Page Commentary No. 6

Gunwild: I'd probably have paced these pages differently if I'd known they were gonna be in a webcomic released a page at a time. Or I'd have tried, anyway, but that was a whole separate skill to learn as we went.

Psu: here are a lot of things we do differently now. For one I can't even remember the last time we did a narration. But there are still a number of things I'm kind of proud of here even though they don't all make sense. But since I knew I was working purely in black and white and had to describe a lot of action, you see some big bold shapes in terms of the ship motion lines. And Peia being in such a stressful situation would be in a lot of unusual angles and poses. There really isn't a lot of reference that would be useful here. Maybe water skiing but that doesn't quite cover the zero gravity flipping.

Psu: I like to think I got the chaotic nature of the scene across, and still provided a logical series of motions. But the dialog and the narration are what really help tie something like this together.

Gunwild: Naaah I think it's the cool angles.

Psu: We can BOTH refuse credit for how this page came out. But I think I will take credit for making the "Object Warning" display in the last panel.

Gunwild: "Object Warning" would be a fun name for a band. Or a blog. Or an indie video game.

Psu: One thing I should mention, and I wonder if Gunwild was waiting for me to bring it up, is the butt in panel five. I sometimes try to avoid these things but it rather made sense in this page to have it. There are a few panels with Motor Minx where her butt is even more prominent in a panel. Here though, it helps define the way she's leaning in space and it wasn't too distracting. I do know we were making a cheesecake comic, but even so I'd like the butts to be reasonable within context.

Gunwild: I wasn't mentioning it because it speaks for itself! But not in an Ace Ventura way.

PAGE 5

(Panel 1: Cassiopeia is being pulled along behind the drone with her legs spread like a water-skier, or her knees up like a swinging Spider-Man if you prefer. It's not changing direction or anything yet, and she hasn't gotten all the way in, but its engines are almost in her way. Hm, moving at this speed in space she should probably be burned to death already, but let's just say her suit is insulated! The harpoon's line isn't sticking through their heat trails or anything though; she's more off to one side, maybe because of how it's flying.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: Gonna boost and reel it in on my mark!

ZEKE 1: Ya should be far enough from any major ships. But if that one detects the thrusters...

(Panel 2: Our girl has stuck her legs together and swung them out to one side like a gymnast on the pommel horse while carefully gripping the poon-gun.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: It WON'T. It's only a drone. If anything it'll think I'm an ejected pilot and avoid hitting me.

CASSIOPEIA 2: Ready to go...

(Panel 3: A tight of Cassiopeia's boot jets popping off a short burst of what looks like compressed CO2 – you might see something like it in Gravity when Clooney is using his jetpack. Which of course can't be a jetpack because jets don't work in outer space. Well, anyway...)

CASSIOPEIA 1: MARKY-MARK!

(Panel 4: Distant. Cassiopeia has swung off to the side while still tethered to the drone, like she's gonna swoop around its engine trails while simultaneously reeling in and boosting up to it. I had to add this because I don't think there's any other way to get her to latch onto a moving drone with relatively little surface area while not getting burned up by the engines. The things I do to add to crazy schemes for you...)

(Panel 5: The drone has twisted or turned, shown by its luminous engine trails swooping around to pull almost a 180-degree turn. Cassiopeia is still pulling closer, and now it's not quite coming towards her, but it is about fly back past her unexpectedly.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: Um, it's changing course...

ZEKE 1: Does it know you're there?!

CASSIOPEIA 2: I don't know, but I've still got it!

(Panel 6: Pursing her lips cutely in concentration, Cassiopeia is just a few feet from hitting the surface of the little ship that's coming the other way. She's got that red exclamation mark and numbers displayed on her helmet HUD again.)

ZEKE 1: Disconnect!

RED CAPTION 1: OBJECT WARNING

CAPTION 1: At combat speed, it's also just possible for a person in a spacesuit to perform a boarding action, with the right equipment.