Alf's Dream

Characters: (Counter-Clockwise from man in middle) Alf's Uncle, Alf, The Murdered Maid, The Maid with Glass in her Face, The Gentleman, The Lost Husband, The Glutton, The Sailor

Done with pencil and ink at college while I was stuck with nothing to do and with my truck in the shop. This is the "culmination" of my efforts in character development after doing a bunch of concept sketches for each of these lovely personas in previous bored sittings. I want to redo this, color, and touch it up eventually into a new piece to distinguish Alf and his Uncle from the ghosts. And also use color to set the focus on little Alf.

It's a piece I did for a script I'm writing that's loosely based on the W.W. Jacobs' short story "Alf's Dream." ...Jacobs you should know, is the author of the infamous horror story "The Monkey's Paw." Both stories are worth a read. After reading Alf's Dream, I was inspired to tweak the story and update the plot twist into something more...shocking and modern, while retaining the essence of the characters and time period of the original story. It could be a different story entirely, but for now I'm using the name Alf's Dream when I refer to the idea.

If you read "Alf's Dream," you'll notice there's no spooky dead people. No, that's my own invention. The plot is similar though...Alf lives with his uncle, who somehow "sort of" married his housekeeper who neither of them really like...and a scheme unfolds to trick the woman into leaving the uncle by proving that her supposed dead ex-husband is still alive. Everything else is different aside from some of the characters involved. Alf has vivid dreams in my incarnation that he constantly tells his uncle about. He claims to see the town's deceased in his dreams, and converses with them regularly.

If you're interested in more about my story, you can read more and check for updates on my journal: [link]