After discussing our drafts of the character biographies for our main characters, I began to think about Rufus’ background in detail. I like the idea of him holding a grudge against Death for taking his wife away, a grudge that only presents itself when Death tries to talk about her or perhaps reaches for a photo of he which he has up within his home (he has many). Death on the other hand, I imagine to be world-weary and cynical, though not humorous as depicted in many others pieces of media. I want Rufus and Death to have ‘real-life’ conversations that take serious turns and delve deep into their psyche, I want them to discuss the ramifications of death and whether it actually has any consequences or not in the grand scheme of things.

The appearance of Death is something I’ve been dwelling on for days now, and I feel like I’ve thought of a nice middle ground between fantasy and reality by looking towards other pieces of media. I began to look at my favourite pieces of gothic art, and realised the character of ‘The Sandman’ from Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel series proved to be a perfect fit for Death, humanising the being whilst also keeping the sense of fantasy. The appearance of the Sandman himself was based upon ‘The Cure’ frontman and musician Robert Smith. His pitch black hair and sunken eyes/pale skin combination provides the perfect human character for the figment of Death – a subject I’m assuming has been closely linked to his image as much of his music is of the gothic rock genre. With this in mind I feel like I have my two characters ready, and can possibly begin working on story and structure elements.

‘Death in all his glory’