Hymla the Horn!

CW: This post contains a bit of nudity, so you might want to hide it from your granny. A lot of this art is more appropriate for my Blood Red Pinups blog, but I'm in a mood to blur the lines and feeling less interested in compartmentalization.

Theme music for this post: Wo Fat's entire discography, but The Conjuring and The Black Code in particular. I think Hymla's theme song is probably "Beggar's Bargain".

Those of you reading this thing who care, let me know in the comments if you want to see a god damn Hymla the Horn comic book. I'll do what I want, you know that. But it is a strong motivator to know anyone out there gives even one shit.

HYMLA THE HORN: The story of a low class, low brow dishwasher turned slayer.

Hymla the Horn was born from a sketch. I can't seem to locate the original sketch sheet, done in Clip Studio Paint. But I did find a snippet of it that was saved on October 8, 2022, with the name "Hymla" drawn on it. So I must have created her at least by Oct 2022, duh.

Since then, she has popped up in my sketchbooks over and over again. I played an AD&D character based on her. I wrote a comic script. Clearly this brash, brazen ne'er-do-well looms large in my head. Both figuratively and literally. She ain't no wispy little daisy, after all.

The first Hymla drawing I can find, 2022.

Eventually I will make a Hymla comic book. I don't know when. I don't know how. I just know she is inevitable. So far there is one script written: Hymla is introduced as a lowly cantankerous kitchen helper in a tavern dive bar. A cult invades the bar and turns everyone into a mindless cult member, so Hymla brutally and bloodily slays every motherfucker in the place with various kitchen implements. Then she takes the tavern owner's old sword off the wall and walks off into a life of adventure, having discovered she has a knack for slaying.

Hymla is like... what if Conan/Red Sonja but fat and sassy and mean and missing a front tooth? Pure fight comic, violent as fuck, just for funsies. A character that says "I don't give a shit what you think" and means it.

"But why is she called Hymla the HORN?"... Because it sounds cool. I added the tagline "the Horn" right after doodling that first image and creating an AD&D first edition character. One of her carried items was a horn (the kind you blow). She also had a magic sword that she could blow through the pommel to inspire her comrades. None of that Dungeons & Dragons info is canon to the character, though. Just a riff on an idea. But that is the origin of "the Horn". It also ties into the first comic book script because her boss, the tavern owner, has a fancy old horn on his wall that she takes with her when she leaves the bloody mess behind. Unless I change up the script.

Bit of a tangent here, but fuck it, this is my blog... I don't savor the idea of having to draw the same thing over and over. Which is why my relationship to comics has always been slightly at arm's length. Though I was much more of a comics guy before getting into tabletop RPG creation so heavily in the 2000s and later in the 2010s. I used to draw a lot more comics, folks. Anyway... I resist the idea of giving this character a signature sword and horn because I don't want to have to draw the same thing all the time. One of the things I always loved about Conan comics was that in each story he could have a different weapon, different clothes and armor, different everything. All that was consistent was his personality, his long black hair, and muscles.

Hymla's world is Yria, the same setting I've explored in the pages of Black Pudding RPG zine. Well, to be fair, when I use this setting for stories and comic ideas I tend to cleanse it of elves, dwarfs, and halflings. But that's neither here nor there, as the rubes are wont to say. I think it matters not. Maybe those folks all died off in a plague or maybe they are still around, just not showing up much. Can't say yet. But this is the world of the Worm Witch, Blazing Heart, and Hunter Raven and all that jazz. Hymla just walks through it for a good time.

And that's Hymla. What matters is she's a fat, tough, mean, mirthful, belligerent motherfucker who wanders the land slaying monsters, wizards, and other villainous bastards while drinking, gambling, singing, and probably fucking. Not a sex comic idea, mind you, but definitely a hard rated-R. And NOW I'm officially rambling. You are witnessing me working out the idea on the page, naked for the world to see.

Anyhow. Here's the ultimate collection of Hymla the Horn artwork, as it stands in the year of our lord 2024, September 2.

This ended up being the cover for Black Pudding issue 8.

Doodled during a D&D game where we fought a kraken in the middle of the night.