Page Commentary No. 301

Psu: "Oh."

Gunwild: I was going to say "I don't play enough board games for this to have the same meaning to me!" but nah, nah, I remember being convinced of that dice line at the end the moment you thought of it.

Psu: I like to think that Ashley wouldn't forget to bring her own dice. Or new mom and dad would have their own dice. But ya know, it's also a friendly thing to do. It's like bringing food to someone's house right? Like I'm pretty sure they have food. But hey, bring more food. And bring the best food. And that's how it can be with dice sometimes. But if you wanted to get technical they probably had to bring game books and boards and figurines and everything. Though that would get in the way of everything else we wanted to talk about. Like emotions and growing up.

Gunwild: I don't know TOO much about that stuff, despite the script. I do think having streets for vehicle access is probably fine even in the distant future, this space-neighborhood looks easy enough to get around. Do we have a set of references for what this town looks like? You've spent a lot of time drawing lovely glimpses of it.

Psu: I somewhat think of my old hometown when it comes to drawing locations for these kids. The good and the bad stuff. But here it would be like if you transplanted a suburban main street complete with the roads and everything to the middle of no where. I think I'm trying to evoke a certain level of comfort and familiarity with this setting, so I'm often referring back to childhood things. Like even the way I drew that tree reminds me a little of reading Calvin and Hobbes.

Gunwild: It's a lot to put together for the background of one panel. But it certainly sets a mood. Also the sneaky peeking in the last panel.

Psu: And also subtly reminds you that this town is pretty small anyway! I bet from that distance Nisa could like... imagine covering the whole thing with her hat.

Gunwild: Or she's there taking the measure of things, as demonstrated earlier. 

Psu: Eeeyy good call back.

Gunwild: Anyway, Nisa is a disadvantaged youth who has every right to worry about her situation and future care. I'm glad she gets to keep the family she has pretty close for now though... and that we don't have to go into details about how their space group home operates, because figuring out an organization like that is unbelievably complicated in real life, too.

Psu: I'm just wondering if there should be more adoptions...

Gunwild: Whether people are following the individual space orphan story lines or not, I hope that in just a couple pages we got across that Nisa's confronted this fear of loneliness before (she also cried and hugged it out with Cassiopeia once, you might recall) and she will again. I don't think it's incongruous that she dealt with that fear of loneliness by isolating herself either, or that it worked. Maybe this is a prejudice on my part, but I tend to think maturity does involve a lot of quietly confronting your own thoughts, which it seems like Nisa has done, with good results. Except for the disappearance of her nose.

Psu: She needs her nose! But yeah, I like to think sometimes you just need some time to yourself, but always knowing that you've got someone you can go back to when you're ready. It gives you the space to discover something, or maybe just think about things. But this is also one of those things that you need to figure out.

Gunwild: I want to figure out the choice of the blue flowers by the door in cold weather. Obviously totally plausible in this setting, but why'd you go with them here?

Psu: Oh... that was probably so that I could keep a relatively muted palette. I want the warmth and the attention to be on Ashley's face and her friends! Flowers are just there for extra effect. But maybe we can say they're more of those flowers that only grow on Vraxiopeia colony as a result of it's unique landscape becoming habitable with an infinity dollar navy omni scrubber.

Gunwild: Plus the residents clearly don't hate the color blue.