"If you never had the bad times, how would you know you had the good times?"
— Death
Death: The Time of Your Life is a comic miniseries written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. It ran for three issues in 1996.
The miniseries is a spinoff of The Sandman (1989). It focuses on minor Sandman characters Hazel and Foxglove, who were last seen in Death: The High Cost of Living. After the events of that comic, Foxglove became a successful singer and is frequently away creating and promoting her music, while Hazel stays at home caring for their baby son Alvie. After a tragedy, Death visits Hazel, and the two women ponder their relationship.
Tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When the model assigned to be Foxglove's beard for the film premiere turns up and claims to be her date, her bodyguard Boris's reaction is "And I'm Princess Di".
- Balancing Death's Books: Played with. Death struck a deal with Hazel that Hazel would die in place of her son after a year. When she comes to make good on it, she says that it doesn't matter who dies as long as one of them does. Boris volunteers, and Hazel and Foxglove get their baby back. However, Death doesn't need to balance a life for a life- it's simply what Hazel first came up with, so it's what Death agreed to.
- Call-Back: When Foxglove attempts magic to get in touch with Hazel, she comments that the last time she used magic, menstrual blood was used, referring to the Moon's Path summoned by Thessaly in A Game of You.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: Hazel is cynical about her girlfriend Foxglove's quick rise to fame, commenting that it changed Foxglove and deeply strained their relationship. Foxglove's bodyguard Boris even says that the rock-and-roll lifestyle is no fit life. Foxglove eventually agrees by the end, and gives it up to be with Hazel.
- Dreams of Flying: The miniseries opens with Foxglove dreaming that she's flying with mechanical wings before it reveals her tiredness with the celebrity high life.
- Embarrassing First Name: Boris's real name is Endymion. When the other characters learn this he immediately says he prefers Boris.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the end, Foxglove has grown out her hair and let it return to its natural strawberry blonde to signify her embracing a normal life with Hazel and Alvie.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Baby Alvie survives a fall from the balcony unharmed, with the gardener lampshading it as nothing short of miraculous. Justified. Death isn't taking Alvie because his mother Hazel had already bargained her life away for his in exchange.
- Innocently Insensitive: Hazel and Foxglove named their son "Alvie." While they obviously meant well, considering "Alvin" was their friend Wanda's deadname, they could've probably chosen a different way to honor her memory.
- Is There a Doctor in the House? : When Larry passes out from a heart attack in the plane.And he could hear a woman saying: "If there is a medical doctor aboard the plane, or anyone with medical or paramedical experience, could they identify themselves to a member of the cabin crew?"
- Leno Device: Foxglove's going on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote her new soundtrack.
- Like a Son to Me:
- Foxglove's older manager Larry says she's like a daughter to him, and tells her they'll find a way for her to come out as a lesbian in a way that won't damage her career.
- Boris also says that he's Foxglove's "mother substitute" in addition to being her bodyguard and tour manager, and later offers his life for hers.
- Take Me Instead: It is revealed in the third issue that after Alvie had died as a baby, Hazel begged Death to take her instead. Death gives her an extra year.
- Unusual Pop Culture Name: Vito introduces himself as "...like in The Godfather". He later mentions that his mother was a fan and nearly named him Don Corleone.
- When Is Purple: Trope Namer. Hazel rants about existential questions and how life isn't fair; the wise and all-loving Death gently says that asking such questions might as well be asking "When is purple?" or "Why does Thursday?"
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Invoked by Larry, saying that everybody is jewish in New York.
