I did a comic dub of @notsogoodangel's Hound Knight Comic.
I had a lot of fun making this, especially the tail wags.
All good boys have their tails wagging :3
Check out the YouTube Shorts version here.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GTh-xBizlxw
Check out the Original Comic
The author, secondlina, often posts comics on Tumblr, but I couldn't find the specific comic I want to talk about, so here is the link:
In this comic, secondlina refers to will-o'-the-wisps as omens of death. I hadn't come across this characterization of wisps, so I did some digging, and found a couple things:
1. "Corpse-candles"
We hear the following from William Wells Newell:
"First may be mentioned the so-called " corpse-candles," supposed to precede and prognosticate a death. If luminous appearances of the sort issue from the room of a sick person, and are seen to enter the churchyard, it is taken for granted that the illness will be fatal, and that the sufferer will shortly be borne to his rest along the path followed by the apparition. The movement of the flame answers to that which may be expected from the living man; if the pace be brisk, as that of a youth skipping or running, the death of a child is indicated; if slow and even, of an elderly person. In this case the vision is, so to speak, a present reflection of the future event; inasmuch as it formerly was usual to inter by night, and in consequence torches or candles were borne by the mourners, such lamps belong to the funeral procession, which appears in an anticipatory reflex."
(Basically, that wisps appear as actual harbingers of death and light the way to the churchyard where a sick person will soon be buried after they die.)
2. Spirits of the Dead
I have found that wisps have also been called the spirits of the dead, with variations being
someone who tricked the devil and therefore could enter neither heaven nor hell when they died*
someone who moved a landmark
unbaptized infants
dishonest land surveyors
*There's a huge number of stories mentioning this phenomenon, so many that it is a folkloric motif (ATU 330).
So, the connections between wisps and death is strong enough that some people would say wisps have a stronger correlation to ghosts than to fairies. That's something I have encountered in a few of the abovementioned sources, but I feel like there's a lot more research to be done in that regard. I'm more than willing to take on that monstrous task!
i recently came across tumblr user secondlina's blog, and considering the nature of this blog, thought you might be interested in their art and comics, so i wanted to share it with you c:
Thank you for the recommendation! I really appreciate it, thanks for thinking of me. : ) I took a quick look through the blog and it totally seems like their art is my kind of thing. Their webcomic Namesake looks particularly interesting.
Thanks for sending this my way!
As a bit of a P.S. I know I haven't been very active on here much as of late. I hope to be more present in the near future. But I always love hearing from all you lovely Folks. <3