A DISTANT SOIL: The Ascendant Chapter 1 Page 14
I’ve drawn some pretty rough scenes in comics over the years. A human slaughterhouse in Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, Thessaly peeling off Creepy Guy George’s face in Sandman, and the tortures of Hell in Barker’s Hellraiser.
But this scene creeps me out more than anything else I have ever drawn.
11 Comments
Colleen
Note: Hatching, stippling and costume detail on this page is by hand. There are two small spots of patterned tone sheets in panel one, but the diamonds, spots, stippling and other details are entirely by hand.
scribblerworks
It is a creepy scene. Just the thought of it. All those beautiful children treated like refuse.
And in such beautiful detail.
Carla Speed McNeil
My five-year-old’s fish died last week. Through his tears and self-recriminations, through the sound of the scar forming on his mind, I thought, “Well, that’s the great child’s ritual of the pet funeral. Better to start learning on a fish than on a person.”
Poor baby. Yes, this scene is cold to the bone.
Carla Speed McNeil
I did wonder, though, what the other adults are doing. Making sure they’re good and dead? Holding down the smell? The one on the left is making a throwing or pushing gesture– are they the attendants who remove the dead ones from their audience with the avatar?
Colleen
They are making sure any residual psychic trauma is not leaving the immediate area. They are blocking fear and pain from leaking to others.
There doesn’t tend to be any smell immediately after death. Unless you lose control of your bowels. Which I imagine also happens in this scene.
Someone has to cart the bodies away, but they use telekinesis to move them.
Allan
Still one of the most powerful and disturbing scenes ever to appear in a comic. The high contrast, Beardsley-influenced art suits the subject matter perfectly.
Colleen
Thank you, Allan. We’ve got very high traffic today, with about 500 new readers. The newbies are getting a disturbing eyeful.
Allan
Y’know, looking at thes pages again, Winsor McCay keeps coming to mind. Perhaps it’s the detail and colourful clothes. Are you a fan?
Colleen
Certainly. I have all the Little Nemo hardcovers.
Colleen Doran
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Kari
It’s funny how Niniri is trying to slowly brainwash Seren into accepting his (horrifying) roll and becoming a puppet to the heirarchy, and Sere just drops him in the middle of the truth of it, traumatizes him for fun, and (likely) plants the seed for his future rebellion. Hm. :/