Page Commentary No. 263

Gunwild: This one makes me think of deeply, and that's not something I'm good at. But if I were the boasting type, I'd say we kinda nailed it with the dialogue in the second-to-last panel.

Psu: Yeah, we worked together on this one a lot to make sure it said just about everything we needed to say. And it's like... really interesting to think about a character within the limits of "archetypical old outlaw." Like... Jacob there might not have the ability to think far outside of his usual routines right now. So finding just the right line that fits in those parameters, that can give Zeke just that last push to do something stupid. That kinda stuff reminds me why this comic is great. Also "plastic, do not eat" is a good joke too.

Gunwild: Yeah, real sausages are more finicky to cook. I hope he gets to learn their ins and outs eventually... also, if I were writing this now I might have it be that Zeke was disabling all the weapons that might be used to stop him, in the last panel, instead of provoking a direct conflict. But it IS an adventurey comic.

Psu: Well we kinda knew how things were gonna play out. When I think about flashbacks, there isn't a LOT you can do to actually put the character in danger when you know you see them again in the future. What's more important is getting to learn about who they were, and how that informs what they are today. And for Zeke, deciding he was going to start breaking a few laws, for real, well that's the important moment. And I think we struck the right tone for that here.

Gunwild: "Lot of people doin' wrong these days, on every side of the law" is indeed an always-applicable thing you can have your android say in an old west voice. It'll still ring true whenever. That's why it's good theme park design!

Psu: Jacob had to be programmed to have just enough general folksy wisdom that fits almost any scenario! He's well thought out and probably why Zeke likes hanging out with him, even during the off hours. Zeke clearly likes him better than his human coworkers anyway.

Gunwild: Yeah, Red Dead 2 is the most fun when you're just goofing around offline, we all know it.

Psu: Oh ya know, this might be the equivalent of someone turning off the servers. But then Zeke goes in and decides to save all the NPCs they got to hang out with over the years.

Gunwild: Well, the parameters of the rescue mission are outlined on the next page. We'll talk about 'em then!

Psu: This is like one of my favorite pages in the ENTIRE comic, so I'm trying to think of more details to talk about here before we move on. But frankly... I think we managed to say everything we wanted to in the page itself. We definitely worked on it a lot.

Gunwild: It's a good one. I can kinda hear the crickets and the crackly fire.

Psu: Are they robot crickets? Oh hey, wanna expand upon what we had in mind for Zeke's distant past from back when he was a lawman? We might still be able to tell that story.

Gunwild: Yeah, basically he really was a sheriff on the frontier type guy - as we've seen with Vraxiopeia Colony, there will always be people settling new places without sufficient tech to make it easy or comfortable. So, the wild west, basically. But maybe when Zeke got cyborged they stopped feeling comfortable with his position of authority in their small community, and he had to... move on.

Psu: We imagined them as a suspicious of technology bunch, but the only way to save Zeke was full cyberization. Maybe... if I were to randomly speculate maybe it was a company town kind of deal and they couldn't just let their sheriff die without issues so rebuilt him Robocop style. But like Robocop, some people would be rightfully a little nervous around the cyborg with a gun. I think we originally had it that Cassiopeia found him there, but then we worked out this story instead. But you can still see Zeke's "sheriff" stuff in one of the early flashback strips, the one about New Years.

Gunwild: Yeah, we didn't blow it.

Psu: It's not a popsicle stand.