"Why So Serious" - The Comedian

Once you realize what a joke everything is,

being the Comedian is the only thing

that makes sense.

The Watchmen - Alan Moore

Happy Friday all, and welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

I hope you enjoyed last week's 100th blog post spectacular. It was a really nice trip down memory lane preparing those 100 photos from the past nearly two years. A big thank you again to those of you who have been following me over these past 100 posts, and a welcome to those who are new, I hope you all enjoy what you find in The Art of Caesura!

This week we're going back to The World of Smog, and after looking at The Dandy and The Doctor, today we have The Comedian!

Despite his stage name, the Comedian - a slimy and hunchback jester - used to take very seriously his role in a troupe of performing freaks. When a royal decree banished his kindred, he learned to survive in tunnels buried even deeper than the Tube. The Comedian usually acted as a spy or scout on the surface or along the borders of the underground network. During one of these expeditions, he accidently found the Shadow Market. The Shadow Master noticed his intrusion and immediately hired this servile oddball who knew the sewers so well. Now he works behind the scenes of the Market, thinking he is essential and important to his new master.


The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service

This is a cool and creepy model (I guess that would go for most of The World of Smog minis). With his jester's garb, I have seen people paint him in full motley, but I took my inspiration from a very different Clown Prince of Crime...

Maybe I've just been playing too much Injustice 2, but when I pulled this model out last week to paint him, his pronounced nose and chin as well as his hair flying out of the back of his hat, just called out to be painted like The Joker. 

Now prepare to tumble down a bit of a rabbit hole...Alan Moore (one of my all-time favourite authors) wrote The Watchmen (from whence I pulled the quote at the top of the page from his Comedian), incidentally there was a character in The Watchmen called Moloch who started as something of a vaudevillian mystic. I wonder if there was any connection from this character and the big baddie (who is also a sorcerer) in the forthcoming World of Smog game The Rise of Moloch? Maybe they were both inspired by the ancient Greek god associated with child sacrifice...pleasant. 

Anyway, so Alan Moore has his Moloch and Comedian in The Watchmen, but he also wrote the timeless classic The Killing Joke with Batman vs. The Joker. His joker (well, Brian Bolland, the artist's) in that book was the classic skinny, with pointy features and purple suit. It was that joker who inspired the clothing on today's mini right down to the black hat band. 

But for this model's face, I used Heath Ledger's iconic role: the messily applied makeup over his skin (visible on the mini's neck and bridge of his nose); the blackened eyes and smeared red smile.

To add a bit more interest to The Comedian's purple outfit, I inked alternating stripes with Druchii Violet and Carroburg Crimson and almost used large stippling of highlights to give texture. His eyes were left a vacant milky white with a lick of gloss varnish - contrasting nicely with his black eye-makeup. 

And thar she be: The Comedian, from The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service. 

Join me next week for another World of Smog delight on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Arrested Development

Next Week:

Christmas is upon us...