83. Aus Diesem Felsen Starr Und Wild

Air Raid Robertson on Oct. 30, 2010

In this strip I tried mixing the heavy spot blacks of my most recent Air Raid Robertson story with prismacolor markers. I don't think it turned out as well as it could have. So, if I'm going to apply heavier blacks in the future I will have to rethink my approach.

The springboard for this gag is Franz Shubert's 8th symphony. It was never finished, and the reasons why are totally unknown.

It is noted that Shubert came down with syphilis at around the time he began composing his 8th symphony. He became deadly ill sometime afterwards and remained so for about a year. Some music historians theorize that Franz's sensitive nature might've kept him from returning to the symphony. They argue that doing so might've brought back nasty memories that Shubert didn't want to handle.

While listening to a rendition of the 8th symphony by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic I thought about how Franz Shubert's sexual mistakes led to the implosion of one of his most popular works. (And also his premature death, in all probability) This comic then came to mind.

The title of this strip comes from the German translation of Sir Walter Scott's “The Lady of the Lake”. In English, the line reads as “Thou canst hear though from the wild”. Shubert used this text while composing “Ellens dritter Gesang”, better known as “Ave Maria”. It is arguably his most famous composition.