I think that could have just as easily been portrayed by having Death on the far left hand side of the left panel and the dog on the far right hand side of the right panel and nothing but white space in between. The middle panel really adds nothing and to me is visually confusing. Funny idea, though.
And yes, do please keep all these strips in one thread. It's generally good form to not clutter up the main page with a lot of topics unless each topic is devoted to an ongoing series of some sort.