Creation
Brother Hugh was created by writer and artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 64, in 1999.
Major Story Arcs
Brother Hugh is one of several beings who find each other in the borders of the realms of the dead after magic storms swept many dimensions. He falls in with a group that include Rosehip and Julie the Dancing Bear, Joh, Tim Hunter in his guise as Mary, and Henry Lywood. They travel for a while until reaching other realms, with the aid of Henry, who dies in the process.
In his original life, Brother Hugh was a monk who clashed with his order. He believed he was destined to deliver the souls of those in Hell, so he killed himself. He was tortured there for his goals, but when the magic storm came, he escaped.
He is close-minded and gruff with his new companions, since they do not share his religious plans to let God know what is going on in Hell. They soon find the Day family, who are all ghosts. They are being kept there by the matriarch of the family because she thinks they didn’t love her enough.
Brother Hugh attempts to use the pure faith of the youngest ghost child to ascend to heaven, but the flitling Rosehip intervenes and stops them. Then Julie the Dancing Bear rips Hugh open, revealing that he was just a skin bag holding together a giant mass of maggots.
The demon Barbatos finds the maggots as they crawl away and eats them.