Melody and Macabre

Author notes

Optimism, Page 3

Xiam

on May 27, 2008

What Death isn't telling her is that Mrs. Smith's grandchildren were horrible to her and she was too senile to write a will, and that Mr. Barrows was… well…

…Okay, I had a lot of different thoughts on Mr. Barrows. Most of which are certainly not Teen-rated. Makes me feel a little less badly about killing him off.

He looked so nice, too.

In this comic, I was tempted to first show the "glow" of the souls on Death's "face," then thought that was both surreal and impossible (as his face is pretty much shadows themselves, rather than hidden). I then wanted his eyes to reflect the light of their souls, but decided the cyan and red would not particularly follow his thought patterns, as they often do. I then considered making his eyes yellow for an "inspection" sort of thought across his face.

I don't really know why I didn't go with that. He looks a little weird in the first panel, though, doesn't he?

At any rate… don't go looking through pages and books on aura colors to see if they match up to the soul jewels and their vices. They don't. The problem, of course, was that all the resources I looked up mentioned many GOOD aspects, but very few BAD aspects. Chances are, I'd have to assume Mr. Blanc was greedy, Mrs. Smith was… icy? Well, I guess that sorta fits Death's argument… and Mr. Barrows was wrathful.

Or lustful…

But you folks will never know, ha!

I was tempted to name Mr. Blanc "Mr. Carson," as a joke regarding his death by car (as opposed to birth by car?). However, Mr. Blanc fits better with the theme of the series, as some cultures associate white with death. I decided not to use Black, as that would confuse him with a later character.

Oowooh, now you're curious, right?