Page Commentary No. 231

Psu: I actually like this page a lot. We don't get very sci-fi in our comic but I liked the idea of a rogue planet as a hiding place so much I'm glad we got it in. It's pretty cool! And there's probably a zillion of these extra solar objects out there in deep space hiding all kinds of secrets

Gunwild: Space is so big and so poorly lit! No wonder the Regency and the Vanaa fight over stars. Nobody can tell where anything else is.

Psu: Meanwhile, I love the contrast in the dialog. I gotta commend you just for capturing the mood. Like... this is a classic scene where the heroes are overlooking a vampire castle or whatever. And then, like any proper Dungeons and Dragons party, the party members with real ambition are thinking about where they can add a breakfast nook.

Gunwild: Y'know I've actually never played a D&D game? But surely everybody who's ever read genre fiction has wondered about cool evil places in them and why people rarely seem to live there, even after there aren't any more bad guys. Did anybody move into Saruman's giant abandoned tower?

Psu: What a nightmare. Sure the view is nice but have you seen the stairs you have to take? Try going downstairs to pick up a delivery. That'll work your calves.

Gunwild: Why didn't they just ride the eagles to the top of the stairs?

Psu: Why didn't Cassiopeia just ride the eagles to this hidden base? Anyway, little details on this page are quite nice. I thought about having the planet just be a pure black sphere but I think it needed a little something more to make it all evil looking. Purple smoke and cracks had to do. Also I just noticed the "dice" on the review mirror...

Gunwild: Yeah, because next page we'll reveal this isn't any of their cool ships. It's just a space-truck! Also I have a feeling you remember better than I do that they're not dice... they're Watto's chance cube.

Psu: Don't worry, lots of people would rather forget Episode One. It's to symbolize just how uh... chancey this whole adventure was gonna be!

Gunwild: This IS a good page, the more I look at it... that planet might make a cool user icon.

Psu: It would be a nice refreshing change for people who use the Interstellar Black Hole as their avatar.

Gunwild: I don't know what that looks like, which is probably good because I would just be scared of it.

Psu: Actually it looks really cool. It's also based on science cause the gravity of the hole bends the light of the event horizon into a sort of perpendicular ring according to where you're viewing it from. It's marginally scarier than secret dark nemesis planets.

Gunwild: Well it DOES eat light and also everything else...

Psu: ... is there space for a pool and some lawn chairs?

Gunwild: All things occupying space near a black hole will be compressed into a singularity of immeasurable density.

Psu: So you're saying the commute is good?