Hauptman

Creation

Hauptman was created by writer and artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 65, in 1999.

Major Story Arcs

Hauptman was at some point reincarnated from the dead, via a magical cauldron. He first appears as a servant of the original (non-time travelling) Barbatos. His eyelids are sewn shut; Barbatos has put them on stalks on his head instead.

Hauptman has a very British butler feel: he calls Barbatos “M’Lord” and flatters him (“You ARE diabolical, m’lord.”).

Hauptman uses a squeezable accordion to power Barbatos’s mechanical wings while he picks up soul maggots.

He later drives an ice cream truck for him.

When they try to recruit Cyril, Tim Hunter’s step-brother, into working for them, Hauptman kills a bird so they can show him their cauldron that revives the dead (the same one used to resurrect Hauptman).

He helps hand out photos of Tim in Hell when Barbatos is looking for him. They soon literally run into him while driving the ice cream truck, and Haputman is dismembered, losing an arm.

Later, when Barbatos has become the Duke of the Ninth Circle of Hell and Ambassador to the Earthly Realm, Hauptman continues to work for him, now in his castle in hell.

Hauptman sees the Wild Hunt coming, so Barbatos commands him to drive them both in the opposite direction. However, the hunt, now led by Tim, shoots the truck with arrows and crashes it again. They capture Barbatos.

Barbatos survives, and attaches Hauptman, now missing all his limbs, to a balloon. Hauptman uses a telescope to find Tim. They try to defeat him, but fail.

Forty years later, after Barbatos is finally freed, he comes back to his castle in the Ninth Circle. Barbatos lets him in—he is now the Duke of the Ninth Circle, and holds himself with much more arrogance. He tells Barbatos that he manipulated events so everyone would think Barbatos was a fool and they let him buy the Dukeship. He kicks Barbatos out.