Urgh, I was really not feeling it, I think I passed the point where insomnia turns into zombieficaton. Anyway, there are my top three influence for crating Melody, presented in crapovision.

Rita, from animaniacs.
Her first apperance on animaniacs was one that stayed with me for a long time after watching it a a kid. The entire show is pretty much a masterpiece when it comes to humour and to animation, and Rita is one of my favorite characters from the show. Snarky and wayward, but still with a lot of humanity. I cannot praise Animaniacs enough, if I could make something a fraction as entertaining as this show, I'd be more than satisfied.

garfield
A lot f people hate this comic, and I gotta agree that it's turned pretty bland. But I grew up with it and I got a soft spot for it. And anyway, there's especially one storyline in the comic, where Garfield gets lost and wander around the city, eentually ending up in the pond that served as an early influence for the comic. Actually, a lot of the storylines are really good, as well as the earlier comics. If there's anything that hurts the comic its that it's a bit too well-crafted for lack of a better way to put it, with a few shining examples, such as the "garfield is dead" storyline where Jim Davis channel his rare subversive side, the comic seems crafted with the goal of making money and doing things that people will find funny and entertaining, it seems very cynical.

Charlie Brown, from peanuts
I actally don't really like this character, I first got expsed to him trough the cartoons and thel ater stuff, and it annoyed me how mopey he is while people around him is telling him that he's a decent guy. I sorta wanted to do a character who was even worse off, but that actually was trying to pull herself up slowly but surely. Then I read some of the earleir stuff, before a ltoof the edge was taken off nd realized what a harsh comic Peanuts actually is, there's a lor of existensial angst going on there, but in a rather muted and melancholy sort of way. I still like Woodstock best out of the characters in the comic though, and I got a "Peanuts" sticker on my computer, so I'll have to admit that I am sort of a fan of the comic, espescially taken in historic context its really amazing, nowadays its not qute as noticable since eveyone is being influenced by Peanuts, but back when it first came out, somethingl ike this havent really been done before.

The most direct inpiration for Melody was this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk it gave me the mental image of a girl who's just been trough hell and back, and it's the first time she's really bothered to look around and realize that spring is starting up.

But meh bleh gleh reh heh, the charater has sorta gotten her own life, and I am not sure she's entierly satisfied with how I portrait her sometimes.