Page Commentary No. 152 (Patreon)

Gunwild: You ever aspire to be folksy?

Psu: I type "folks" a lot online, but I never really say it in real life. I think it's something I picked up from watching President Obama. (Thanks Obama.)

Gunwild: Oh no Motor Minx is topless! This page is naughty.

Psu: And really pretty. I think that Minx body is one of my favorite drawings of her in like... the entire comic. It's different than a lot of my current cybernetic drawings, in fact it looks a lot smoother and more advanced. The current stuff has less complicated doll joints, and I think that was a side effect of drawing those doll joints for a year in The Bodysnatchifiers. (sp?) I talk about this sometimes as a design motif, if you're gonna make something and say "this is a robot body part" then you should embrace more of the elements that make it look like a robot. I say this about a bunch of design things. Like... a lot of times a half measure in a design isn't gonna win you a lot of awards. If you're trying to be something, you should emphasize it more. So my cyborgs look even more mechanical than they used to even a few years ago.

Gunwild: I mean if that's where the detail is gonna go, then it's the right place... although I also like the shatter pattern thing on the left side of the Damselfly in the final panel.

Psu: There was a lot of little nice details on this page that I sometimes forgot about. Figuring out how the damselfly lands has changed throughout the comic. It's iconic "fairy wings" are folding here but in later pages I would think it's more interesting if the wings acted like feet. The bottom hatch dropping down like that, remains. It's the only way to get the speeder bike back on!

Gunwild: Ehh if we just never explained it and had it happen off-panel, who would have complained? It can practically fly!

Psu: There's a lot of things we don't fully explain! I think I like the statement that "all good kitties know each other." And surprisingly, that seemed to be good enough for our fans. Like no one ever seemed to question it! I would question the perspective I drew that third panel in, though. Normally I wouldn't want the second word balloon in the panel to be coming from someone on the left of it. You want to place your characters in the frame, according to their speaking order.

Gunwild: Which by the way, is so hard to remember to write while taking into account...

Psu: I wanted to talk a little about the colors here, cause this is a very happy page and stuff. But I knew I wanted to push that further cause the next page would be like... a wet towel. Is that the term? I feel like Minx wants a towel right now.

Gunwild: Uh, a wet blanket is the more common way of saying it. You know, like to smother a fire with? Although I feel like you can get a towel wetter faster than a blanket... nobody is frowning here, but next page the kiddos will bring them down...

Psu: It's hard to frown looking at Minx... Oh man, I'm just noticing this part on the page is Cassiopeia's doofy smile in panel 5. It's one of the last times you'll actually see a 3d mouth in profile in the comic before I switch up to the closed profile look!

Gunwild: I miss the 3D mouths but I understand time is a factor.

Psu: I like the 2D look! It's actually not any faster! It was just a conscious decision!

Gunwild: Oh. Well, agree to disagree! By which I mean I agree to whatever you say because you're the one who has to draw it.

Psu: If I were gonna bring back anything it'd be the more complicated joints on Minx's body. She was really quite.... smokin'.

Gunwild: This commentary is over.