HELLBOY AND THE B.P.R.D: THE GODDESS OF MANHATTAN Q&A with Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski

RBmedia’s GraphicAudio celebrates 30 years of Hellboy with Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: The Goddess of Manhattan, a brand-new audiobook! Written by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski, and with all-new cover art by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart, the audiobook has a cast of actors, sound effects, and music that bring the Hellboy Universe to life in a new and exciting way. This is the third Hellboy audiobook release, and, in our latest Q&A, I caught up with Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski, who told me all about their work on the new story:

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: The Goddess of Manhattan is your third Hellboy audiobook. Did the way you approached this script and/or the creative process with GraphicAudio change based on your experience developing the previous two audiobooks with them?

Christopher Golden: It changed dramatically, but for a variety of reasons. With Hellboy: A Plague of Wasps, I went for more of a novelistic approach to storytelling. The second one focused on Lobster Johnson and the 1930’s, and that one leaned heavily on radio drama and movie serials as inspiration. I am a huge fan of the films of the 1930’s and 40’s, and so there was a film noir element. When it came to The Goddess of Manhattan, it’s a more modern day story, at least in the sense that it takes place toward the end of the 20th century, and so it relies more heavily on the dialogue and the truly weird action stuff that Hellboy and the BPRD get into. But it was also different because it was a reunion for me and Tom Sniegoski.

Why were you excited to tell the story of “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: The Goddess of Manhattan” and what do you think will really excite longtime Hellboy fans?

Christopher Golden: From the outset, I knew the third one would involve the BPRD, that we’d get to use Liz and Abe. I love those characters, and I’m always especially interested in writing Abe because my approach to him is kind of different from the way he’s sometimes portrayed. He’s odd, but he’s also a person, a guy with interesting taste in music and an inner life that reflects the world around him. I also loved the idea of a trilogy set in different time periods, so I could set up plot and mythology stuff in the first two books that would pay off in a big way in the third one. You don’t need to have listened to the first two to understand this one–not at all–but if you have, it’s  a much richer experience.

Thomas E. Sniegoski:  First of all, there is nothing more exciting than to be working on a new Hellboy project.  I’ve been an enormous fan of Mike Mignola’s work and the character of Hellboy since his very first appearance a very long time ago.  It’s absolutely crazy that I get to write him, and his amazing supporting cast, today.  This particular story has everything that I, as a fan, have enjoyed about the Hellboy character and his supporting cast–ancient deities, secret civilizations beneath the streets of New York, amazing report and snappy patter between our main characters . . . and, since this is an audio book you get to hear all this stuff.  It’s amazing!  I think fans of the comics, and even the movies, are really going to enjoy this one.

For this Hellboy audiobook release, you two co-wrote the story. Can you talk about your creative collaboration?

Christopher Golden: Tom and I collaborated on so many books and comics over the years, but we haven’t done a lot together in recent years. We’re both constantly busy. Jumping into this with Tom was just a fun opportunity to remind myself how insanely creative and creatively insane he is. It’s always a blast to get to play in the sandbox with him. He really came to my rescue on this. We had a health crisis in my family that just steamrolled over any obligations I had, causing a lot of delay. Tom was the perfect solution, and we fell back into our old habits easily enough. He’d write a scene or two and send them to me. I’d revise them and write the next couple and send them to him, and so forth.

Thomas E. Sniegoski: When Chris Golden first approached me to work on the 3rd book of these amazing audio dramas I was flattered.  Seeing that Chris and I are really good friends, I was already aware of his initial plans for the audio books–three stories that take place within the Hellboy universe that all loosely connect, but could be listened to separately and still enjoyed.  Having him ask me to add my two cents to Goddess of Manhattan was really exciting, as well as challenging.  I had never written an audio book before, so there was a bit of a learning process, but once I got the hang of it, it all fell into place nicely.  Having worked on multiple projects together before, Chris and I have a kind of shorthand.  We discuss the story together, throwing ideas around, write up a pretty detailed outline and then divvy up the chapters accordingly.   We then write our chapters, playing off one another, each of us attempting to outdo the other.  It’s pretty fun.

With this being the third of three announced Hellboy audiobooks, is there a good chance that there will be more Hellboy audio adventures in the future?

Christopher Golden: I certainly hope so! That’s up to the fans, and the fine folks at Graphic Audio.

Would you like to tease any other upcoming projects to Daily Dead readers?

Christopher Golden: I have lots more comics coming soon from Dark Horse, and my latest novel, The House of Last Resort, is on sale now. Meanwhile, my Halloween horror novel All Hallows is out in paperback in September.

Thomas E. Sniegoski: Well, first I’d like to tell everybody that they need to listen to the first two books of these audio books–Hellboy: A Plague of Wasps, and Lobster Johnson: The Proteus Club, both written by the amazing Christopher Golden.  They’re super fun, and when listened to along with Hellboy and the BPRD: The Goddess of Manhattan they connect to form this really cool story.  Trust me.  You want to listen to all three.

And I’ve just finished adapting the novel that I wrote with Mike Mignola, Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal, for a dramatic podcast which should be showing up sometime in October 2024 from Echoverse.  I’m also getting ready to start writing new Grim Death adventures with Mike, and our writing partner, Jeannine Acheson, for Bad Hand Books.  The first new book should be out sometime in 2025.

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For more information and to purchase this for yourself, visit: https://www.graphicaudio.net/hellboy-and-the-bprd-the-goddess-of-manhattan.html

“Hellboy and the BPRD: The Goddess of Manhattan follows Hellboy, Liz Sherman, and Abe Sapien as they help a strange community of bizarre humans that has been living in secret beneath Manhattan for more than 60 years. Someone who claims to be the ancient goddess Sem-Karul has been stalking them and murdering them one by one. With aid from the now elderly Cynthia Tynan, Hellboy and the BPRD must face the Goddess of Manhattan and the monsters who serve her.”