Melody and Macabre

Author notes

Harbinger, Page 5

Xiam

on May 1, 2008

LOLBLACKDEATH.

Let us take a moment to mourn those who died in the Medieval Period.

…M'kay, onto the fun - this is the first "Hourglass" mention. I hope to scatter it a little more, as it is a prime classical symbol of Death. That, and the scythe (which I will eventually mention).

The hourglass, of course, symbolizes an individual's mortality - the sand will inevitably drift to the bottom, and your time in this world will inevitably run out.

I have a poorly drawn hourglass in my "Vanitas" style banner for this series, didja see it?

Anyway… I juggled around with the ideas for this comic. I was actually going to show Mrs. Smith, and due to the fact that I know NOTHING about hospital machinery, I was actually going to do her bed without it. Melody was going to comment on it, and Death was going to acknowledge it, stating "Someone must've forgotten."

…That "someone" would have been me.

Regarding the artwork: I am most proud of my drawings for Melody in the right-hand panels (2 and 4), in this comic. Melody is cute as heck, and she reminds me strikingly of a Calvin and Hobbes character in Panel 2 in particular. Which is very nice to me, as I initially planned the series to be a sort of "Calvin and Hobbes meets The Seventh Seal." This, of course, changed MASSIVELY since conception.

This is the second appearance of a human soul. As you can see, it's a different color from Mr. Barrows' soul, but the overall specifics would be the same. In panel three, you can see Melody's curiosity as to if it is actually a physical thing. This I will leave up to debate - would it be hard like a marble, or squishy like a sticky ball? Maybe it's a mix between the two, like a bouncy ball…

Pointless note, I thought Melody's arm was way too long in panel 3, so I shortened it when I was doing the text in Paint. Yes, I do the text in Paint. You can't tell, though, can you?