History ComicBook / TheSculptor

* LoveAtFirstSight: David falls in love with Meg the minute she descends from the heavens on angel wings (as a piece of performance art but still). Made problematic as (1) she's already in a relationship and (2) she can't stand being objectified. And even when she does end up returning David's feelings, David realizes that his inevitable death would end up breaking her heart.

* LoveAtFirstSight: David falls in love with Meg the minute she descends from the heavens on angel wings (as a piece of performance art but still). Made problematic as (1) she's already in a relationship, (2) she has her own career to look after and (3) [[spoiler: suffers from bipolar disorder]]. And even if the
(3) David is dying, meaning that a successful relationship would

* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: See ChekhovsSkill above.

* DontFearTheReaper: Death took over the body and personality of David's late uncle Harry after the real Harry died in the war. As a result, he has human compassion. He can feel the weight of every human life he takes, though only as long as Harry still has family in the world. Once David dies, Harry will finally fade from living memory, sending Death back to being an unfeeling force of nature.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Beyond a mention near the ending, [[spoiler:the Russian landlord never reappears after threatening David. Justified in that his presence acts as a plot device to push David into moving in with Meg.

'''David''': (beat) I'd give my life.]]

But just as things are at their darkest, David, inadvertently at first, makes a deal with Death itself: to have the ability to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. Of course, such a deal comes with a price: namely, David will die in exactly 200 days.

* DontFearTheReaper: Death took over the body and personality of David's late uncle Harry after the real Harry died in the war. As a result, he has human compassion. He can feel the weight of every human life he takes, though only as long as Harry still has family in the world. Once David dies, Death will go back to being an unfeeling force of nature.
* [[{{EverybodysDeadDave}} Everybody's Dead, David]]: David lost his entire family before the beginning of the story.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructed]]. David falls in love in a girl named Meg when she appears to literally fly out of the sky on angel wings to give him hope. The event turns out to be a flash mob prank, but Meg sincerely cares for David after hearing about his problems. While Meg resembles the trope in that she is often energetic, has many random quirks, and is devoted to David's wellbeing, she avoids the trope's pitfalls through being fleshed out. Meg has made a job for herself in helping the homeless, is not flawless, [[spoiler:suffers from depression (made worse by not taking her medication)]], and has her own life with friends outside of David. This is best demonstrated in a speech she gives him towards the end of the comic, where she promises David she'll help make his name great ''but'' she wants her own name great too.\\
\\
Much of Meg's traits that resemble MPDG quirks [[https://twitter.com/ivyratafia/status/567548867109867521 are actually are based on traits of McCloud's own wife Ivy]]. He also responded to the criticism in several interviews, mirroring Nathan Rabin's response that the problem isn't quirky female characters, it's female characters who are nothing but quirks.

* NotAfraidToDie: David will do *anything* for his art, and doesn't care that he only has 200 days to live. [[spoiler: He has second thoughts after Meg teaches him how to live life.]]
* OhCrap: David (and most likely the reader's) reaction when he realizes the WhamLine below.

-->'''Death''': I've never been to that theater, David. ... [[spoiler: I have an appointment with her in ten minutes at fifty-third and ninth.]]

* DontFearTheReaper: Death took over the body and personality of David's late uncle Harry after the real Harry died in the war. As a result, he has human compassion. He can feel the weight of every human life he takes, though only as long as Harry still has family in the world. Once David dies, Death will go back to being an unfeeling force of nature.

* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Death reveals that in the moment someone dies, he takes all their memories and gives them back in chronological order, all at once. [[spoiler: And at the instant of David's death, all of his memories come flooding back, beginning with the moment of his birth and ending with a conversation he had with Meg a few days prior.]]

-->'''Death''': I've never been to that theater, David. ... [[spoiler: I have an appointment with her in 20 minutes.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler: Death]]: I've never been to that theater, David. ... [[spoiler: I have an appointment with her in 20 minutes.]]

** After the protagonist becomes wanted by the law, the detective assigned to the case is... Detective David Smith. He admits that he was put on this case as a joke by his coworkers.

* CessationOfExistence: Death shows David this, represented as two pages of blank white paper.

* NamesTheSame:

* ChessWithDeath: {{Subverted}} - Death's "vessel", David's late uncle Harry, liked chess, but Death isn't a fan.

* JerkassWoobie: David is an asshole when we first meet him, yelling at a waitress and saying her cousin is a "nobody", but on the other hand his life is more or less in shambles. He continues to be a bit of a dysfunctional jerk as the plot unravels, but still qualifies as this because he's ''dying''.

* MagicalRealism: David has the power to mould ''concrete'' with his hands - people are more concerned about the damage to property than the fact he has superpowers.
* NamesTheSame: The first chapter is called "The Other David Smith". David gets confused with the ''other'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Smith_%28sculptor%29 David Smith]], RealLife Abstract Expressionist sculptor, and becomes quite irate with a waitress who mistakes him for the real-life David Smith, who ''also'' shares his name with her cousin...
** Then there's Detective David Smith. The two Davids discuss this trope briefly towards the end.

* CessationOfExistence / TheNothingAfterDeath: Death shows David this, represented as two pages of blank white paper.

* NamesTheSame: The first chapter is called "The Other David Smith". David gets confused with the ''other'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Smith_%28sculptor%29 David Smith]], RealLife Abstract Expressionist sculptor, and becomes quite irate with a waitress who mistakes him for the real-life David Smith, who ''also'' shares his name with her cousin...

* MagicalRealism: David has the power to mould ''concrete'' with his hands - people are more concerned about the damage to property than the fact he has superpowers.

With this firm deadline, David struggles to make a name for himself with his art. But, between figuring out just what he wants to create and discovering the love of his life, David's final days will be filled with both success and heartbreak...