02/01/12 Yuri’s Red Hand



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Remember Yuri’s remote control. (Also here)

Well, I was planning on making Yuri blue, mixing Flineous (she she recently killed) and Kali the Hindu goddess of power. I was even going to post a venn diagram of Kali, Flineous, and a housecat with Yuri being where they all overlap. BUT, I couldn’t make it work without her looking like Neytiri the blue Pandorian from the movie “Avatar” (or Zhaan from “Farscape” if you’d rather). After much fussing and fidgeting and playing with various hues I decided on her new color scheme. Not what I had planned, but I am very pleased with it nonetheless.

Oh, and Dustin is back. You’d be amazed how many times I count the humans in each strip as I draw them (I know there’s SIX! SIX humas!) and then make sure I know where each character is. So easy to forget.

Let’s see… a couple links. And I received the amazing collection of Dicebox in the mail this week (with my own short comic of the charcaters in it), and am champing the bit to read it. Erika Moen and Jeff Parker finished their 102 page webcomic “Bucko” which is a very fun read (and they’re having a store sale to celebrate).

46 Comments

  1. KingInYellowTatters

    Okay, normally I’m AGAINST the idea of lobotomies on friends and allies, but Yuri has proven herself just a wee bit unstable lately. Moreover, that last speech seemed to be veering into what TV tropes would term “A God Am I” territory. If I were the others, I would yank that little added piece of Eeb gray matter out of her head while she’s out and give explicit instruct the ships Eebs not to augment her again without the captain’s permission. Otherwise, I don’t think the rest of the crew will be able to reign her in later…

  2. Eris Lobo

    Oh. My.

    Have that many beings every been killed in a single episode before?

    On a serious note, can Yuri ever be trusted again, especially with the new revelation about her powers — and the fact that she seems a bit mentally unbalanced in a psychopathic way?

    On a lighter note, if Yuri wanted to be a red, striped kitty, why didn’t she change the color of her ears?

    The sheer volume of destruction in today’s episode was incredible. Yet another indication of just how dark the strip is becoming.

    All in all, excellent work, Chris. Bravo! *applauds*

  3. Eris Lobo

    Oops. I didn’t notice this quote from Chris … “After much fussing and fidgeting and playing with various hues I decided on her new color scheme. Not what I had planned, but I am very pleased with it nonetheless.”

    Well, then … it being what makes you happy … carry on, good sir, regarding Yuri’s colors! *grins*

  4. The Technical

    Lots of people might want to turn into a half cat or a half robot, but I can’t think of anyone that wanted to become blood red. I don’t like Yuri’s new color. I’ll live.

  5. Lord Morgue

    Yuri’s understated “Drop dead!” attack reminds me of the Steel Venus from Utopia Unlimited and her “Go boom.” attack. She says “Go boom.”, you go BOOM. When she’s not throwing a sex toy to richochet around the room and kill everyone in it.
    And awww, I was enjoying Yuri’s Evil Galadriel rant. I AM THE KITTY GODDESS OF WAR plonk.
    So they’re only going to turn her back on for Bolivian Army situations? A Deus Irae Ex Machina?

  6. “I AM THE KITTY GODDESS OF WAR”

    If my cat could talk that would be her motto.

    Yuri’s expression in the second-to-last panel is great. Emily’s expression in the last panel tops it. Good cheese, I love this comic.

  7. Night-Gaunt

    With a Doomsday God Weapon you need an off button or it destroys everything an every one eventually. Humans aren’t yet prepared to have such power. Just look at the second Star Trek pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before” an Gary Mitchell becomes a super powerful mutant. Don’t snipers feel that way when they use their one shot LRK?

    I wonder how Yuri is at stopping a self destruct weapon? But you’d need to wake her first. I love this comic!

  8. The title of the comic makes me think of the Nick Cave song, “Red Right Hand” which is appropriate to the mood though, in this case, it is Yuri’s left hand which is red.

    There have been a couple of comics in the last weeks which have genuinely startled me because of the callousness displayed. This one and the one in which Red-9 ignores Martina’s screams after she’s received 3rd degree burns. I’ll agree with everyone else, I like the decision. I think it takes Spacetrawler to an interesting place, which seems appropriate for the story, but still shocking.

  9. WellWellWell

    Ah, yes.
    Therapy (ok, boozing and mindwipes) have been unsuccessuful.
    I do fear I have to Agree with Eris Lobo – Yuki has to be neutered or killed.
    Of course, that woul rob her of some of her most intriguing abilities as a story vehicle.
    mehh
    Iยดd let the others try to kill her, with with Yuri awakening at the appropriate moment, escaping with barely managing not to kill her former humans, join the rouge Eebs, wreak havoc on the “civilized” universe, and finally beeing morally brung low by a dying Martina just in time to turn the tides…

    Of course, that would be me.
    And since Mr. Baldwin does not cease to surprise me, i`ll keep gnwing my nails.

