Page Commentary No. 17

Gunwild: Fireworks (some kinds, anyway) were made legal where I live like a few months after we did this comic. I was very happy to celebrate America's birthday by playing with things that could cause me serious bodily harm, but unfortunately, none of them sounded anything like "shploof."

Psu: I really should have used a ruler when drawing these missles but I was a little lazier back then. I do like how the colors came out though. And yeah, I absolutely knew I had to do this page in color because it just wouldn't have worked with black and white fireworks. I'm not Bryan Lee O'Malley.

Gunwild: Ah, if you value your privacy you shouldn't be telling the readers who you aren't! Helps with the process of elimination.

Psu: Well for the record, I'm also not Scott McCloud. I actually got one message saying I might have actually been this other more famous artist. But I forget who it was...

Gunwild: Someone thought I was Judd Winick once. The Juniper Lee guy (along with a buncha comics).

Psu: Hah. By the way, you should try to zoom in on the missile on the right of the topmost panel. You can't really see it on the website but I thought Peia Graffiti was one of the more endearing legacies of her first few pages.

Gunwild: Yep, I believe that image is up on the tumblr - it says "CASSIOPEIA DELIVERS." Who can resist the chance to do nosecone art?

Psu : Speaking of nosecones. That's the only time you ever see Maddy's old ship in full. It's a pretty haphazard design. And I'd be loathe to draw it again. Far and away it's the most complicated ship design in the series because of how it has a number of disparate segments. In retrospect I kinda wish the captions didn't cover it up but what're ya gonna do.

Gunwild: I still like this page a lot. I enjoy the picnic imagery, I assume they had fun deciding how to bond the blanket to the hull for sittin'.

Psu: Staples. I figure Zeke is a very simple and direct handyman.

Gunwild: With a staple gun strong enough to puncture a warship's armor!

PAGE 2

(Panel 1: Fairly thin panel all the way across the top of the page. Across it, a spread of photon bombshells is flying, fanning out. Coherent trails of smoke trail behind them, leading back to the Eupalinos at the far left of the panel. It's not a huge drawing of the ship, but if you flipped back to The Prize, you'd recognize it. By the way, I hope you don't mind me imagining the setup of this panel even though I normally leave that kinda thing to you. I just thought it would be an interesting setup that "leads" the reader's attention in the right direction.)

CAPTION 1: DEEP SPACE

CAPTION 2: LIKE, REALLY DEEP

(Panel 2: The splendorous second panel takes up almost all of the page as the warheads blow up spectacularly, bursting into overlapping circles of light. The fireworks display is backed by the starry band of the milky way galaxy. Normally fireworks make the stars harder to see from the ground even on a clear night, but that isn't happening here. I've always wondered what it would be like to see fireworks without light pollution going on – maybe that works way out in the countryside? Cassiopeia and Zeke are standing on the Eupalinos's observation deck, watching all of this through a big bubble-window, and their backs are to us. They're way down at the bottom of the panel, so that the reader might not notice them when they come to the image initially. That way the fireworks display catches their attention first, before the peanut gallery chimes in. Naturally, Cassiopeia's throwing her arms up and yelling, while Zeke's got his hands on his hips, taking it all in.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: Kaboom! Shploof! Blammo!

CASSIOPEIA 2: BLAZZOWIE!

ZEKE 1: What're ya doin', exactly?

CASSIOPEIA 3: No sound in space. Gotta make our own fireworks noises. C'mon, get into the spirit of the holiday!

ZEKE 2: An' what holiday is that? 

CASSIOPEIA 4: Independence day! Mine, I mean.

(Panel 3: Another panel all the way across the bottom of the page to close us out. Cassiopeia's either relaxing against Zeke's shoulder or elbowing him, even though her eyes are still on the explosions, reflecting the brilliant lights.)

ZEKE 1: Hm. What are ya celebratin' bein' independent from, exactly?

CASSIOPEIA 1: Most things! A couple in particular. But if I had to worry about them now, it wouldn't be Independence Day, would it?

(Panel 4: Last panel. Looks like you've already drawn a rear shot. They're a little snugglier than I planned, I hope that doesn't make it sound like Zeke is thinking about bang... um, ING. Eh whatever, they're each other's love interests, you'll tell me what makes sense.)

ZEKE 1: Guess yer right.

ZEKE 2: Bang.

TEXT BOX: END