The Death of Narcissa Black

Fanwork
Title:	The Death of Narcissa Black
Creator:	massicot
Date(s):	30 November 2008
Medium:	fancomic, multimedia
Fandom:	Harry Potter
External Links:	info post at hp_darkfest at winkout.com (via the Wayback Machine)
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The Death of Narcissa Black is a Harry Potter multimedia fanwork by massicot. It was created for hp_darkfest.

The work is no longer online, though some of the panels are viewable via the Wayback Machine. The PDF version of the work, originally provided by massicot at the hp_darkfest post but now also offline, still circulates among fans.

Summary: "Narcissa never intended to marry, but circumstances change and needs must. The darkest thing I could think of was abandoning the person you want to be for the person you feel you must be, so that’s what this is about."

Sample Images

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Recs & Reviews

afterthree writes at Coffee & Chocolate:

Why You Should Care: Wow. Between the story itself and the amazing artwork, I’m a bit shell-shocked. I’ve not got enough artistic background to really give you a solid critique of the art, but the style and the colours were so unique and well suited to the subject matter that I read the whole thing twice over, the second time just for the art. The story itself is well written and presses all the right buttons in all the right orders, and it creates a truly sad tragedy around Narcissa with this completely different take on her character. I would gladly purchase this as a real paper-and-binding book.

Why You Might Not Care: Some of the art is definitely Not Work Safe. Which only means you should read it at home instead of at work, not that you shouldn’t read it at all. Really, really wonderful. (It brought me back to make a rec after, oh, five months now is it? *grins*)

merripestin writes:

This fanart fanfic fancomic fan-picture book tells the story of how Narcissa ended up where she did.

In the books, Narcissa is vaguely sympathetic because she at least cares about Draco, but Being a Mum isn't much in the way of actual characterization. This story gives her a real character and a tragic life story. The ending manages to be inevitable, and still feel like being dropped off a cliff.

Most of the watercolor art I've seen has been very pale and washed out, while this has a lot of suitably bold darks. For me, watercolor also always walks a line between subtle and just plain vague. Most of this stays on the right side of that line, and I thought it suited the seventies styles very well.

Click on each page to go to the next. Some pages are blank, which left me wondering if I needed to refresh or had reached the end or what. In fact, if you reach the end it will loop around to the title page. I think it would have been better to put something -- a dot, squiggle, something -- on those pages, or better yet add a previous-next or page number footer.