Page Commentary No. 312

Gunwild: Theira probably doesn't need to speak in gamer-talk THIS much but it's fun!

Psu: I will 100% take Theira's weird gamer speak over Moody Kettering. I don't know how much more our comic could take a Moody Emo Kettering! Even though he's kinda rockin that sweater and that haircut...

Gunwild: I hope Farring has some elbow patches in mind for that...

Psu: Hey, if you add the right leather patch to your tweed jacket, you instantly become much more professorial. I think this was the start of him slowly changing from older strongman towards the Carl Sagan man he is today.

Gunwild: Well, unless he needs to be much less polite in the near future. Also, You can talk about Theira's outfit here!

Psu: It's a good one! The leather probably comes from some space monster. Cupcake's outfit is cute too, I remember you saying that was your favorite or something.

Gunwild: It is among my favorite cupcake outfits, but I thought Theira's was inspired by Animal Crossing maybe?

Psu: Oh right! That's a very strong possibility. I think we must've just started entering the dark years... the comic updated a lot slower then. You'd think a pandemic wouldn't affect a webcomic artist that worked from home already, but man... it wasn't great.

Gunwild: We're emotional, fragile types with artistic temperaments! By the way, I do like the detail that even though they're really just spending a short time off the ship probably, they've all got bags of stuff they wanna take with them. Hey, can you find the Metroid in this picture?

Psu: Heh. Remember everyone, Metroids and Flying Toasters. There's some hidden in lots of the pages! So I think we have plenty of time to talk about the heavier parts of this storyline. We're gonna have entire pages dedicated to it. But I think I just wanted to make note here of how we got to set this episode at a giant "airport terminal." This is a weird thing about me but even though I hate flying, I love a good airport terminal. They're like these weird liminal spaces between your old life and your future destination. And you can usually get a warm pretzel or check out magazines you'll never look at again.

Gunwild: I'm not very enchanted by places like that, but I appreciate their functionality. If only more places offered to let the floor do the walking for you...

Psu: Supposedly, in Hong Kong, they've got a motorized walkway over a mile long! Hong Kong International Airport being a huge influence on the design of this chapter, by the way.

Gunwild: I feel like I'd be nervous about committing to that long a walkway... it's not like you can turn back!

Psu: You need to be able to get off of one whenever you see a place selling nice pretzels!

Gunwild: I kinda like how the last panel makes it look like Russ could be the one in trouble, if you didn't know what was going on.

Psu: I honestly think Russ feels like he's more in trouble than Maddy does.

Gunwild: Well, doing the right thing can be hard... that's why I avoid it!