. Perhaps produce a Raising Hell comic book. Or even an animated Raising Hell Series on the web.

It seems hell is filled with artist types who are totally unsuited to the structured environment HSM lavishly inflicted on our fellow minions.

Your reward if we like your ideas?

You get full credit, which you give yourself. Will you get money? Hah, hah, hah. This is a fan site. Stephens is losing money on the novel.

But yes, Stephens wants to produce an anthology to promote Raising Hell and when the book is released (and there is no date set), Stephens will pay $25 for his favorite two stories and works of art and $15 apiece for at least 5 more of his favorite submissions. Even if the anthology doesn't come off, he will pay should he include those pieces in Raising Hell 2.0: The Deluxe Edition.

Spec sheet

Key characters in the series are listed below, but your final submissions need not be bound by any of the descriptions in the book. In the novel, PILGRIM is definitely human, Palestinian and considerably overweight. By the series pilot script the character appears as a Happy Face. Consider the descriptions to be an inspiration, or starting point. Hell is malleable and Lucifer does what he wants, so why shouldn’t you. After all, there’s nothing HMS Lucifer can do to punish you until you actually arrive in hell.

Remember, the spirit of Raising Hell is to have the best possible time in the worst possible hell. We're looking not looking for meanness and gratuitous cruelty.

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His Satanic Majesty Lucifer

His Satanic Majesty Lucifer

LUCIFER is the series protagonist. He expresses a wide range of emotions, but those emotions always involve frustration or anger. He is totally anal, has no sense of humor, metes out hellfire on the least provocation and loves to launch into alliterative invective. He will reduce the entire set to ashes should it please him and it often does. When he bristles or puffs his chest, his minions flee.

Design:LUCIFER can take any form he pleases. He can be a dragon, serpent, dinosaur, mandarin emperor, skull faced biker or televangelist. His wardrobe should make Elton John's look humdrum: Papal vestments with a cursifix and golden arches miter, Gene Simmons and Sgt. Pepper knock-offs, Imperial Mandarin robes, snake and dragon skins. Whenever possible something in his costume should turn out to be another character: alligator boots snap out at minions with fierce jaws, his fur collar leaps from his neck to bite someone’s face, buttons can be mirrors displaying damned souls. Designers should also focus on his footwear which he always wears with his cloven hooves or scaly claws. He loves to stretch gaudy designer shoes around his misshapen feet—hooker pumps, stiletto heels, tap dancing shoes. The more improbable and less likely to fit, the better.

Pilgrim

Pilgrim design mockup

Possible design

Pilgrim

PILGRIM believes that hell is hell and any punishment can never get worse than it already is, so he might as well do whatever he chooses. He chooses to make hell the best place of eternal damnation possible. He is polite, deferential and willing to look on the bright side of any situation. He is also the only person who is fearless, or clueless enough to point out Lucifer'S flaws to his face.

Design: PILGRIM’S character always appears as a battered Happy Face NERF ball with flames ringing his head where hair would be. He is always naked (although he can have gloves) and his printed on expression is always happy. However, artists should feel free to abuse him as creatively as possible. His expression can melt or be slashed and torn. They can break his arm, legs, cut off fingers, tear pieces of foam from his face, melt him and stub his toes. They should also jam items into the foam: fish hooks, harpoon, “kick me” notes—even a red push pin with a cotton ball glued to the top for a Christmas hat.

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles

MEPHISTOPHELES doubles as the voice over narrator. He/she is also truly transgender. She can switch back and forth between male and female at will. She loves formal wear and a jet set lifestyle. Her wit is acerbic and she plays Nora to Lucifer'S Nick Charles. Her voice timbre should be gender neutral, contralto or contra tenor.

Design: MEPHISTOPHELES should always be depicted with an exotic cigarette holder and an elaborate cocktail. His outfits should be top shelf designer items—evening gowns with stiletto heels, flamboyant tuxedos in vibrant colors, skin tight toreador pants and alligator pumps, dinner suits with psychedelic ties and exaggerated Italian shoes. Whenever possible, the outfit should be draped on the wrong gender. The face, however, should be Morticia Addams thin with high cheekbones funneling to an almost dagger slim chin and a pouting mouth.

Struggles

Struggles

STRUGGLES is Lucifer's personal assistant and manservant. He is usually the first in line from Lucifer'S fire and has to scramble quickly to clean up an eternity of his master’s messes. Occasionally he shows dread when he knows he has offended LUCIFER and is about to be tortured mercilessly. But he should never show fear.

Design: Although mostly human, STRUGGLES resembles a preying mantis and always wears a starched collar and formal wear. However, he will often be turned into other creatures as punishment so his signature style should be his clothing. I envision late nineteenth to early twentieth century. He wears a monocle and spats. When cleaning he wears an apron. His attire is frequently disheveled, shredded or barely hanging from his shoulders. His face should always be annoyed, he is after all the most frequent target of LUCIFER’s abuse.

Lord Byron

Lord Byron

LORD BYRON, during his short life as a poet, believed himself a super man, several cuts above the ordinary drudges who populated the planet. Like Milton's Lucifer, Byron preferred to rule in hell than serve in heaven. It never dawned on him that there might be a third alternative. That third alternative was to be the Victorian era desk in Lucifer's office. He makes himself known by one or more hands that rise from the surface to type, wave or hand messages to Lucifer. He should back away and hide when LUCIFER isn’t looking.

Design: The hand should always be skeletal with parched and stretched leather for skin.

