Page Commentary No. 10

Gunwild: I love the hair in panel 4.

Psu: It's one of my favorites too. I drew very differently in those days, you can see it in the way Cassiopeia has more defined muscles and stuff. But the demands of the comic updating frequently, and the way I wanted to draw characters with more clarity, means in terms of her body she looks very different. But I think part of that is just how her character evolved in the writing too. I wouldn't say she's a totally different character but I bet her inner dialog would be different now. We could always say that her childishness is MOSTLY for show.

Gunwild: Maybe not for show, but how she likes to be when she's at ease.

Gunwild: Anyway, I do kinda miss the defined muscles. She's plain ol' buff on the cover to this story, y'know. In addition to being in the buff.

Psu: In my head at the time, I was tossing around the idea that she was damn near Amazonian! But mostly now I just remember that she's taller than Maddy and only slightly shorter than Zeke. She's taller than all the Kiddos but thinking about it she's really only ever stood next to other ladies who would be really tall...

Gunwild: Do you think the audience can tell we've seen Barbarella and like the idea of no-gravity disrobing?

Psu: I remember adding the little glowy dot to the small of her back in a way to show that the suit was unzipping itself. Technology! Cassiopeia is far enough in the future that I get to invent a lot of things, but it also requires coming up with interesting practical solutions. The hatch she's in, for example, could be in zero G and there'd be no way of guaranteeing which way a person is oriented in an emergency. So I made the Pressure Warning show up on all sides of the hall.

Psu: And everything in the far future being electronic screens and stuff, is prone to all sorts of failure. So we added just a small detail to panel 2, with the "in case of emergency, break glass" thing. That might not be great in an ultra quick emergency, but it's something to allow for physical access to a heavy door.

Gunwild: There's no shortage of spacecraft in films, TV, and even books, that apparently don't understand there are endless reasons to be able to manually open and close doors on a ship.

Psu: BUT we also needed it to be apparent that Cassiopeia could open it digitally, and sneakily. We hadn't invented Skript Kitty yet but we had to imagine that she could get through this security without tripping all kinds of alarms. It wouldn't be like opening a door on a WWII battleship, ya know.

(Panel 1: Now Cassiopeia is on hands and knees next to a much less hidden door that says AIRLOCK and WARNING: PRESSURE DOOR on all sides, in four different directions. There's also a hand-sized panel next to it with red outlines and stuff on it, which she is reaching towards.)

CAPTION 1: I guess it's all about balancing risk and reward.

(Panel 2: Close of Cassie's hand grasping a lever from inside this panel, which is being yanked back. It even says RESCUE RELEASE on the inside of the now-open panel door.)

CAPTION 2: Isn't everything?

(Panel 3: In her spacesuit, Cassiopeia has entered the airlock, which is sterile but brightly-lit. She's kinda floating in to touch down, gripping the helpful rung of a sideways ladder that must be there for climbing out if the ship is crash-landed on its side or something. She looks optimistic and happy to be there as the door is sliding shut behind her.)

(Panel 4: Now in normal gravity, a panel of Cassie taking her helmet off, her bouncy hair, uh, bouncing.)

(Panel 5: She is stripping off the suggestive spacesuit by rolling it off of her body. What, how else would you take something like that off? Beneath, she has, of course, a bikini-type thing on. What else?)

CAPTION 1: Whew, there we go.

CAPTION 2: I was starting to feel overdressed.

(Panel 6: Nice big panel of Cassiopeia in her bikini or battle-leotard, framed by the now-open airlock door which she is passing through into the ship. She is holding her laser pistol up and her magnetic harpoon in the other hand. Dual-wielding!)

CAPTION 1: I think it's important to wear comfortable clothes when you're working.