Page Commentary No. 314

Gunwild: I'm sure Farring dedicates some clothes to just doing that, it's a party trick.

Psu: Farring is just a big fan of Classic Hayao Miyazaki films. And considering our comic, I bet most of you guys know the one I'm talking about.

Gunwild: Well it's also a way you might as well dress when you're out for a night of full-contact combat sports. Which, I must underline, are pretty safe in the space-future! 

Gunwild: And now, to destroy something charming by over-explaining it, I'm sure the joke has been made before, but "The Handle Bar" is just a cute name I thought of that implies they serve booze by the handle (or 1.5 liters). BUT. The next layer is that the bartender there, Curly, actually has a curly handlebar mustache.

Gunwild: And underneath THAT layer, he bears a striking resemblance to a character from a space cartoon named Bravestarr that I didn't watch as a kid but I knew Psu did, who was a bartender named Handlebar. So I wanted him in there.

Psu: There's also some other cameos too on the left I added in for a couple of friends. You wouldn't know em but I'm glad they're there. 

Psu: Anyway, over explaining is my job! Or at least my forte. But I like it when you do it too. People like getting all the deets. Speaking of, I'm not sure we ever had a long discussion about what the different characters were gonna do in their off time. It's usually a good way to get to know them but I think you picked their activities and it just seemed right.

Gunwild: Yeah, we had previously established that Cupcake lets herself get kinda tipsy when she's cutting loose - we had her giggling a bunch in that New Years bit early on. Even if I'm a bit down on drinking for personal reasons or whatever, it's a consistent character trait. Like Farring being enthusiastic about punching stuff! It's wonderful to show that people have unusual sides to them in their off hours, yeah, but y'know, I want people to feel like they "get" a secondary character's whole deal. Even (or especially) if that deal can be changed abruptly.

Psu: This often pays dividends when someone really ends up liking one of those secondary characters. Like I know I've become fond of secondary characters over the mains quite often. So it's good to give em a little spotlight or a moment to show us who they are. And anyway, I think Cupcake never lets herself get THAT tipsy. She is an honorable representative of the navy!

Gunwild: Yeah, I think we can say that her intermittent drinkiness is a much smaller problem than the Prime Galactic Navy letting officers kill each other in duels, or having a certain conspiracy running behind the scenes. Oh! Speaking dangerously oppressive systems, I don't know if I've ever said this aloud, but the "MOM" carved into Halkoon the Green Man's tusk was Psu's idea. You know, to echo the stereotypical tough guy tattoo that says the same, I figure. But to me, remembering (or misremembering) that in A Princess of Mars the Green Martians basically throw their offspring in a pile and then everybody tries to catch a strong one for themselves, eschewing the weakness of traditional parenting it was a way of saying "No actually, the Green Men, or some of them anyway, decided to let parents do parenting now. And they're still plenty tough, so don't try anything."

Psu: I completely forgot about the Mom thing... If there's one repeating style choice in Cassiopeia, it's to put a pretty mundane human decoration in a weird space thing. Like stickers or mom tattoos. It's also like... good to know that Halkoon's mom wasn't afraid to buck the trend.

Psu: I generally think throwing babies into a pile is a bad idea. But then I guess that's what public school is. Eeeyy.

Gunwild: From what we've seen of Martians cameoing in Cassiopeia Quinn, it's pretty clear that their icky caste and class systems have not survived spreading throughout space intact since we last checked in on them.  Although for better or worse, they also wear clothes. So, maybe lots of Green Martians are different from the brutal ones in the books now, or at least I hope they are. It's silly, but because the Barsoom stories are public domain now, I kind of think to myself, "On some level, whatever we do is acting as a sequel as official as any other that can be made to this existing work. Might as well put thought into it."

Psu: Speaking of colorful aliens in states of undress, think we'll still be doing this long enough for Na'Vi to become public domain?

Gunwild: Maybe if we find a way to stop human aging. Like, stop it cold.

Psu: Or we can really just go ahead and do a full sequel to the Barsoom setting, that seems more doable. Also less super science with alien hunting involved.

Psu: I think we might've lost the audience with our references... 

Gunwild: What references? To other works? Who says I go in for that sort of thing? It's tacky.