Deleted Scenes

In lieu of new material, I will carry on picking over the bones of the Prophets of Mercury corpse.  The comic below is the second one ever drawn, but was never finished or published for reasons that might be obvious.

In Dreams

In the end I didn't finish plans to alter the right-hand side of the second panel to be like that of a thought bubble, but otherwise the comic is largely as designed. The major problem is that almost everyone shown the comic the first time didn't get it, and considering the character has only appeared in one comic so far isn't a surprise. He's supposed to be innocently bad-hearted, and so the comic is supposed to be his nightmare. It's not an amazing idea for a comic, but is completely undermined by the cack-handed execution.

The first panel is supposed to be an homage to The Sound of Music:

Most people who saw panel one instead thought he was on a beach with the sea in the background, so to say that panel didn't come off is an understatement.  In mitigation, the original source picture I used had a lot less green grass visible and many more flowers, although mysteriously, or perhaps conveniently, I can't seem to find that picture now.  When drawing that panel I already regretted the standard dimensions chosen for the comic, as there was not nearly enough height to do anything interesting.

Continuing the Julie Andrews theme, panel two was intended to be a loose reference to Mary Poppins, specifically a part during the song 'A Spoonful of Sugar' when a songbird flies to Mary Poppins who is at the window, but the panel is ugly, and without merit unless you notice the obtuse reference.  The window frame, wall and the character all also seem to be wrestling for the same physical space, which is a classic mistake of the amateur 'artist'.

Panel three manages to hit the heady heights of being all right.  A nice bobble on the hood might provide mild amusement, and clever use of a dark blue filter over most of the colours to give a natural night-time look.  Indications of motion might have been an idea to suggest he had just woken suddenly, as from a nightmare, but given that the comic was abandoned anyway such things do not matter.