11/23/11 Dimitri’s Conscience



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Just so you know, Spacetrawler is not now some dark grim comic. It has always had that element as a part of it, and this is just a period where the dark flows up a bit. Just wait, an ebb will come.

Shaenon Garrity (who created Narbonic, and is half the brilliant duo behind Skinhorse) wrote a review of my so-far-lifetime body of work over at The Comics Journal. And I’ve had a lot of reviews written about me, but this one really touched me. I thought it was really thoughtful about my work as a whole, and the underlying themes.

51 Comments

  1. Mindsword

    That. Was. Epic.

    Really, its what needed to be done. Sad to see she gave into temptation but really, it was her choice to use them on him. Its not like she was ever able to resist trying to kill him before now.

  2. TheTechnical

    Yeah I knew Dimitri was setting her up again, and that she’d take the bait. I’m glad to see he finaly dealt with this problem and came out ahead 2 ways.

    I’m curious if there is an explanation how some of the aliens who don’t have hands hold and manipulate things. Pink gal is an example. Here she pulled a trigger on a missile launcher and held a communicator, but she is never shown to have fingers.

  3. TheTechnical

    I have 2 other minor quibbles with this page. How does the missile go through the window? How does the missile explode on an insubstantial hologram?

    Possible answers include: windows are force screens and we just did not see that one deactivated, and the missile was set to go off at a set distance on not via a proximity fuse. The latter is trickier to use. The missile could also have interacted with Eeb TK, or some other force effect to set it off if a proximity fuse was used. I suppose the missile explosion could also have been a hologram too, while the real missile fell to earth beyond the empty space.

  4. Christopher

    @TheTechnical, The window is open? Retracts into the wall or something? And the ship was real (early Dimitri had Shuar buy it for him), only the HOLOGRAM of him and eebs was fake.

  5. Hawgowar

    Dimitri gave her enough rope to hang herself. Then he pulled the lever (trigger). I don’t think his conscience will bother him much, as we saw.

    Wore the Purfin T yesterday to a rally and got three more people to check out your online comic, Chris.

  6. Corpore Metal

    Okay I figured out something. I’m pretty sure that Demitri was a hedonistic enforcer for the Bratva back in Russia–with mommy and intimacy issues–at least according to his sister. I think this is verified in his relations Dal, Choon and Shuar. He knew they were assassins or killers out of passion almost immediately and went to bed with them anyway, perhaps out of sympathy. Game knows game.

    It might be that the approxiscan knows this about him from Nogg’s records and is actually basing its calculation of “compatibility” on this psychological profile, not merely the physical bits.

    And he does have a conscience, he’s drinking a whole bottle of vodka and just got busy with Shuar but his eyebrows haven’t relaxed and his game is a bit off–as Shuar noted.

  7. Rhadamanthus

    I read Shaenon’s review and I must admit I whole-heartedly agree with it. I am a very old SF (not ‘scifi’, bleah) fan from the Golden Age; I find that most SF comix fall into 2 categories: cutesy funny or full-of-themselves serious. Most cartoonists forget that SF is only supposed to be for environment, the real story is about people and learning to be truly human.
    Chris, you are good. You have the potential to be great. I wish you the best.

  8. Christopher

    Conscious/conscience typo fixed.

    Thanks, @Rhadamanthus. I love writing, and am always trying to grow and improve, so I’m glad people feel I’m able to keep getting better. Perfection doesn’t exist, which leaves infinite room for improvement. 🙂

  9. There is a body to be hidden.

    Is this difficult , or can a Russian led, small army of Eebs handle this task easily?

    I don’t suppose that the Eeb DNA is being brewed into some more Eebs already?

    Could be tough if Eebs turn out to have a long gestation, or a troublesome adolesence.

    By the way, Excellent squared,.. very good story.

  10. JKCarroll

    As my Russian wife used to say, “A Russian will think one thing, say another, and do a third.” I learned the hard way that just because you know the first two things, it doesn’t mean you’ll have a clue as to what the third thing will be.

  11. Ok, here’s a question. A hologram is normally only light projected to look like it’s 3-dimensional. If it’s only light, how would it explode so convincingly on impact with that assasin’s projectile? Wouldn’t the projectile just pass right through it – *fwoosh* – since it’s in effect, hitting nothing more than a regular sunbeam?

  12. Gillsing

    As for how Dal pulls the trigger on the rocket launcher and such things, I would guess that her large tentacles can form small/short tentacles, which would let her manipulate things. If nothing else, many aliens could probably have had some kind of implants to that effect, and the reason we don’t get to see them is because these aliens care about how they look, and don’t want to show appendages that would be considered unnatural for their species. Kind of how a lot of humans prefer contact lenses to glasses.

  13. Athonwy

    Wow, this comic just keeps getting better and better. It’s far surpassed the other 20 or so I follow and gone shooting into first place all engines on full. I love that you’re not afraid to use bright colors. Thank you for all the great reading.

  14. This is awesome and so full of win it almost literally explodes. And, as in the best of both great comedies and stories, it wouldn’t be possible with all the considerable build-up before it.

    Superb!

    Into the tiniest details, like the reverse Dirty Harry reference (“Do I feel lucky? Ask me.” “Do you feel lucky?” “No.”/In the Dirty Harry movie: “Do you feel lucky? Do you, punk?” and eventually Clint Eastwood fires an empty gun at the criminal. Dimitri, on the other hand…;-).

    Classic.

    Spacetrawler just gets better and better. Keep it up!

  15. JKCarroll

    @Shineanthology, that’s right. You should be drinking a *double* malt, with two scoops, caramel syrup, extra whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and hold the cherry.

    For true decadence, make your malted with Blue Bunny “Dolche de Leche” ice cream, hold the caramel syrup.

  16. KarlMonster

    I like what you did but…
    I’m a big Dimiti fan. And I can see what you had to do with these pages story-wise. But it feels like Dimitri’s ‘voice’ got sacrificed on the altar of exposition.
    And to make the last panel funny. No complaints there.

  17. Wintercat

    Dimitri is a frighteningly capable man, and though he has his own look on things he also seems to know how to do things. I like his style and he’s certainly one of my all-time-favorite characters. I have my worries on how the tale is going to ultimately end but still.

  18. Hawgowar

    “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.” ~ Robert Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

  19. Prairie

    @JKCarroll I’ve heard that before about Russians, but this was the first time I’d seen it illustrated so clearly. For a “non-evolving character,” Dmitri is sure interesting!

    Chris, I love that you maintain both personality and culture of the humans in the strip.

    Wow, that review article was awesome. Congratulations!

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