Page Commentary No. 5

Gunwild: We were just talking about how we need to re-establish that Cassiopeia is actually really, really intuitively good at astrodynamics. So she can do things like shoot a moving drone fighter with a harpoon.

Psu: Looking at this page, it's pretty cool how different the style is. The fact that the edges of her figure are still done in pencil and all the texture is left in the negative space is really different than any of the current pages. But you might notice how really limited I was by the lack of color in this early chapter. A lot of the glowing effects like energy trails or energy shields or even the harpoon wire look too similar too each other when they're just white and there's not enough visual vocabulary to make them distinct enough.

Gunwild: On the plus side, the harpoon gun unfolding into waterski handles is very clever. And I really like the direction-changing contrails in the distance in the last panel.

Psu: it's a subtle effect and I'm glad people were able to notice it even without edges. I had at one point expected to use more of the "floating energy markers" around Cassiopeia and other characters in the comic, but situations never really called for it. But I figured in this instant in space it was worth showing a little something to reinforce Cassiopeia's body as it's being tugged at thousands of miles an hour through space.

Gunwild: This is a dumb thing to bring up years on, but you really didn't like the "broke a fishtank" joke. I still love it.

Psu: I think I was objecting to how it was written. Or something like how I didn't really want the humor to be that she was clutzy since she may be childish but she's suppremely accurate and nimble.

Gunwild: I was probably imagining she broke a fish tank in a gunfight or something. Come to think of it, since I never leave home if I can help it, movies may have given me the impression that's the only way fish tanks are ever broken.

(Panel 1: The harpoon is uncoiling and streaking into space, and doesn't look like it's going to hit anything on-panel...)

CAPTION 1: Useful thing to know about spacecraft – they actually have to slow down a LOT to fight each other.

(Panel 2: But then the drone fighter is there, right where the magnet is headed. They're going to intersect in a moment. She didn't shoot at where it was, she shot at where it was going to be! Video games teach a lot. Anyway the thing is gonna be harpooned by the front or top, not the back. That'll be important for where she's stuck to it.)

CAPTION 1: At light speed, there'd be no way for them to hit a target, after all.

(Panel 3: That magnet is hitting the hull of the little fighter on one of the wings, or preferably way at the front. The magnet is sticking flat against, it with some impact lines to show what's up. The tow line begins to curl as it gets some play in it, still running out.)

CAPTION 1: But it means they can get hit BACK.

(Panel 4: Cassiopeia has her knees tucked in as she begins to retract the line, doing a million-watt grin and having the adventurous time of her life.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: HOOKED!

(Panel 5: The line is curving as the drone continues on its way, but she's retracting it so she's gotten visibly closer to the hull. It has engines at the back shooting out light and heat that should kill her, going by the designs we have, so if she just reeled it in she'd probably burn to a cinder... time to write around it!)

CASSIOPEIA 1: Now to reel him in.

ZEKE 1: You ever even BEEN fishing?

CASSIOPEIA 2: Well, I broke a fishtank once. That's close!