Page Commentary No. 179

Gunwild: Don't be a jerk, Gleb, they're just trying to do their jobs. Their evil, evil jobs.

Psu: If Gleb weren’t a big blue friendly looking Jellybean, I think people might find his imperious princely demeanor to be condescending. But then again... if anyone needed some looking down on it’s Krad and Clulu. The lighting in this page is pretty great if I might say so. How did I do that...

Psu: Well I think, on this page in particular, the shadows are deeply saturated with color. It helps the bright white light look more... warm and powerful.

Gunwild: I think surprised Clulu is adorable. How bad could he really be?!

Psu: He’s kinda salty.

Gunwild: Not to impugn our creativity, but I wonder what a purpose-built Vanaa palace would be like. I doubt it would have railings, at least ones like the ones pictured in panel 2. Also, surely no stairs!

Psu: Yep! Though our comic is sorta filled with anachronisms so it’s not always consistent, I try to give the Vanaa things that make sense for them but aren’t impossible to identify for the reader. We have the “butt control system” but it needed to be combined with traditional consoles or else the reader might not know what they’re looking at. I’ve been kinda debating the virtues of verisimilitude vs iconography in my art lately...

Gunwild: It's not super hard to buy that there's an eclectic mixture of technologies in galactic civilizations, because they all developed in different ways and probably have different needs. That's my excuse, anyway, and I love a good sci-fi excuse. Apparently in the current Star Trek shows they're allowing that the Federation USED to use holoprojections for communication, but switched to screens because they're more reliable and secure. Which sorta makes sense, given how many times their holodecks have tried to kill them.

Psu: So what’s the excuse about the Vanaa giving messages in cool looking glowing scrolls instead of a flagged work email?

Gunwild: It's a secure, eyes-only kingly transmission not for public consumption. One hard copy only, coded to be opened only by the receiver.

Psu: That’s a pretty good excuse! It might even be coded to Gleb’s genetic material which is shared with members of his family. Oh before we leave this page. Wanna talk about Krad and Clulu? Are they related to Gleb? What are their positions in government? What are their likes, dislikes?

Gunwild: Uhh, at this point I think they're operatives in a secret intelligence type organization (which is why they'd be carrying around secure transmissions but also trying to get information). Then later they get turned on their own people to enforce isolationism, which is always creepy. Alas, I think we will sort of fudge their actual job's roles. It's kind of like when there's gotta be a news anchor character on The Simpsons, it's always gonna be Kent Brockman, and when there's gotta be a sailor, it's always gonna be Captain McCallister. When there's gotta be mean Vanaa government agents, Clulu and Krad will be there!

Psu: That’s... a pretty succinct and helpful to describe them!