Hell in Popular Culture - Cartoons, Comics and Televised Cartoon Series

Cartoons, Comics and Televised Cartoon Series

• In the DC Universe, the character Lobo was banned from Hell, as he caused too many problems there, thus achieving immortality, as he was also banned from Heaven for much the same reason. Hell in the Sandman Series is run by a triumvirate of Lucifer Morningstar, Azazel, and Beelzebub. However demons like Belial and the Rhymer Etrigan scheme to get into the Triumverate. When the Fire of Hell of extinguished, an act of evil is required to reignite it. This is done by Eclipso slitting Enchantresse's throat. Hell is divided into Nine provinces. The Nine Provinces included Pandemonia, The Odium, The Gull, Praetori, Internecia, Ament, Labyrinth, Err, and Purgatory. Everything there is made from the damned. The rulers of Purgatory, Blaza and Satanus, lead a rebellion by offering hope to the hopeless, and finally Blaze betrays her brother and becomes Hell's ruler.
• In the comic strip Dilbert (created by Scott Adams) "heck" is a lesser version of hell reserved for people who have done misdeeds that are not evil enough to warrant hell. Heck is ruled by Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light who carries a giant spoon instead of a pitchfork.
• In the one-panel comic The Far Side (created by Gary Larson in the 1980s) Hell is featured among other recurring themes, depicting Satan and his minions as grim-looking figures in robes with horns and pitchforks, running the place in business-like manner: in one instance, the bespectacled secretary behind the typewriter asks her boss seen as a silhouette behind the office door: There is an insurance salesman here. Should I admit him in or tell to go to Heaven?
• In the television series Futurama, the characters go to Robot Hell on occasion, where the Robot Devil and other evil robots reside. The entrance is located in New Jersey.
• In the comic book series Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze sold his soul to the demon Mephisto to cure his adoptive father from dying of cancer. In the recent revival of the series we see the Ghost Rider residing in Hell to pay up his end of the bargain. Hell is depicted as a red desert with cannons and pools of lava. We see the devil as a powerful political leader residing in a grand palace with many servants and advisors.
• In the comic book series Hellboy by award-winning artist Mike Mignola, Hell is a dark, alternate dimension filled with flames and demons and where the infernal capital city of Pandemonium resides. In issue one "Seed of Destruction" the Nazis with aid of the mad monk Rasputin successfully breach the boundary of Hell via magic and call forth the infant Hellboy so that he may bring about the end of the world. They are stopped, however, by the Allied Forces, who rescue Hellboy and raise him.
• The comic book Spawn sees Hell its demons as an important plot element. Mercenary Al Simmons gets betrayed by his own employers, dies, and goes to Hell. He then makes a deal with the devil Malebolgia (Guardian of Hell) that if he agrees to fight with Malebolgia's army, he would get to return to Earth and see his wife again.
• In many episodes of the television series South Park, "(Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?/Probably"), Satan appears. On many occasions, he is accompanied by his homosexual lover Saddam Hussein, who seems to be even more malicious than Satan himself. Hell in the series is an overpopulated place where several famous people as Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Walter Matthau, Dean Martin, Diana, Princess of Wales, Tiny Tim, Michael Landon, Gene Siskel, George Burns, Andy Dick, and Mahatma Gandhi live next to more obvious people as Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Djenghis Khan and Mao Zedong. Only Mormons seem to go to Heaven.
• Warner Bros. cartoons occasionally depict Hell. In Devil's Feud Cake, Yosemite Sam repeatedly tries to kill Bugs Bunny, but always ends up back in Hell, having to face Satan. In Draftee Daffy, after Daffy Duck accidentally kills himself while trying to escape a man from the draft board, he wakes up in Hell, only to be reunited with the man. At the end of The Hole Idea, the professor slips a hole under his domineering wife, sending her to Hell, but Satan rejects her. In Satan's Waitin', Sylvester goes to Hell after plummeting to his death, but Satan (in the form of a dog) lets him use up the rest of his nine lives on Earth. In Three Little Bops, the Big Bad Wolf's botched attempt to blow up a jazz club sends him to Hell, where he learns how to play jazz properly, at which point the Three Little Pigs admit him to the band.