Page Commentary No. 70 (Patreon)

Gunwild: Okay we'll totally cop to making the Vanaa renaissance and space age look a lot like humanity's style in those eras, what with the ruffs and artsy hat. But in fairness to us, we WERE trying to draw a parallel there quite intentionally that eventually builds to all that stuff King says about similarities.

Psu: Oh yeah, and really that's part of the Muppet like humor of having the Vanaa. They're these little caricatures of humans and thus get a reputation around the galaxy for being warlike. But looking at this page, even with shorthands for human history, this little sequence is ridiculously complex. There's a panel with a marching army and you have to get across what their gear looks like. What their stone gargoyles look like. What their fine art looks like. What their space suits look like. Then to top it off, what the cafeteria looks like! It's even got a news reporter on tv which is really hard to see!

Gunwild: You did a lotta design for this one update, but all of it really tells their story as the human story, from the birth of their complex society, to reaching for the stars, to becoming spoiled and craving fast food.

Psu: And that we both had our space dogs.

Gunwild: I would kinda like to have that Vanaa sculpture, but I'm not sure where I'd put it.

Psu: Looking back at it, I'm not totally sure if I did this intentionally but the diorama in the first panel is actually done in one point perspective. You can find a lot of renaissance art all about getting that perspective right! But the sculpture itself is definitely something out of more modern art periods concerned with form and deconstruction. I was never good at writing art history papers, I could never remember the name of the periods right. But it did give me some interesting insights to use when creating historical parallels. But that means I know that the sculptor here is a bit out of place!

Psu: There are a couple things going on here in how I ended up drawing that panel. I do this a few times but I really like "panels within panels" and you can see how both the left and right side are definitely different scenes with the sculptor scene framed by the house. It could be said that the sculptor is representing a different time altogether. But even so, it was more interesting to try to imagine what kinds of art a Vanaa might like. They respect fluidity and are naturally adept at changing forms. But what would they immortalize in stone? What would they see as a way to talk about their Vanaa Condition through something more permanent?

Gunwild: He's trying to embody the ineffable... and sure, that's nice, but is it as good as the "Burg Rush" joke we put on the sign in panel 3?

Psu: I think the biggest stretch is imagining your average fast food french fry consumer is impressed by the addition of sea salt. Unless it was like... salt from some space planet sea.

Gunwild: Salt from the Mer-Maidens' pools are highly sought after by anonymous buyers...

Psu: Heh. Okay just one other note I should make, I can't for the life of me remember what alien lettering I used for the Cafe banner. I'm thinking it was Futurama or it was one of my friend's made up things. You don't see it anywhere else in the comic, so again this marks it as one of the most thoughtful pages in the entire story design wise!

Gunwild: I may have demanded that Vanaa Assassin perched alongside the gar-goo-yles in Panel 1. I'm a huge mark for Assassin's Creed, and I couldn't let the Italian Renaissance pass without a piece of it in there... how does it make sense, timeline-wise? It is a mystery...