  10. One of the things I appreciate about the way you’re writing this is that, in the hands of many webcomics artists, Yuri would become fetishized, almost a Mary Sue of sorts. Whereas you’ve been treating her with a fair amount of versimilitude, and showing how she freaks out her companions (and rightfully so). This sort of thing makes me not only enjoy the comic more, but also respect you more as an author.

    Also, now knowing what we do about the Eebs, Yuri’s madness makes even more sense – she’s got all kinds of reasons to be pyschologically-unstable.

  11. Prairie

    Awww, she didn’t take the tail. ๐Ÿ™

    The red for Yuri is likely a good choice. It is slightly unsettling and reminds us that she’s unstable. She’s NOT going for cuddly kitty, or sexy kitty…. I agree with what @Devin said about ‘fetishizing’ Yuri.

    Besides, since she’s Japanese, perhaps the color means something different to her than it does to most westerners.

    Or, sometimes a color is just a color. ๐Ÿ˜‰ (And a cigar is just a cigar!)

  12. Wintercat

    I am a fan of a lot of space-operas and other science-fiction tales and when Spacetrawler started I was a bit wary because the aspect of telling a story after it has happened seemed like a difficult thing to pull off. I have been reading and loving the tale, and found myself surprised, amused, and horrified at times.

    Some cheap writers use tricks like having a liked character raped and then going on vengeance rampage or ‘oh pity me’ run, turning away some readers actually. You, however, you have created drama and sorrow… and kept the readers wanting to read more because there’s also hope, laughter, and shock awaiting us too.

    I look forward to each and every update, and hope this tale goes on a long time still. Yuri and Dimitri are both interesting characters with very different personalities from what you usually get to see in a tale, and both have avoided the pitfalls of ‘usual weaknesses’.

    Bravo. Your tale is captivating, powerful, and inspiring.

    Bravo.

  13. WellWellWell

    Yeah, that red orb-weabon atop her left arm (I do hesitat to call it a hand…)
    What that all about?
    I would love to have some sciency background here, because – you know, science-fiction and stuff…
    I mean, dropping about 50 different lifeforms dead in an instant, that has to be quite basic horrible stuff. Microwaves? Neutrino Plasma? Condensed folk music in ultrasonic frequencies?

    Also, it is glowing all around, so whatever it emits shoud affect everyone, the wielder included.
    And even if yuki is tech-savy enough to have thougt of that problem and countered it with some enhancements, why arent her shipmates falling?
    Just curious, you know.

    (Now you can shoot me down with the mention of greased light speed…)

  14. KingInYellow

    @WellWellWell: I had just assumed the orb-like “hand” was some form of psionic focusing or enhancement device, that allows her to utilize her psychic powers more easily or powerfully. If it IS, then Yuri doesn’t have to worry about dangerous emissions like radiation, and it will specifically only harm the people that she wishes to die, since the power is controlled by her very thoughts.

    That’s what i had been assuming at least. Chris would be the one to give the final word.

  15. WellWellWell

    KingInYellow, hmm, yeah, that IS a good Idea.

    I had the baseless assumption that telekinesis can not be subject to technological tampering – it being such a unique natural ability of the Eebs…

  16. Yuri is an awesome caricter, how much is she human?
    I dont think it will be long before she uninstalls the off switch feature, kinda annoying to be inflicted with narcolepsy in the middle of a rant…., if she wakes up disarmed and very human in appearance I would expect her to be furious, but being armed with Eeb telikinesis she can’t remain disarmed too long.

    Looking at the tenth panel, I think her next improvement might be fangs, either feline or primate, impressive fangs are one of the things human beings notably lack.

  17. WhimsicalWyvern

    One thought that comes to mind is to ask how Yuri could become this powerful, yet we haven’t heard of beings of a similar power level. Surely other entities have had the same combination of Eeb access and a desire for biomodificatication that Yuri has had? My hypothesis: either the GOB has placed some sort of legal restrictions on this sort of thing (which Yuri obviously doesn’t care about), or they have such entities, but are holding them in reserve for some reason. Maybe that’s part of how things are going to get serious in the post Kuu-Drahc era.

  18. Plane

    @Efogoto I have been assuming Yuri was mostly human, if not a standard human, at least human at first and human in charge of the rest.
    Now I wonder , if she continues to morph with one addition after another, her humanity might become a minority voter in her gestalt person.
    Eventually with her human parts worn out or replaced with better parts she could be an entity with humanity only in its history.
    I own George Washingtons Hatchet, the handle has been replaced several times and when the head wore out that was replaced a few times over the years too, but the hatchet was improved with each replacdement and is still my George Washingtons hatchet.

  19. Pingback: Spacetrawler - 12/05/12 Yuri Steps Out

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