MI Stuff- the Hermit (and other poems) (Patreon)

I like integrating imagery from poems into the comic... when I'm in an unhealthy mood I tend to fixate on things, and I like to memorize poetry as a way to make the fixation at least a little bit positive? I was going to say practical but I'm not sure how practical it is, haha, other than to have something to think about during commutes. 

There are two poems that I used to illustrate Kalla and her home, the first from the Odyssey:

 "No lonely seafarer
Holds clear of entering
Our green mirror"

I settled on this one prior to having fully committed to Kalla's character, back when Kalla used to be a bit more conniving (you can still see that hook on 3.09, which I ended up not using). Originally Kalla was meant to be more an active siren than a lonely remnant. In other parts of the poem the Sirens' domain is said to be riddled with bones and remnants... originally this room was meant to look like more of a charnel house, but I discarded that (although this was the origin for the line of thought of having skeletons embedded in the landscape... eventually the reasoning for it developed around that seed imagery).

The second is from Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which I also really enjoy just as a bizarre read:

"This Hermit good lives in that wood
Which slopes down to the sea.
How loudly his sweet voice he rears!
He loves to talk with mariners
That come from a far countree.

He kneels at morn, and noon, and eve --
He hath a cushion plump:
It is the moss that wholly hides
The rotted old oak-stump."

I liked the idea of this absolving character who interacts with and alleviates the burden of mariners rather than enticing them, and the story ended up going in more of that direction after all. 

There's a few more choice stanzas from these poems secreted into the comic, either visually or as part of the story, but they're a bit spoilery so I'll skip that for now XD Anyways, don't be afraid to let random things inspire your stories, you never know where a line of thought is going to lead.