Mrs. Sternmother

Mrs. Sternmother

MRS. STERNMOTHER is the ultimate micromanager. She knows every regulation, seems to know what everyone is doing and always looking to cover her ass. She is one of those tough-as-nails women seen as desk clerks and waitresses, angry and bitter, totally cynical and paying only lip service to those who manage her.

Design: STERNMOTHER’s character is fairly well mapped out in the series pilot. She is petite, rail thin, smokes like an industrial furnace and wears her hair in a beehive. I picture her with sallow cheeks, tobacco-stained and leather-cured skin. Her dresses should be natty and covered with cigarette burns, her fingers black with tar and nicotine and her teeth stained with coffee and tobacco.

Hell Force One

Hell Force One

HELL FORCE ONE is LUCIFER’S limousine. A punk rock dragon, HELL FORCE is the one creature who can treat LUCIFER with a modicum of disrespect, mainly because he’ll fly away and leave LUCIFER without a ride if he feels too badly treated. What he should never do, however, is show any sign of intimidation. In this respect he is the only character who takes no shit from LUCIFER, and he usually addresses him with sarcasm.

Design: His scales are cut mohawk fashion, his body tattooed and pierced and he wears leather and chrome. Even his wings should be covered with piercings. He should be buff, blustery and vain and always wearing aviator shades.

Screwtape and Azazel

Screwtape and Azazel

SCREWTAPE and AZAZEL constantly plot to outdo each other to recruit the most souls and win the Demon of the Millennium award. They are, without question, the two most competitive of the fallen angels. Both spend most of their time topside, but when they do return below they bargain with LUCIFER for the upper hand in the latest competition.

Design: SCREWTAPE is a Rastafarian cockroach who is constantly shrouded in a fog of pot smoke. In close-up he should have dreadlocks with cockroaches crawling between the braids. He wears headphones and a t-shirts for psychedelic and metal bands. AZAZEL is a T-Rex who wears business suits, floral shirts and loves to switch hats. He uses his tail for a chair and his feet knock over everything in their path.

God, or The All Full of Himself

God, or The All Full of Himself

God, or THE ALL FULL OF HIMSELF (one of LUCIFER’s many names for him) only makes one or two appearance in season one, but his presence always hovers in the background. As far as Lucifer is concerned the all moronic is a meddler who can’t envision hell’s full potential. Viewers should see him as LUCIFER sees him, which is usually ridiculous and oblivious to others around him.

Design: Like LUCIFER, GOD can take many forms, from a pink fluffy cloud to a Paul Bunyan sized bearded behemoth. He floats around the sets, not even aware he’s levitating. He dresses casually (way too casually for LUCIFER) in earth shoes, tropical shirts and baggy shorts. Designers should feel free to riff on traditional depictions of Jehovah and Buddha but with no sense of fashion (or concern for it).

Lieutenant Dreckunscheisdt

Lieutenant Dreckunscheisdt

LT. DRECKUNSCHEISDT is the perpetual butt of LUCIFER’S rage, even more so than other characters. He is a dimwitted oaf and relatively obsequious to boot. His function is largely that of Sgt. Klink and Elmer Fudd, easily manipulated and never the wiser. He carries messages and orders from LUCIFER to the other minions.

Design: In the novel DRECKUNSCHEISDT is dressed in a combination monk’s robe and Nazi helmet. It is far too large for him and drags behind him. It might be fun to have him carry a flagellum instead of a whip for the times when LUCIFER orders him to beat himself. The flagellum could grow with each last and have teeth that bite his back.

The Palace Guard

The Palace Guard

The PALACE GUARD would be the rank and file under demons such as Dreckunscheisdt. In life they were never “that guy” so much as “I don’t remember that guy.” Their IQs2 would most likely be less than ten and their emotional maturity has never progressed past high school. They can barely stand in line, much less at attention. They spend most of eternity down the hall from and lusting after hell’s ELITE STORM TROOPERS, with whom none of them stands the remotest chance.

Design: PALACE GUARD uniforms should resemble Dreckunscheisdt’s, but even more disheveled. Many should be missing key items of clothing, a helmet or boot or even pants. They should all be overweight, drooling and snickering over some joke no reasonable person would even find funny,

Elite Storm Troopers

Elite Storm Troopers

The ELITE STORM TROOPERS serve as LUCIFER’s strike force when he needs to burn down cities. They are usually stationed down the hall from the PALACE GUARD who do everything they can to get their attention and respect, succeeding at neither. Most of the STORM TROOPERS were strong women in life bug now sentenced to be demeaned and ogled by the PALACE GUARD. Where the GUARD are goofy and insipid, the TROOPERS have no sense of humor at all.

Design: The STORM TROOPERS should be dressed (or undressed) in the tradition of Amazon warriors while still showing as much cartoon nudity as Amazon studios will allow without being gratuitous. We’re talking cheesy comedy, not Playboy or Penthouse. These women are lean, trim and muscular. They should wear ten-inch stiletto heels, knee plates and wrist plates, and weapons to their side.

g.d.i. Monday

g.d.i. Monday

gdiMonday is hell’s premiere (and only) fast food franchise. It advertises two different tag lines: “Because today is the worst day of the rest of the week,” and “You deserve shit today.” Although not currently developed in the pilot, Pilgrim arranges to bring the franchise to hell. The logo will show up on t-shirts and coffee mugs. This could be an episode, or could be integrated into the series from the beginning with scene product placement and a new Monday commercial between acts.

Design: The building should be generic fast food with the hellish arches outside. Building angles can be distorted and entire sections of the stores can be demolished. Windows should be smashed, landscaping scorched and smoking and minions should be falling through broken windows, impaled on broken glass, doubled over with gastritis.

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