And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death.  He had come like a thief in the night. And

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death.  He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall.  And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay.  And the flames of the tripods expired.  And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.@starsherit already had my heart, but now I’m gonna give them my soul, all my food, and pretty much everything else I guess.I have been dying (pun intended) to get this segment of the “Masquerade” title page edited, but.…I suck at editing.Fortunately for me, my partner is amazing at this stuff and had the patience to work at it.  It came out fantastic.(More under the cut.)This is far and away my most favorite “shot” of Reaper in any of the post-Fall media.  Benjamin’s artwork throughout the entire comic is gorgeous and so spectacular, Michael’s script is so good, every detail feels so rich and perfectly placed.  I have legitimately spent hours reading “Masquerade”, rereading it, analyzing it, theorizing about it, and while I could nitpick and critique minor parts of the text, there was one part that rankled my hyperfocused brain.Widowmaker’sSculpted, super-ballerina, pin-up posedLEG.Don’t get me wrong - I love Widowmaker, and like I said, I think the rest of the comic is beautiful.  Heck, even the rest of the title page is incredible.But Widowmaker is a little awkwardly placed.  Not only does her foot have a weird overlap with Reaper, her sniper rifle has a really odd positioning over Doomfist himself.  I’m not great with design, but if feels like her rifle should be like…a few millimeters lower (so you can actually see Doomfist’s full expression, and not have the barrel clipping over his lip), but then doing that means she’s basically sitting on Reaper’s mask completely.\This is partially due to the fact that “Masquerade” is actually best experienced by reading the Madefire version (warning: it has sound).  If you can’t access that version, here’s a Youtube video showcasing the interactivity of the comic on Tony Washington’s Artstation.  But even that doesn’t really show the full extent of it.The elements on the cover can move a lot.Here’s the lowest they can go.Oh, hey.See how Red Death Reaper is barely visible?Look what happens when you move the pieces up and to the left.It’s almost like Reaper is the secret in the comic.Which is exactly what he is.The white lightning bolt is a hard divide between Reaper, Widowmaker, and Doomfist.  He’s also the only element on the page that isn’t “movable” (so to speak).  He is literally lurking in the background, waiting, biding his time, and the allegory and references to “The Masque of the Red Death” throughout the comic make it very clear that that’s the “real plot twist” in the story.The problem is that Blizzard put out, like, zero promotional material for the madefire version, because the company wants you to use their terrible comic webviewer, which is not AS interactive as the Madefire version nor as easily readable as the PDF version.  So it’s a lesser of both.Heck, the terrible comic webviewer doesn’t even show Reaper.So not only is it less enjoyable than the other two versions, it completely cuts out indicators and design elements created to help the reader.This is one of the reasons I really, really wanted to try a slightly edited version of the main PDF title page.  Few things will ever come close to actually playing around with the Madefire version yourself, but I can’t convey that stylized “Reaper lurks in the shadows” element on a static tumblr essay, a twitter picture, or now a Pillowfort post.I really think that the edits help showcase the actual element of danger and retribution hiding among the Talon members.  Because the PDF version is static, there’s no way to emphasize the movement of “masking/unmasking” Reaper, and unfortunately, the reader’s eye ends up being drawn to Widowmaker’s awkwardly placed foot instead.A few things to notice:1. In the Madefire version, Reaper is static but “hidden”.  The movement of the white lightning bolt shows that he’s separate from the rest of the characters by a hard visual cue.  Playing with the moving elements will “mask” him more by moving them over him, or “unveil him” by moving them away.2. In both the PDF and Madefire versions, the literal text of “MASQUERADE” is deliberately placed next to Reaper.  You can actually compare this to other Madefire comics like “Wasted Land” and “Searching”.(As an aside, the shadows behind Zarya and Lynx move. )3. One of the cool parts of the PDF version is that even though Widowmaker is still centered in her own scope sights, the overlap with parts of Reaper’s right eye invokes tactical element to his image.It makes it look like he has Talon members in his sights.Now.That phrase seems awfully familiar, doesn’t it?Reaper with a “scope sight” over his eye immediately brings characters like Soldier: 76, McCree, Ana, and Widowmaker to mind.  The fact that the first three appear to be working with Sombra and might even be working with Reaper himself makes the imagery much more compelling.All in all, I am so, so happy with my partner’s edits and just.  Love them.  SO MUCH.The edits, and my partner, of course ;) -- source link
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