Trivia / extra notes
Thought it would be fun to include
Creation and Evolution
The inspiration to create Clover came from a Kodiac camera advertisement in an old magazine, of all things. (My own scan on the right) I was flipping through the collection of National Geographics that my art class had for collages when BAM! Dark, menacing eyes. Turns out David Copperfield looked kinda interesting in the 1980s. This was my main inspiration for Clover's face, haircut, and the whole... chest hair thing. And those eyes. I wanted to capture those eyes as much as possible.
Clover was also originally intended as a joke character, created as a last-minute addiction to the Fire Magnolia universe that some friends and I had made. He was just meant to be a creep character but over time it became more serious. Eventually I made Crispin, the enraged self hidden behind his smile (originally, he was to actually, literally never get mad) and added all the hidden insecurities that pushed him to chase Jesse in the first place.
For a very long time, though, he was actually meant to have a redemption arc. Instead of being burned, he had his face cut open during an attack from an unnamed, home-wrecked husband. While the wound healed quickly, his ego didn't. Later he'd meet a cab driver named Dublin Brisby who taught him what actual love is before Clover's sudden death from a brain aneurysm. Well... needless to say, I struggled to make the redemption feel earned and not cliche. I decided it was more interesting to just have Clover never learn from his mistakes, never improve, to act as a cautionary tale. It took going through a lot of possible endings before I finally landed on THE one, though.
Story Trivia
The names of Clover's siblings are Joseph, Edison, and Anne. Unlike Clover, they went on to have normal, ordinary lives in line with their slightly conservative upbringing. Within reason or not, they stuck by their mother Elsa to the end, believing that she did her best with her circumstances and that Crispin's hate was extreme. Perhaps it didn't help him that he constantly screamed at them while they were growing up, even attacking them physically over the slightest offense. And then there was his new... look.
When Clover finally left the nest, the family rarely brought him up. Elsa openly disapproved of everything- the terrible music, his style, and that name. She had named him after her father who sacrified his life in the war. And now here he was, picking a girl's name! Perhaps it was for the best that Clover avoided her until her sudden death in 1978.
There are lots of people that Clover silently judged. One of these groups, unsurprisingly, was anyone he considered unattractive. Well, it's a good thing I don't look like THAT, he frequently thought to himself. Another one was animal lovers. He thought them to be the real crazy ones for valuing the life of a rat more than the life of their own fellow human. This mostly stems from his own hatred of animals, especially the rabbit that his family obsessed over when he was about ten. In a fit of jealousy and rage, he killed the rabbit while he was home alone. From then on, any animal that tried to approach him would be (sometimes violently) shoved away or, if animal lovers were present, tightly gripped by the ears while Clover put on a fake smile. Something about them disturbed him on a deeper level... their emotionless, beady eyes, their instinct-driven minds, and most of all the fact that everyone loved them for simply existing while he had to work hard to be loved.
Growing up, Crispin's diet consisted of mainly junk and microwave food since his mother was often too depressed to cook. Upon becoming Clover, however, he quickly switched to the most plain health food imaginable- unseasoned vegetables, frozen grilled chicken, etc. He went as far as to trick his brain into hating sweets. Even the thought of cake or ice cream would make him gag.
On the subject of being health-conscious, he avoids cigarettes and alcohol like the plague. You can imagine he was quite horrified when he found out that Jesse regularly smoked and wouldn't listen to his desperate warnings against the habit.
Songs and Symbolism
A few of the songs I associate with Clover are "Lover Boy" by Supertramp, "Only Pretty, What a Pity" by the Lovin' Spoonful, "Me" by Zion De Gallier, and "Dandy" by the Kinks.
He has a rather obnoxious, nasally voice and is prone to giggling. If he were to sing it might sound like a drunk Ray Davies (or more specifically, "Priscilla Millionaira" also by the Lovin' Spoonful) but thankfully Fire Magnolia never let him sing.
Symbolic color: white, because Clover wears a LOT of it and tends to play up a false innocence and purity to hide the red stain underneath.
Symbolic flora: Clover flower, while a less common symbol than the three-four leaf clover, tends to bring to mind a certain femininity and delicateness. Loved by bees, but a pesky weed to humans who can see past the pretences.
Symbolic fauna: A weasel- small, crafty animals that are commonly used to denote a manipulative person and appear deceptively cute and harmless to some. (I commonly refer to him as a "pipe-drain weasel" which... basically, imagine a weasel got caught in your pipe drain and you had to drag it out. It'd probably be gross and wet, eyes bulging, fur stuck to its skin. That's Clover)
Symbolic object: A broken mirror. Represents not just his obsession with appearance but also his warped sense of it, exacting every little percieved flaw in an attempt to be perfect (which fails in the end because of the fire and fall from grace)