The Lobster's origin

[LobsterJohnson]

Anyone got any ideas about LoJo's past? I really have no idea, but I'm curious to hear other peoples' theories.

[Kees_L]

The books or comics as featuring the character would seem of note.

Plus he might have an entry in the Companion.

Plus, thanks to Middenway, there'd be this:

http://multiversitycomics.com/column...bster-johnson/

[LobsterJohnson]

I think I've read almost every comic book with LoJo in it, but none of those give away too much about his past. The Lobster's entry in the Companion does a decent job of chronicling LoJo's adventures, but it's not very helpful regarding the history of the character himself.
The Hell Notes column about our hero is the most informative source that I've seen, but it was written before the information about the possible LoJo ancestors were revealed, so I'm curious about people's theories now that they have that information.

[Kees_L]

I think I've read almost every comic book with LoJo in it, but none of those give away too much about his past. The Lobster's entry in the Companion does a decent job of chronicling LoJo's adventures, but it's not very helpful regarding the history of the character himself.
The Hell Notes column about our hero is the most informative source that I've seen, but it was written before the information about the possible LoJo ancestors were revealed, so I'm curious about people's theories now that they have that information.

I see.
I seem to remember that prior to LoJo showing up in 'Hellboy: the Conqueror Worm' (in 2004), it appeared (for me at least) a deliberate angle that LoJo could be coming of as so mysterious he might actually only exist in Hellboy's world as having been a comic book character which Hellboy read about in his youth.
Like not only would LoJo need to be dead in the pages of Conqueror Worm, but that he might not actually have been existing at least up to that point, or only as a fictional character.

I loved that level of mystique to him.

But I pretty much liked 'Lobster Johnson: the Iron Prometheus' from 2007 too, or any of the mini's or stories after that.

The cool "True History of Lobster Johnson" as pointing to pulps and some comics both as a string of illustrious movies from the forties within Hellboy's world, by Guy Davis as a back-up to the Iron Prometheus, seemed to further create non-actual mystery or lore onto LoJo, as him getting depicted into movies representing him not all that closely.

I think it somehow likely that LoJo or his origin would not get treated all that typically. Or at least that LoJo would turn out just as a-typical as Abe's or Edward Grey's or either Hellboy's origin more rather.
Like none of those characters' origins would be unraveled or get treated the way Batman or The X-Men or such would.

Like I would feel to like those characters for their being so different or due to their a-typicalness rather particularly I'd say.

Plus parts to the earliest LoJo bits as by mr Mike Mignola, both as Guy Davis his backup feature would together almost seem like a creator's commentary so to speak. Like on how the supposed pulps or comics and movie serial proposal would have decided that Lobster Johnson should be named 'The Lobster' instead of Lobster Johnson.

Like it would be fun to toy with LoJo as if he or parts to him would or could be proving actually fictional or perhaps not, like that.

[Storey]

Have you read the latest series GET THE LOBSTER? It's the first time we've gotten a legitimate hint as to who, or what, he is…

[LobsterJohnson]

Get the Lobster was awesome.

[Donald]

I think I'd like him better without an origin. He just is.

[LobsterJohnson]

I'd like an origin, but only if it is slowly revealed and leaves some sense of mystery.

[thwhtGuardian]

I think I'd like him better without an origin. He just is.

Same here, the less we know the better in my mind.

[LobsterJohnson]

I’ve been thinking about Lobster’s origin a lot lately. Here is my theory (which is probably wrong): the Lobster is descended from the other twin that is the son of the pirate Lobster, and that line of the family is cursed due to the evil deeds of the pirate Lobster (perhaps that is also why the other twin’s family could turn into panthers as well). Instead of being cursed with a “were-panther” ability, the members of the other twin’s part of the family are given the ability to possess the bodies of evildoers that had been killed by them (this bit is entirely from Mark’s ideas in the Lobster Johnson Hell Notes) in the case of “death”, and that would continue until they had collectively stopped enough evil to make up for the pirate Lobster’s evil deeds. Perhaps each descendant in this line of the Lobster family can only use the possession ability a certain amount of times (similar to the “regeneration limit” in Doctor Who), which is why the Lobster became a “ghost” after Hunte Castle’s events (although this brings up another point from the Lobster Johnson Hell Notes: during Hellboy’s adventure at Hunte Castle, Lobster wasn’t that “ghostly”; in fact, even after that, the first time he possessed Johann’s ectoplasm, he smashed down a door, which seems pretty non-ghostly... Maybe his “possession” ability wouldn’t have to be used only on people killed by the Lobster, but also on anyone who has ectoplasm that could be possessed, such as Johann?).

I’ve heard other peoples’ theory that the Lobster is actually the pirate Lobster’s ghost, making up for his own crimes. I think that is quite an interesting theory, but I hope that one is not true, because I hope the Lobster does not have a villainous past.

Any thoughts on my theory, or your own theories?

[Kees_L]

Any thoughts on my theory, or your own theories?

They're very cool theories.

I think I've always taken Lobster Johnson to being one of the key characters or bits to seeming reserved especially for mr Mike his own amusement.

Like Hellboy is about monsters and comprised of everything his creator would like to draw and make stories about, but any time the story would become stuck or up a corner, Lobster Johnson could be there to inflict or drum up some awesome mysteriousness onto whatever.

