May 2021

Notes: Something that got me really into researching angels when I first started were the unreliable and often contradicting nature of the “information” available about them. It made them feel mysterious and brought out the inner historian in me wanting to find the “answers” (a limitless thrill because they’re mythological beings, so there are none. Everything and nothing is true about them.) That’s the inspiration for the opening conversation up top. I peppered in some real claims I found about Gabriel while researching.

Here Azrael introduced. He has the firmest claim to the title “Angel of Death” though there are other names often thrown under that bracket, including Gabriel. Azrael and Gabriel are mixed up pretty often actually, so I made a point to make his physical appearance similar to Gabriel’s and make the occasional callback to the resemblance. Since they’re both psychopomps, one of the biggest conflations of the two comes as the Grim Reaper weilding a scythe- the weapon Gabriel is described as weilding in texts; Azrael being said to carry a poison tipped sword (pretty sick if you ask me, but the scythe is understandably more dramatic in appearance.)

Burdock is back and I opt for some willful anachronisms here amongst other things. At this point in time “gothic” would have been used already to describe stylistic elements of certain bands including The Doors and The Velvet Underground, but “goth” wouldn’t have been widely used in a genrefied way or in reference to the subculture yet. However, for comprehensive storytelling simplicity I’ll let Burdock be ahead of his time. Though the subculture will continue to play a major role to the backdrop of the story, i’m not out to write a comprehensive musical history. If you noticed i award you one token redeemable for a pint of snakebite -on me.

The other major anachronisms are some character’s wardrobes. I def jump the gun on some fashion styles that won’t appear until at least the mid-80s, but I draw them anyway for the stupid shallow reason that I just think they look so darn cute. This will continue to happen. Sorry not sorry. Gabriel’s “Pure Hell” shirt is -in addition to being pretty funny to me- all punk and not goth. At this point the genre would be in the stage of emerging from punk, since goth doesn’t exist in a vaccum. I’m gonna explore a few other punk bands along the way to try to stay true to the musical landscape, in the meantime I’ll try to avoid more historical sins.

I’ll catch you next time, ideally in a few weeks as I try to work out what’s a realistic upload schedule. As always thx for reading!! xx -AV

A Demon is an Angel who no longer occupies Heaven, either voluntarily or because he was Disgraced. Apostates are the original rebel angels who went to war against Heaven in the Great Schism, & mostly occupy Hell. The Grigori are demons from the Second Great Fall who participated in carnal indulgences with human beings; they mostly reside in Hell. Solitary demons usually live on Earth and tend to have been disgraced for individual misdeeds, or chose to leave Heaven or Hell to live independently. They’re typically hermits.