Hot Stuff, The Little Devil from the Harvey Comics, is all grown up now, a divorced dad, making ends meet by teaching Hammered Dulcimer privately in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In a snazzy bollo tie and dockers instead of the trademark asbestos diapers of his youth, Hot – now going by the name Hiram Spellman – still stands out in a crowd (even a Santa Fe crowd) with his alarmingly red skin, horns and devil tail. But, Hiram claims that he had long ago given up his impish ways and now just wants to teach the world to sing and strum.
He says that he picked up the instrument soon after seeing the Juggernaut Jug band play at an Austin Chili Fest he was emceeing. “I just fell in love right then and there,” he said. “My eyes was tearing up from that beautiful music like no Jalepeno pepper ever could. I knew this was my destiny. Why I was put on this lower level beneath the center of the Earth.
His long time feud and legal battles with Hellboy has finally been put behind him. It still seems a painful subject for Spellman, who reportedly was paid an undisclosed amount rumored to be in the high seven figures.
“Hollywood ripped me off, Man. That’s all I want to say about it. Think I even got anything out of all them tattoos? Anything from the 108th Field Battery? Anything from Diablo Cody?”
His highly publicized tie-in marriage to Wendy the Good Little Witch merely lasted three months. His drinking binges and flame throwing antics became legendary. The cops even had to take away his trusty trident.
Pastor Leo Dunwich of the Santa Fe Foursquare Church stands behind his new parishioner. “It may stretch your theology a bit to see a demon on our worship team,” he said. “But, I believe our God is a forgiving God and everyone, including third tier comic book characters, can be redeemed.”
We asked if he ever sees his old friend, Casper, the friendly ghost, anymore.
“He’s a fucking ghost,” Hiram explained, a little heat showing under his collar. "No one sees Casper anymore.”
