Otherworldly Goods – Page 4
We need more epistolary narratives in comics, I say. Text messaging be damned.
My favorite part to draw on this page was the skull. Least favorite? That gate. But I like how it turned out.
I might redo the text to make this more legible. Tara got a little longwinded in dressing down her brother. Wait til you meet her!
↓ Transcript
PANEL 1
Leaving Hell, carrying a backpack and a duffel bag, Fetch walks while reading his sister’s letter. He passes by “sinners” in various agonies of torture from weird demons.
LETTER: Fetch
I have no idea if this letter will ever get to you, but I have no other contact information and your friends are useless. Where the hell are you? Mom is really ill! The cancer in her intestines is spreading. She’s confined to bed. I could really use your help. I’m doing all the caregiving by myself. Do you think you could tear yourself away from your oh-so important life as a do-nothing and give me a hand?
Mom could die, Fetch. I know you two have not spoken in years, but she’s
your mother! Now is the time when families come together. She needs you.
Tara
PANEL 2
Fetch reacts to letter while walking through the gates of Hell.
FETCH: Cancer… Huh… Thought it’d be drink…
Find her face down in a puddle or broken neck from a fall...
Been trying to avoid this. Guess now I have no choice.
Tara would never forgive me. Mam, too, but whatever.
Not the forgiving type, she. Bitter. Cold. Angry.
Tara not much better. Deserves better tho.
Crap.
PANEL 3
Fetch enters a white sandy beach along a dark, inky river toward a rotting corpse. Behind it CHARON leans against the back of a vintage wooden jet boat painted like a yellow tax and labeled “Death Cab”. A sign reads “Styx Riverways - your navigator in the world of the dead. Please pay the skull before boarding.”
FETCH: This should be great.
Leaving Hell, carrying a backpack and a duffel bag, Fetch walks while reading his sister’s letter. He passes by “sinners” in various agonies of torture from weird demons.
LETTER: Fetch
I have no idea if this letter will ever get to you, but I have no other contact information and your friends are useless. Where the hell are you? Mom is really ill! The cancer in her intestines is spreading. She’s confined to bed. I could really use your help. I’m doing all the caregiving by myself. Do you think you could tear yourself away from your oh-so important life as a do-nothing and give me a hand?
Mom could die, Fetch. I know you two have not spoken in years, but she’s
your mother! Now is the time when families come together. She needs you.
Tara
PANEL 2
Fetch reacts to letter while walking through the gates of Hell.
FETCH: Cancer… Huh… Thought it’d be drink…
Find her face down in a puddle or broken neck from a fall...
Been trying to avoid this. Guess now I have no choice.
Tara would never forgive me. Mam, too, but whatever.
Not the forgiving type, she. Bitter. Cold. Angry.
Tara not much better. Deserves better tho.
Crap.
PANEL 3
Fetch enters a white sandy beach along a dark, inky river toward a rotting corpse. Behind it CHARON leans against the back of a vintage wooden jet boat painted like a yellow tax and labeled “Death Cab”. A sign reads “Styx Riverways - your navigator in the world of the dead. Please pay the skull before boarding.”
FETCH: This should be great.
Spread the joy:
https://youtu.be/qKXsrWrmbAg
Death Cab? Fetch is a cutie, isn’t he.