To me that seemed the main 'premisse' to LoJo, him being an emulation of the most ruthlessly and haphazard of pulp heroes imaginable.
I remember the bits to LoJo in the Weird Tales comics seeming pretty abundant, as if at the time more than a few comic creatives would want their story submission onto the Hellboy Weird Tales to include LoJo.

Then there was the exclusive SDCC 'Ghost of Lobster Johnson' figure, including the brain. To me it appears that at the time none of that linked to any of the continuity all that much, as if no fan could be to know why the Lobster would be coming as a near transparent ghost.

Whereas in Conqueror Worm he appeared to being a ghost, but without any tranparentness or ghostliness all that much, since his body and limbs seemed fully manifested into matter, eventhough he clearly ought to be dead.

As yet I personally cannot place the Pirate Lobster or twin bit but I know I'm not all up with my reading, but I could very much imagine LoJo as some kind of inside-out version of Johann:

where Johann would be a living soul without a body, LoJo could be a cursed(?) soul ending up in some policeman's body, instantly becoming this pulp hero with goggles and apparel and hardly any backstory on the surface since his adventures and daring feats would make up most any of such pulpy tales?
Although the rub being, with any backstory or development seeming but sparingly, that over time any allusions or forebodings will be gaining the focus only the more!

I havent read much pulps yet, since the real vintage ones seem pretty hard to come by, but I have read a few Lou Fine comics such as The Ray or The Green Mask or The Flame and such, and all those pulpy tales appear to have in common that the stories deal with action more rather than explanations. The heroes punish because they have their outfits and guns in order to be punishing whatever needs it, the fiercer the more rewarding.

It long seemed to me that LoJo got portrayed with remaining as mysterious as possible, up to the point that he might not even be 'real' at all. The Guy Davis illustrated "movie" feature seemed a fun play on how part of the mystery to LoJo amid the stories could well be due to the notoriously quaint or flimsy movie versions as having been a thing in the forties or fifties or what was it.

Now it appears LoJo has been gaining himself quite an oeuvre for himself.
His 'ending' will most likely appear to be as sudden and as mysterious as Edward Grey his mortal demise, but both will be to seem destined to resurface beyond their mortality notwithstanding.
But there seems more to these characters, since their roles both as anything to the 'how and what' would seem as intruiging as either of their origins I would presume, although I suppose the sum of all that would be meant by the notion of an 'origin' basically.

It won't be for nothing that LoJo his own heroic time will be timed as around the 1930s but hardly beyond that, eventhough he will show up during Hellboy's days at the Bureau evidently.
Plus there'd be already more than one Mignolaverse character whose time would end up as having a most defining life or times as prior to their own time most intricately!

I think that for many characters, be it Hellboy, or Liz, or Eddy Grey, or LoJo, or Abe, their 'origin' or what makes them doing what they'd be doing may encompass more than the most conventional comic book superhero's origin.
Or to word it better: I think the Mignolaverse takes a bit of a different focus and pacing to its storytelling than the most conventionally modern-day superhero books, in that the reader becomes to be lurking over a character's shoulder, without any clear-cut backstory, without some already mapped-out inevitable development as looming, because of there needing to being mystery or wonderment involved. With timing and wording and themes and exact mood as being to all adding or building to something around the corner, something to exceed or throw or enable beyond anyone's expectation.

I always think this element is why the Mignolaverse is called 'horror'. Like how in a horror movie it isn't merely 'why' or 'how come' an unseen hideous figure walks around with a bloody axe - in a horror flick this would be expected.
Or to bring it back to pulp: without mystery or whacky off-throwing crazyness it would be just another story. The thrill, the attraction would lie in the otherworldly offbeat hardly-explained weird attraction to it all.

So I think something could be up with LoJo. Something pretty rough and ruthless. I don't think he'll be receiving medals or even flowers on his grave, there won't likely be statues erected to his name or likeness.
If he could be cursed or his true name be smeared in spite of him proving a decent however lastingly 'branded' a man, then that would seem only the better also. As if LoJo would turn out as forever unable to be attaining justice or heroicalness in the eyes of the public! Yes, that would do.

Because I think any such would be adding to his character, or what I'd know of it.

[MajorHoy]

Maybe Lobster Johnson lost either a family member when he was young (or a girlfriend / wife when he was older) and was sitting on a beach contemplating how he could fight back against all the criminal elements that were tearing his city apart when a lobster came out of the water and pinched his big toe?

[Joker]

Yes, father, I shall become a lobster!

For me, I don't need an origin. I like that some characters just are. There's a little more intrigue when they're almost just a force of nature.

[LobsterJohnson]

Yes, father, I shall become a lobster!

For me, I don't need an origin. I like that some characters just are. There's a little more intrigue when they're almost just a force of nature.

I used to want an origin, but I've (kind of) changed my mind. I'd still like to learn some more about our hero's past and the reason for his crime-fighting, but I like the Lobster's mystery and lack of a past. That's a big part of why he's my favorite fictional character. I'm not too worried that the Lobster's past will be revealed completely given Mignola and Arcudi's past successes at explaining things but still leaving the mystery intact. Mike's comments in this interview: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=44661 seem to show that a possible background may be given, but it won't be 100% certain. That certainly sounds interesting.

[MajorHoy]

Yes, father, I shall become a lobster!

Well, there's always this:



from June 14th, 2006: "Criminals Are A Superstitious Cowardly Lot"
http://www.politedissent.com/archives/1273