Research and Influential Characters

Having found little from the book itself, I turn to the internet. Basing my searches on what little description of Humbaba there was in the epic itself, I have looked at lion's eyes and paws, eagles talons, and the tusks and horns of various animals.

Then I thought I ought to find out more about ogres. This page provided useful information on the creatures: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ogre
This fits in with the idea that he was very tall and humanoid in appearance, as well as many ogres being depicted with tusks or horns. They are also generally very broad, with long muscular arms and often a big belly.

This page http://monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Humbaba mentions the beasts "look of death" - which gave me the idea to make his eyes completely black, as this will give him an eerie, haunting appearance, as well as the fact that black is usually symbolic of death.

On this site http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html very near the bottom of the page, there is a paragraph on Huwawa. It describes him with more dragon and lion like features, which puts a more animal-like picture in my head.

This page http://www.blackdrago.com/fame/humbaba.htm also suggests that he took the form of a huge fire-breathing dragon.

So there are many different ideas to play with designing this character. When researching him I was reminded of several different characters...

Beast from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" - a humanoid beast with tusks, horns and huge claws! He was designed using aspects of various animals.

The Creatures from Lionhead's "Black and White" PC games - anthropomorphised animals who grow huge and can cast miracles to help or hurt humankind.

Mufasa from Disney's "The Lion King" - beautiful character design, much more cuddly looking than Huwawa ought to be but a good point of reference for a cartoon lion nonetheless.

The Guardian Beast Keroberos from CLAMP's "Cardcaptor Sakura" - a ferocious winged lion in his true form, he is a character I have always loved. I have considered giving Huwawa wings as there are many winged lions in Mesopotamian art, but decided against it as it may overcomplicate the character's design.

Haku in his dragon form from Studio Ghibli's "Spirited Away" - a beautiful dragon, part fur and part scales - the mane and bird-like legs are of particular interest to me for this project.

I will come up with a few designs, perhaps one more humanoid, one more lion-like and another that is based on the idea of him being a dragon.