Gooday everyone,
Welcome to the Deacon Corner. If you’re new here, this space dives into the inspirations behind the images you’ll find throughout the books on these pages. What began as a place to share commission breakdowns has grown into something more. In addition to detailing how each piece came to life, you’ll now find expanded chapter notes, lore entries, and my own black-and-white concept illustrations which are raw glimpses into the ideas that shaped this world before they fully took form.
Before we begin, it’s important to say that none of the beautiful stylized images found in the hard and soft copies of these books would exist without the incredible talent of Sickjoe who is quite literally the heart and soul of this visual world. If you appreciate his work as much as I do, I highly encourage you to visit his gallery and explore more of his creations.
Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the featured image and learn a bit more about the lore hidden in this chapter.
In this piece, I need something between Nona and Charon when they are older. Nona is attending one of her sister’s many weddings and is guided by her retainer.
Charon: Charon looks vastly different from the first time we saw him. Much like Igor, he has matured into his role as a butler and now looks the part. No longer is his exoskeleton fully exposed and he covers himself with extension cords molded into a notched lapel and overcoat, a butler’s uniform. Furthermore, he doesn’t wear his assorted facial expressions like necklaces anymore but, instead, the expressions are stored like lenses in front of his face and swapped in and out like a fancy pair of bifocals. I imagined it as something like those glasses from National Treasure, only faces instead of lenses :)
An assorted potpourri of expressions swapped in and out on the fly by metal fingers, rods, and levers.
In the end, he’s still rather frightening looking, but much more refined.
Nona: We’re working with teenage Nona again and she’s wearing her usual old-fashioned gown far different from the nonsense Clotho would prefer. Charon is helping her down the stairs, positioned like they’re posing for a wedding photo.
Background: Do you know the famous grand staircase aboard the Titanic with the glass atrium above? That’s where this takes place. Decima’s living quarters were designed after the luxury liner and she always has her bridal party line up before the stairs.