The Twin Cities were in for one helluva weekend as the delightfully deranged creative minds and voices of Spindlehorse’s Hellaverse descended on Twin Cities Comic Con for a weekend of paneling and autographing, starting with Friday’s Helluva Boss Q&A panel. The panel was held in the Minneapolis Convention Center’s spacious main ballroom, which was comparable in my estimation to some of the bigger rooms at NYCC and SDCC. It was so big that the room was only half-filled by the time the panel started, but for a convention of this size (with an overall attendance likely under 10,000), that meant it was still one of the most attended panels of the weekend! As a nice touch before the panel, as people entered the room, they played fan covers of Helluva Boss songs, including Moxie’s Bad Trip song, “You Will Be Okay,” and the I.M.P. jingle, which really put fans in the right mood for some musical musings from the chaotically impish cast and crew of the Hellaverse.
The panel featured series creator Vivienne Medrano, Morgana Ignis (Sallie Mae), Brandon Rogers (Blitz), Alex Brightman (Fizzaroli), and Sam Haft (composer/songwriter). Morgana served as the MC and moderator of the panel. She hyped the crowd and asked them what their favorite Helluva song was, which they all shouted out loud at once, though my ears picked up the most cries for “2 minutes notice.”
When introducing the crew on stage, Morgana did a bit where she introduced Alex as Viv and Viv as Alex, with them running out on stage when each other’s name was called. Alex ran back off stage while Viv sat down. She introduced Brandon normally and hyped up the surprise appearance of Sam and unplanned and she didn’t prepare for. After everyone was introduced Alex went back on stage, though Morgana dismissed and didn’t bother reintroducing him as a joke, so he just sat down.
Morgana asked the crew what their favorite song was, hers was Two Minute Notice, which she found too relatable because everyone has someone they want to say those fucking words to at some point. Alex agrees, and it’s also his favorite song from the show. Many people came up to him at cons afterward to tell him that the song inspired them to quit their jobs. That amazed and flattered Viv, who asked if people had recorded themselves singing the song it to their bosses while quitting.
Sam Haft compliments Alex’s playfulness and loves how he always comes into the booth with ideas. There’s something they recorded recently with Fizz that they did a 2nd pass for that he thinks they absolutely nailed, teases it’s something that we won’t see for a long time. Some of the improvised bits that Alex came up with for the show are “Guitar Solo, Fuck Yeah!” and “trumpet, ha!”
Viv notes that writing songs for Helluva Boss is more loose and flexible than Hazbin Hotel. While she sometimes knows what songs she wants to write ahead of time, with Helluva it’s more about what fits for the show. She didn’t know whether diegetic would be the right term for it or not, and Morgana clarified to her that it was, to which Viv lamented how she always gets what diegetic and non-diegetic means mixed up. But because the music is diegetic and more flexible to the context of the story and characters, writing a diversity of different music for it is much easier. Hazbin Hotel, meanwhile, has a quota of needing at least one song per episode so it can be harder to be selective of what music to include and what moments should incorporate a song. Viv goes over the soundtrack with Sam and Andrew to discuss what the complicated parts of composing it would be, and jokes that they have a lot of complicated stuff they’re going to be working on coming up. Sam reflected on how in a lot of his client work the directions he’s given about what the music should be like is very vague and the clients are so hands off, leaving him to interpret their creative vision. As such; he appreciates how there is always a creative and narrative vision for how music is used in the Hellaverse shows, which contributes to the diversity of the song and music in them. Alex has always been fond of how well-integrated and seamless the songs are used in episodes.
Sam reflects on how, as of December, he and Viv will be celebrating five years of working together. Viv is also amazed at how far they’ve come, and how busy they are currently heavily working between two seasons of their shows. She notes it’s going to be a helluva year for Sam ahead, to which he exclaims “there’s so much music!” Viv appreciates how casual they are with each other now, that she feel comfortable casually approaching him and talking to him about song ideas for the show, even when the scripts for the episodes haven’t been fully figured out yet. Sam notes he’s been going through the music they’ve made and have planned recently, and that there will have been over 100 songs that have been done or will be done that they’ve collectively made together for the Hellaverse.
Reflecting on how hero worship has been such a strong theme in this season, particularly Fizz’s for Mammon in the “Mammon’s Magical Musical Mid-Season Special” episode, Morgana asks the crew about their positive experiences meeting their own heroes.
