There is no drawing of the "compass" in the Art of book. There is however a concept drawing of the amulet, which wasn't designed by Mignola, but by storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins:
Thanks! And likewise, for sure - love the stuff you did. I also didn't do very much for Hellboy - I was actually quite busy on Spider-Man 2 at the time, but it was awesome to be able to contribute what little I did, especially on a "fan-boy" level - I've been a huge fan of the comics for a long time now.
IndyFanChuck
Sr Member
This was probably the coolest thread I've seen in a long time, great story man. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Phelyx
Active Member
Now that I'm thinking about this again... And for those who are interested in the hidden details behind some obscure HELLBOY props... I decided to go into the archives and look up some of my old stuff and discovered some photos I took of one of the actual screen-used "corpse finder" props. The paint is a little different than I remembered so I'm going to update these new ones I made recently to match 
And before I sent the props off to Prague, I ended up getting rid of the ugly "placeholder" graphic in the middle and making the center amber dome plain. Originally I was going to engrave those symbols and have the dome hollow and full of liquid so that it would have a "level" bubble on top.
I'm also attaching a pic of a prop I made for the film that didn't get used. It was my version of the "resurrection amulet." The idea was a sort of eternal serpent (and ancient one with legs) holding a stone with a small chunk of "talker" bone embedded in it. My thoughts were that resurrection was a dangerous temptation, and any attempts to use the amulet might result in a horrific biblical cataclysm. The finished ones had a brass collar around the snake's neck with an attached chain.
The one seen in the film was made by D48thRonin, and much more accurately represented the Hellboy esthetic.
Corpse Finder Closed and Open
Unused Resurrection Amulet
And before I sent the props off to Prague, I ended up getting rid of the ugly "placeholder" graphic in the middle and making the center amber dome plain. Originally I was going to engrave those symbols and have the dome hollow and full of liquid so that it would have a "level" bubble on top.
I'm also attaching a pic of a prop I made for the film that didn't get used. It was my version of the "resurrection amulet." The idea was a sort of eternal serpent (and ancient one with legs) holding a stone with a small chunk of "talker" bone embedded in it. My thoughts were that resurrection was a dangerous temptation, and any attempts to use the amulet might result in a horrific biblical cataclysm. The finished ones had a brass collar around the snake's neck with an attached chain.
The one seen in the film was made by D48thRonin, and much more accurately represented the Hellboy esthetic.
Corpse Finder Closed and Open
Unused Resurrection Amulet
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IndyFanChuck
Sr Member
That's beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing!
You need to quit teasing us and do a run for us nice folk!thumbsup
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AGxM
Well-Known Member
You need to quit teasing us and do a run for us nice folk!
This!
Would gnaw off my right arm for a Corpse Finder kit and a D48thRonin Corpse Reanimating Amulet :love
If we say pretty please?
StevenRogers84
Sr Member
I wouldn't mind owning these for sure.
Phelyx
Active Member
Making a few of the Corpse Locators recently got me digging around in the archives... I pulled out some old molds from 2003 (still intact), and made another one of these "prototype" corpse resurrection amulets that I made when I was working on HELLBOY. This is the design by Simeon Wilkins seen in the "Making Of" book.
I was sent the drawing during preproduction and asked to try and make it real. It turned out to be such a weird shape and an engineering problem that I couldn't quite get it to function the way we wanted it to within the time and budget. I sent some photos of the prototype to Prague where they were shooting, but by then they'd already decided on another Resurrection Amulet for the scene where HB wakes up the "talker."
The one used in the film was made by the very talented D48thRonin, and I have to admit that it was sort of a relief when they went with his design... I knew that I was having trouble engineering this thing to pop open in Ron Pearlman's hand - and do it perfectly for every take, in a faraway country where I couldn't do maintenance, etc.. You just never know with "motion" props. If they don't work perfectly every single time, your name will be cursed for holding up production. If it even looks a little wonky or cheesy, the producers will hire assassins to track you down. Apparently every second on set costs a hundred billion dollars. That's what I'm told anyway.
So here's a few photos of the new one I just made using the old molds. I spent a little more time making this one look a little better than the prototype seen earlier in this thread. Thought you guys might like to see it.
I was sent the drawing during preproduction and asked to try and make it real. It turned out to be such a weird shape and an engineering problem that I couldn't quite get it to function the way we wanted it to within the time and budget. I sent some photos of the prototype to Prague where they were shooting, but by then they'd already decided on another Resurrection Amulet for the scene where HB wakes up the "talker."
The one used in the film was made by the very talented D48thRonin, and I have to admit that it was sort of a relief when they went with his design... I knew that I was having trouble engineering this thing to pop open in Ron Pearlman's hand - and do it perfectly for every take, in a faraway country where I couldn't do maintenance, etc.. You just never know with "motion" props. If they don't work perfectly every single time, your name will be cursed for holding up production. If it even looks a little wonky or cheesy, the producers will hire assassins to track you down. Apparently every second on set costs a hundred billion dollars. That's what I'm told anyway.
So here's a few photos of the new one I just made using the old molds. I spent a little more time making this one look a little better than the prototype seen earlier in this thread. Thought you guys might like to see it.
Phelyx
Active Member
I remember talking to the propmaster about the "backstory" on this one being that it was made out of ancient gold pulled off the walls of the Resurrection Chamber in the great pyramid by the Templars, and that the painting inside was painted on a chunk of the Shroud of Turin.... lots of Resurrection symbolism. haha.
Propazoid
Well-Known Member
Wow - very nice, Burk! It's a bit larger than I figured it would be. That's really cool :love
Very nice amulet, Burk! So, are you going to make these available too?thumbsup
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