Art Update 9/2/23

Psu: Gunwild remembered this sketch from almost ten years ago, and we got to put it in the comic. That's kinda a special thing, and I'm glad Gunwild remembered it for so long.

Gunwild: I've kept it all this time knowing it was a really good image and should be used in a pivotal scene! Psu has created a deep bench of really excellent drawings, as I think all the Patreon people know.

Psu: And Gunwild is the one that knows how to string them together. We've kinda been working a long time to get to this point that we knew was coming for so many years. I guess this is a moment were we can reflect on everything in between then and now.

Gunwild: Bah, I never reflect, I am not a mirror on the audience or even myself! But I do recall that we went from "I like your work" to "I like working with you" to "I like you," and my life has been better ever since.

Psu: Sappy! But I appreciate it. This comic has been a nice bit of stability when my head normally wanders too far and can't stay still on one thing. This thing has been there, letting us build on it and share it with loads and loads of folks. Glad they've been here along the way, too.

Gunwild: I wonder what Cassiopeia's having. Probably sO2da!

Psu: Man, now there's a joke that I can't believe we've stuck with too. That little 2 was just one of those things where I slipped in at one point when we needed a fake space drink. But that's just kinda how webcomics work ya know. You slip in a thing and now it's a thing forever. I was asking Gunwild, what other dumb jokes I've sketched that we might get to see in the future.

Gunwild: Well, that sounds like a good reason to dig up very-old, nearly-lost drawings to share with these Patron types!

Psu: That'll be for another week. But for now, wanna reflect on how different Cassiopeia and Maddy are from this original sketch?

Gunwild: In a way I think it's hard for me to tell - like seeing somebody grow up, and not really noticing it happen in the process?

Psu: That's fair, the progression was pretty natural as we told the story of these characters. But I still remember the joke I was going for here when I sketched this. It was supposed to be something like... Maddy looking really grumpy cause she's just spent the evening getting lasers shot at her ruining her uniform and seeing Cassiopeia just innocently smiling is about to set her off. But she's not that type of person, really. At least a drink first.

Gunwild: Yeah. Well, this was probably before we'd fully decided that they were going to end up deuteragonists (a word I may not have even known at the time)! So we couldn't really know the particular things we'd burden their interactions with, but we knew it was gonna be... well, Lupin and Zenigata-ish, so the thing we set down was that they'd avoid trying to kill each other. And we kept that vow! Right?

Psu: We've still got a fair amount of comic left to go so I think we've got time to break that vow if we need to. We probably don't need to. In fact, I'd say their relationship to each other has evolved considerably since that old sketch. And I like to think that's reflected in the art on the upcoming page, which you guys might've seen now.

Gunwild: They have! So now they know why we decided to go with the layout of the page that we have - in addition to it having more of a central image for the page, which we often like.

Psu: And you were right, how often do we get to refer to something we sketched so many years ago.

Gunwild: Stay tuned!

Update: This post now free for everybody!