Basis and Process for Comic #1

Act 5, Scene 2, Lines 280-285

LAERTES

He is justly served;
It is a poison tempered by himself.
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me. (He dies)

HAMLET

Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.

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"Redemption is a religious concept referring to forgiveness or absolution for past sins and protection from eternal damnation"
- wikipedia.com
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In these lines Laertes forgives Hamlet for killing him and his father, essentially offering to Hamlet, the Christian [and Islamic] principle of redemption. Likewise, Hamlet forgives Laertes for poisoning him. As Laertes dies, Hamlet pronounces that he will follow him in to heaven.
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After Hamlet's long anticipated act of revenge -- where he not only kills Claudius, but also Laertes (lets not forget Poloneous earlier on) -- Shakespeare wipes the slate clean in just five lines. . . so I ask the question: what if they still went to hell?
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Process
*overall I underestimated the time it would take make to create a web comic (its been a looong time since I last used Flash MX). Below is an image of the line work for the first cartoon, which took me 99 layers to complete -- though I could have sacrificed the aesthetic quality to create more comics, part of my goal in making a web comic was to connect Hamlet to a modern audience, and appearence is of importance to colorfully catch a reader's attention. Though stick figure hamlet (http://stickfigurehamlet.com/act4/scene4/page01.html) is ammusing, its simplicity can not carry readers the entire 80 strips (though it would be difficult to make that many had he done it more detailed).


Some choices I made:
-Hamlet's hair is disheveled, has a 5 0'clock shadow, and he wears all black to accentuate his melancholy persona.
-Laertes was given a mustache after the Laertes in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (film)
-that is Claudius in the last frame (thought it makes it funnier to have him pop up and say hello); he too is modeled similarly after the Claudius in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.
-the palace is based on how I pictured it when reading the play (very brown and red)
-Laertes has been hit three times, and Hamlet once -- just like in the play