Page Commentary No. 7

Gunwild: That's a lot of characters to introduce in one panel!

Psu: I remember pretty fondly about how you described in detail a whole lot of this crew. And this was knowing that, at the time of writing this, these characters were just going to be one shot figures.

Gunwild: More recently I've been trying not to overdo it when describing things in scripts. But I think we had enough nice back and forth about all these people - and have gotten enough mileage out of them - that it was worth the extra attention.

Psu: It usually is, it ends up creating some of our more loveable cast. I think we'll go over this when talking about a later page, but Madison Vrax wasn't in our comic plan for the longest time. But I kinda wanna focus on one character that wasn't even in the script at the time of drawing this page at all.

Gunwild: ???

Psu: Don't you remember? Theira I added specifically because I had a space for an open seat in the crowded composition.

Gunwild: Oh, that IS right... I remember the steps actually taken to determine what she would look like (I'll have to throw some of that concept art into an upcoming $7 tier update), but I forgot that at one stage this page had outlines of the other but an outline there waiting to become... someone.

Psu: I'm not sure if the followers are going to appreciate how we were coming up with Theira. It seems rather... manipulative.

Gunwild: Yeah, well, so was how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came to be, but I won't hear a word against them!

Psu: I could probably blather on about how the lighting was challenging again, cause it was a black and white page with a BAJILLION holo displays. But I think the only thing worth mentioning was the intentional use of a classy serif'd font for the Regency ship computer in comparison to Cassiopeia's pixelated holo display.

Psu: It was just a way of saying which one was more expensive.

Gunwild: It's a good way to say "hoity-toity space navy." That, and this page establishes their naming conventions, which include Greek letters rather than NATO phonetic ones.

Psu: That's all you buddy. You'd think that after reading a lot of your scripts I would be able to remember some of this naval talk. I have not.

Gunwild: AVAST!

(Panel 1: Our heroine slams into the top of the drone rather hard in a crouch, the harpoon totally spooled back in and still in her grip. It remains stuck to the roof, however, which is how she's keeping hold for a moment. She's got an "OOO!" expression on her face like she really felt it in her knees. )

CASSIOPEIA 1: OOF!

ZEKE 1: Tell me you didn't touch the engine backwash...

CASSIOPEIA 2: I said "oof," not "Oh no, I'm burning to death!"

(Panel 2: Now she's straddling the top of the drone as it speeds through space, or maybe kneeling or crouching on it. A touch of battle visible behind. Cassiopeia has taken out her gun and half-turned to aim at a location on the drone that we can't see.)

CAPTION 1: So you could hitch a ride on an unmanned starfighter, if your timing's good.

CASSIOPEIA 1: Taking my shot!

(Panel 3: Tiny panel of Cassiopeia grinning as her laser-pistol discharges.)

CAPTION 1: But who wants to stop there?

LASER SFX: CHOOM!

(Panel 4: The all-important bridge introduction panel. It's the bridge of Captain Vrax's drone deployment ship, arranged similarly to the bridge of the Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but a little bigger and a little brighter. Also there aren't seats for everyone. The captain herself, for example, stands almost at the center of everything, overseeing stuff as young duty officers attend to computer stations... but with a door right behind her back, which as we know will matter in a few pages. To save time and mark them out as the command-types, we'll say that only one other bridge officer, her first officer, is wearing a hat. He's a young man of military look – I think I intimated in a previous draft I thought he should be a black guy with a buzz cut –  but he doesn't carry a sword and isn't a nobleman. It might come up later. Not sure where he stands – probably centrally, but not far from the captain either. He does have a pistol at his belt though, as does almost everybody but the captain. Where they're positioned is up to your sense of staging, but I'll give you their roles. The overseer of drones – let's call her Cupcake for now, that's good and silly and I keep imagining her with slightly alien hair – is talking as she reads something from her Drone Computer. Meanwhile, goofy young navigator Kettlehead is operating an imaginary wheel while wearing crazy future goggles and big 'Power Glove' style tech-mitts. Why is his interface virtual? Because it's the future. The captain is glancing at Cupcake.)

DRONE COMPUTER SFX 1: BWEET

CUPCAKE 1: Captain, Robofighter Theta has sustained a direct hit.

CAPTAIN 1: Systems affected?

CUPCAKE 2: Weapons targeting.
It's half-blind, ma'am.

CAPTAIN 2: Bring around to the
secondary automatic repair pen, before it can't find its way home.

(Panel 5: Two fingers of Cupcake's hand are tapping a button on her screen surrounded by drone commands like DESTRUCT, RECON, ENGAGE, FORMATION and MIN. The one she's hitting is RETURN.)

CUPCAKE 1: Aye, ma'am!

(Panel 6: Cassiopeia is still riding the top of the drone as it approaches the outside of the deployment ship. Maybe another drone is already flying out to give the right idea of it.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: I'm headed in, Zeke.

CASSIOPEIA 2: Be nice and don't distract me for a minute?

ZEKE 1: I'm not gonna be able to hear you once the shields are done letting you in.