There’s something in the way anger is treated in Hell Followed With Us. Because Benji is angry, and it is righteous. He is never expected to pack up his anger and calm down, he is allowed to feel and act on his rage, even when self destructive, in a way so many queer people wish they could. His anger is not a flaw, it is his power.

It goes against everything the church tells us about anger. We should “turn the other cheek” and take it, to accept the hollow satisfaction of being the “better person” when faced with people who would see us dead in the street. It is evil, it is weakness, it is sin. They want to take away our anger, our rage, our wrath, because they know what we can do with it, and that scares them.

Benji and Seraph are for all of us who want to scream in the face of bigots,

we will not lay down and die

Because Seraph is queer rage incarnate, and it is glorious

@ this,,, had to draw this,,,

A digital art adaptation of a sketch I did, and it took wayyyy longer than I thought, but here's Benji (from Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White) strolling down the street

mika hyakuya 🤝 nick

seraph boyfriend experimented on by some cult they were also in at some point but escaped who would kill for them

i can't stop thinking about benji learning to control and modify his form like other graces but instead of turning into a twink with cool wings he just becomes a dog-sized version of seraph so he can curl up in bed with nick

First outline of my Benji Seraph fanart

had a dream that i made a beaded lizard hell followed with us is officially wired into my neurons

Benji

Image description: A pen and marker portrait of the character Benji-as-Seraph from the book Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White.

Benji looks feral and not entirely human. His face is covered in blood, and blood is splattered into his curly brown hair. His eyes are black and pupil-less. Most notably, part of his lips and cheek are gone, revealing gums, both human and monstrously sharp teeth, and a long red tongue that lolls out to nearly the length of his head, and is split like a snakes tongue at the bottom. Benji is smiling widely. End description.

I love (/gen) how vague hfwu is when describing benji-as-seraph. even if only for the art potential. I love giant humanoid seraphs. I love apocalyptic angel seraphs. I love decaying zombie flesh seraphs. I love seraphs that look like a motherfucking dragon. what do I think benji-as-seraph looks like? the answer is yes.

hello fellow HFWU fans!! do you want a place to talk about the book (and other AJW novels)? a place to post art or share stories?

well, good news! sans-seraph, the 1st HFWU fan discord server, is now open! for anyone passionate about the books, or anyone who just wants to hang out.

what we offer:

cool people!

art + writing channels for both Hell Followed With Us and The Spirit Bares Its Teeth!

a lgbtq+ inclusive server, run by fans for fans!

looking forward to seeing you there! 🐇💌👁️

no i dont think i will stop thinking about benji from hfwu .. benji whos father his number 1 supporter was shot in front of him at the beginning of the book his blood splattered on his face buried under his nails forever ingrained into the ridges of his fingerprints benji who loved so fiercely it was dangerous so much so that he forgave the boy who hurt him so quickly and it cost him almost everything BEEENJIII who felt different for so long and who ended up associating that feeling with being monstrous after he was injected with seraph BENJI. who just wanted to be a boy that loved boys. who was only a teen when the world fell apart and chained him down, benji who had religion and trauma whispering in his ear bite your tongue and do as you are told for He will never forgive you if you follow your heart — benji who was never even sure who He was, if heaven and hell and everything his life revolved around for so long even existed ..

i love him

seeing parallels between heaven help us (mcr) and hell followed with us (aj white)

so i started rereading hfwu and im already insane about it. and i was listening to my hfwu playlist while i worked on a painting of benji, and heaven help us came on. and then i realized, the line, "mostly i've been sprawled on these cathedral steps while spitting out the blood and screaming, someone save us now" parallels PERFECTLY with benji's begging god/something to save him from new nazareth AND how he vomits up the flood rot/organs for the "spitting blood" part. then i realized the entire song narratively represents the book. lets go one verse at a time.

hear the sound, the angels come screaming / down your voice / i hear you've been bleeding / make your choice / they say you've been pleading: someone save us!

okay, well here the angels represents...the angels... the sound could either be their prayer or gunshots. and i think the next part matches up with how nick recognizes the flood rot benji spits up and knows that benji is the seraph from the first time they meet. the choice nick makes is to take benji into the ALC and to not say anything. the pleading is how benji frequently begs god to save him from new nazareth

and out of this old hotel / but i can't tell if i've been breathing or sleeping or screaming or waiting for the man to call / or all the above / cause mostly i've been sprawled on these cathedral steps while spitting out the blood and screaming, someone save us

"this old hotel" is the ALC, and benji "waiting for the man to call" could refer to how he's just waiting for the angels to come capture him again OR for the seraph to take him. then the spitting blood part is the flood rot organs vomit thing. yeah.

as you're falling down / and will you pray for me? / or make a saint of me? / and will you lay for me? / or make a saint of me? / cause i'll give you all the nails you need / cover me in gasoline / wipe away those tears of blood again

this part goes with the devasting part towards the end when benji is in new nazareth again and how the angels all praise and worship him. i'm not sure about the nails and gasoline part, this book doesn't deal much with themes of crucifixion. HOWEVER, the gasoline COULD be with the ALC fire scene.

and the punchline to the joke is asking: someone save us now / come crashing down / we'll hear the sound / as you fall

this part matches a little too perfectly. at the ending of the book, it's the IRONY. that benji uses the weapon the angels made of him to destroy the angels. the punchline to the joke is that benji uses all of his manipulation and trauma to fight back. the ALC group will witness benji take down this group that has killed lord knows how many people.

final thoughts:

im not accusing aj white of plagarism or anything, it's probably a coincidence. i genuinely just found this super fucking cool. i'm posting this so that i can look back on it and possibly make an animatic one day. also sorry if any of this is off or anything i haven't gotten past page 40 and i don't remember a whole lot of details

A Seraph!Benji Woodside appears!

I was going to color and render this and there are a few details i’m still not happy with, but I haven’t worked on it in weeks. So. Posting now i guess.

I started this before I had seen any fanart for hfwu and I had a super vivid idea of what Seraph!Benji looked like while reading, so this is pretty close to that, but I did tweak some stuff while drawing :’)

Anyway this is my first piece of art i’ve posted anywhere so im going to crawl in a hole now