Brandon replies that having John Waters in “GhostFuckers” meant a lot to him. John is one of Brandon’s biggest inspirations as a queer storyteller who faced a lot of challenges in making his art, which he sees a lot of parallels to his own life and story in. When he was writing the script to GhostFuckers, he just described the character as a John Waters-type in his appearance and mustache, not really thinking they’d actually be able to get him. It wasn’t until they were in the studio to record for the episode when they told they’d actually cast him, which he found out when they were recording the fight scene and they told him “action on your fight scene with John Waters!” He was so easy to work with, and a great voice actor, which was a surprise to him since the most notable voice acting role he knew he had prior was on The Simpsons. They had him talk like the characters he played in his movies.
Alex knew he wanted to be in theater when he was in High School. He was poached to be in a improv group by Peter Cavabesci, who he calls Mr. C, who was a movie reviewer as well as an improv comedian. He taught him improv, and has since seen every single show he’s done since he came to New York. They make jokes about him selling Alex Brightman sex dolls a la Mammon with Fizz, which Alex jokes being fine with it dismissively just like Fizz; “you can get one at his booth!”
Sam mentioned his hero is Tim Minchin, the composer and lyricist of Matilda the Musical and Groundhog Day the Musical. He met his co-composer and songwriter on Hazbin Hotel, Andrew Underberg, through his High School’s Big Brother, Little Brother program. Andrew was his mentor, and got him into digital production. When producing the K-pop song “Klown Bitch” for Helluva, he brought in Andrew as a co-writer because of his previous experience as a writer and composer of K-pop acts. Working with Andrew on the song was kide having a high school reunion. Andrew was very literally his mentor, and they’re as close as they’ve ever been. Morgana loves that what got him to work on a horny demon cartoon was a really sweet story. Sam joked that because Andrew did stuff in the Cocomelon world, he was so excited that they can say “fuck” in their songs for the Hellaverse. They jokes that Cocomelon could used more f-bombs. On the subject of cartoons for babies, Vivienne mentioned that Vivian Nixon has asked her about them doing a “Helluva Babies” spinoff. Viv jokes about making one kid-friendly episode of the show that Vivian and Bryce can show to their kids.
Viv has met a lot of amazing creators. As someone who enjoyed darker cartoons growing up, she loved Billy and Mandy, and Maxwell Atoms was one of the first pros she met when she first went to LA. She reached out to him through Facebook to apply on one of his indie projects, doing background editing on a post-apocalyptic thing. They had dinner, and he was really kind about it. Another memorable connection was James Monroe Inglehart. The week before Viv graduated from SVA, she went to see Aladdin the Musical and met James. They talked about and geeked out over Aladdin and animation together, and became friends on Facebook afterward, and are now thrilled to be working together. Also, while she hasn’t met Don Darryl Rivera in person yet, he is also another great connection she was happy to make thanks to the Hellaverse.
With Morgana’s questions for the panel concluded, the floor was opened up to the long line of fans who’d been patiently waiting to ask theirs since the start of the panel over twenty minutes ago. The first question-asker, a Blitz cosplayer and sympathizer who told Brandon they believe Stolas should apologize to Blitz, asked whether Extermination Day was like the Superbowl for Imps. Morgana complimented the question-asker’s voice.Viv reflects that since the Imps aren’t targeted, they just get out of the way or go on vacation, staying away from the Pride Ring. Brandon jokes that Blitz just sits back and watches it while munching on popcorn. But generally, the Imps have no interest in what is going on during Extermination Day.
The next question was about the characters’ favorite donuts. Brandon jokes Blitz would like a whole donut hole. Viv says that Fizz would like lots of sprinkles. Alex thinks he’d enjoy a cake donut dunked in semen with nothing else on it. Morgana says Sally would like a maple bar with cum.
On their favorite lines in either Hellaverse show, Sam’s favorite is when Charlie comes back to the hotel and sees her friends have fortified it, and Pentious says “what, did you think we were a bunch of pusssssies?” Alex’s favorite is the laugh Nifty give while she’s stabbing Adam, specifically her maniacal “Rahahahaha!!,” which is one of the best laughs he’s ever heard.
If he were to play any other character in the Hellaverse, Brandon wishes he could be Wally Wackford. Of all the characters, he’s one of the ones he quotes the most. He likes how he’s got that deep southern Wrath Ring accent many of the Imp characters have.
Viv, who has been filming her actor peers’ antics throughout the panel, has the tables turned on her by Brandon and Morgana who make her do impressions of their characters while they film. Viv then recited the following Blitz and Sallie May quotes:
“It’s Burger time! Burger time! Burger time!”
“Sorry I fucked your husband!”
“It don’t count if they don’t find the body!”
