Melody and Macabre

Author notes

Elysium, Page 8

Xiam

on March 10, 2009

It's odd, but I'm ashamed to be so proud of this joke. It's so very very wrong, but so very very funny.

Don't worry, though, Ms. Wampyr is no longer in charge. Though, to be honest, it originally was. I'd considered a storyline with Melody in a sort of weird mystery story that led to the realization that Ms. Wampyr was a vampire. Surprise surprise. I soon decided that this was too much of a change from the ordinary series. I didn't want a little girl solving mysteries, especially since Melody's not… you know… Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. She's a normal little girl. As much as one can be with Death for a best friend.

Elysian Fields itself was originally Happy Trails, but um… it wasn't as significant for the series. Though it was funny, given the… you know… vampire lady, which I dropped.

I think the orphanage's layout should be discussed. I'd originally sketched this out long ago, back during Act I. I think it was raining in the image, which - given that it was still "Happy Trails" - gave a particular irony. But it looked more or less as it looks now, though with an extra floor on both ends.

When I wrote up the previous joke about the cliff, I considered making it a reformed lighthouse, with the keeper's house being the orphanage proper, but I decided that it'd be easier just to have the cliff being unrelated, so I drew it differently on the comic.

I actually drew it symmetrically, with one window for each extended side, but I then remembered the insides I'd imagined, which would not work properly with that, as I had a large dining room and such there.

I wonder if anybody noticed a bit of foreshadowing, too… though again, not part of the building's layout as I imagined it, so it's really unnecessary to point it out.

Haaa, you have no idea what I'm talking about.