11/09/16 Joyce Negotiates



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2016-11-09-spacetrawler2

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This strip will post before the election results come in. but like many/most of you, I am extremely stressed and upset by this entire election, and at least one thing we can probably ALL agree on: thank goodness at least it is coming to an end.

(on that note, please don’t discuss political opinions below, or they will be deleted, I don’t wish the discussion board here to delve into unrelated-to-comics potentially divisive opinions, or to fall apart or implode or anything. I recommend Twitter for that.)

but the sun will still rise and set, and we’ll all continue forward.

19 Comments

    1. Muzhik

      Sooo… Instead of a Kick Starter campaign, it’s going to be a Kick-ass Starter campaign?

      And does “winner take spoils” mean they’re racing for pinks? Joyce will get our merry band a new(er) ship filled with barter-able supplies and a new group of unwilling volunteers that are best left at the nearest spaceport?

      Sweet!

  1. andreas

    The CEO (and acting captain) is very quick to steer the negotiations towards hand-to-hand combat as the arbitration procedure of the last resort [That’s probably APolaR:H2HC in management-speak].

    Certainly she is out of options and resources here, but still… makes one wonder how many of the major decisions in business and politics are handled this way 😉

  2. Yang Tomoe

    Why do all aliens always seem to have a basic humanoid shape?

    I mean, even D&D had some neat non-humanoids in them…..gelatinous cubes, beholders, etc.

    I want to see some aliens that don’t look like humans…… Something with gas bags and dangling bits, or a sentient non-compressible fluid, something with multi dimensional semi-phased pseudopod appendages, intelligent space fairing octopuses, hyper intelligent giant reptiles, insectoid hive minds, intelligent telekinetic minerals, hyper intelligent plant life, or something like that. I mean don’t get me wrong; I love the standard felinoid with digitigrade legs and six breasts, but….well it would be nice to see something a little less standardized.

    Furthermore It would be nice to see some alien ships. Bio-tech is cool. Intelligent alien insectoid ships, mineral ships that are grown in hyperspace, space-time warping wormhole ships that look like giant sand worms, retrofitted asteroids that don’t look like ships (great for pirates), generational ships, etc.

    Anyways great job so far! I loved your last comic and I hope to see many many more!

    More…MOre….MORE! Bwa hahahahaha! ?(?o?)?

    P.S. How do I change my avatar?

    1. Aliens likely go through an evolutionary path similar to humans’, just as unrelated animal kingdoms produce similar body types through parallel evolution on Earth. There will also be animals on other planets that look and behave like Earth animals, if they developed in similar environments. A lot of aliens won’t look like humans in costumes, but a lot of them will.

    2. @Yang_Tomoe, an interesting question. A lot has to do with the type of storytelling. With Anna Galactic I was working hard to make the reader (identifying with the protagonists) feel alienated, to not be sure of any assumptions, and so having non-humanoid alien construction worked really well for that.

      But Spacetrawler is much more space opera, and a lot of that require Some identification with the aliens they face, and so a lot more humanoid shapes and mouths and eyes/brows which express emotion people can read. Also, for talking with an alien, it helps if they have a head relatively human-head-high. There have been exceptions, the Mihrghoots for example, but yes, a lot of humanoid.

      As far as ships, not a lot of plans to go too far that way either. Again, not really that type of story. But, for instance, the eeb Spacetrawler drive in the first series was along those lines, so the story if not bereft of that direction, only not focused on it.

      1. Frank

        Wow, that was a lot of thought! I would’ve simply gone with “because it’s easier to draw the clothes that way” ????

        And I always thought you had a excellent ship variety

  3. Night-Gaunt49

    L. Neil Smith created some very alien beings that act just like humans. “On Her Majesty’s Buckateers” was the first book and part of his Libertarian series. Humanoid seems to be the most utilitarian of shapes. But we can only find out if we ever meet other species, other ecologies to find out. Or make a very sophisticated computer program and experiment with different ecologies even one inimical to carbon based life. These days when I see aliens depicted I start thinking about what kind of biology and ecology did they evolve in? Could it even work?

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