The next question asked them which characters they’d like to body-swap with in a Freaky Friday situation and who’d they fuck while in them. Morgana would switch with Charlie and be like “S’up, Vaggie?” Alex teasingly asks Viv “who do you want to do?” Viv declines to answer. For his part, Alex would like to be Verosika, joking that since he’s never been fucked and would like to be bedded by Wally Wackford. Brandon says he would be Loona, because then he could fuck anyone he wants, winking to the crowd.
Sam just noticed after the question that their ASL interpreter had changed around the start of the Q&A session, and jokes that they’d noped out of there because of the vulgarity of their remarks.
Commenting on the “Weaboo-Boo” short, Viv noted that the details of Emberlynn’s room was a group effort, but particularly credited Amanda Heard, who storyboarded and was the Art Director of the episode. Viv reflected that the episode was like a “huge cellphone,” with lots of suggestions from the entire Spindlehorse team. On why it feels so accurate to a real weaboo’s room, Morgana exclaimed “do you KNOW the sick fucks making this show?” Sam chimes in, commenting the Hellaverse shows are “by the monster fuckers for the monster fuckers!” Morgana muses how they’ve all said fuck at some point during this panel.
On who Emberlynn’s new fave in the Hellaverse would be, Viv notes that Emberlynn is probably not over Blitz, commenting “I’ve met a lot of Emberlynn’s at these cons to know she’s not over him.” Though she thinks she’d be all over Alastor and Lucifer, and really all the male Hazbin characters. Morgana jokes she’s the type who watch all the Rule 34 of them.
Reflecting on some more of their favorite lines, they note some of Stolas’, including “That’s a fucking divorce!” and “I think so highly of you, I didn’t know how so low you think of me.” Morgana notes how a lot of Mammon’s lines have become a meme in Viv’s friend chat, like “you wanna blank this or not?” and she does a great impression of Michael Cusack, riffing on the “I’m not gonna lie Fizzy…” line.
On which Hazbin and Helluva characters would get along the best, Morgana think Sallie Mae and Cherry Bom would rip Hell the fuck up. Brandon thinks Blitz and Angel have similar traumas and would trauma bond as trauma buddies. He jokes that the next episode will be called “Trauma Geeks,” and Morgana jokes that can basically describe many episodes of their series. Alex thinks Adam and Mammon would definitely gel, and everyone agrees Moxie and Sir Pentious would be a great softboy duo.
On what their or their characters’ desert-island drinks would be, Viv’s go-to is a long island, and a Dr. Pepper if she can choose non-alcoholic. Morgana’s would be a Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Alex says Fizz’s would be an iced, iced coffee. Brandon’s says Blitz’s would be a combination of whisky, coffee, diet coke, and hot sauce, joking anything’s a drink if you try hard enough.
On how their personal experiences and characters have blended together in making the show, Morgana reflects how the “Hell’s Belles” short was based on her own relationship to her sister. Brandon says he’s joined at the hip with Blitz, his character is the least departure from himself to get into. Alex relates with Fizz because like him, he also gets on stage 8 times a week whether he wants to or not. Sam resonated with Stolas’s feelings and anxieties about parenthood. He wrote the “You Will Be Ok” song when his baby was just one year old. Brandon praised him, believing that song showed Helluva’s depth early on and was a big reason for the show’s early success. Sam in turn compliments Viv’s sincerity and bravery in making her shows and sharing them they way he wants to online, and considers the song a symptom of that earnestness.
As the creator, Viv puts a bit of herself into all of her characters, but especially puts a lot of herself into Millie. Fizz’s imposter syndrome is also personal to her, based on her own experiences of being stalked and judged by obsessive people, and not knowing how to take healthy feedback and that making her relationship to her fandom, success, and work toxic. She notes that the creep character in the Mammon’s Magnificent Musical Midseason Special episode was based on many real creeps she’s encountered in her life.
Finally, the crew was asked about their favorite episode of the show so far. Brandon’s is “Ghost Fuckers,” since he wrote it and he put the most love into it out of all of them. Viv and Alex both highlight “Oops!” for its action and villain team-up. Sam and Morgana both select the Mammon episode, with the qualifier of “of what’s been released,” teasing the next episode dropping later this month. The upcoming episode, titled “Mastermind,” will be really exciting and dramatic. Viv notes she got self-indulgent with specific one, noting it’s sweetly brilliant and has her favorite song from the season, which she absolutely adores. Morgana ends the tease for the episode by hyping “cosplayers, get the heck ready!”
With that, one helluva Helluva Boss panel concluded with a selfie with the crowd, and the team departed back to the Exhibit Hall for a weekend of meeting and signing autographs for Hellaverse fans, and fans left the room ready to raise hell throughout the rest of their weekend Twin Cities Comic Con.
