Page Commentary No. 283 (Patreon)

Gunwild: It's the wallflowers' table!

Psu: I'm not sure which was harder to draw, Russ smiling to that big alien guy smiling.

Gunwild: Ehh some people don't normally smile, it's fine. At least Kettlehead managed to take the complement even though he's a moody boy.

Psu: I thought about how he should take this compliment, but I like to think of it like... these guys don't usually get to see their fans. Maybe that's something we can relate to. I'm sure we could manage a smile and a handshake if we met some people that liked our work.

Gunwild: Does Theira have a paper football she made out of her napkin?

Psu: Yep! It never comes up in comic but I remember thinking about it when I was drawing the stuff on the tables. It's a really simple thing to add but I figure it added a lot to the scene. That and the Buffalo sticker.

Gunwild: It is a universal sign of someone having time they want to waste. Also, maybe it's cornsome, but I am glad we didn't just make Headhunter's species all evil guys? You know I'm an old Lone Ranger fan, and there were also rules written into that show to make sure to avoid the villains always being, you know, foreigners, indigenous peoples, minority groups.

Psu: Yeah, this might be getting into a larger conversation but you find a lot of table top roleplaying games getting away from the idea of "evil races." Monsters are monsters, for sure. But if you have a society that can understand the dignity of a shirt and tie, they can't ALL be bad.

Gunwild: More like the INDIGNITY, man! Well, actually, there's pretty clearly no dress code at this party, so at least he chose his outfit instead of being forced into it. Fair enough.

Psu: He wanted to look nice for his heroes! It's challenging for a guy that big with that many sharp teeth to NOT look intimidating. But yeah, I think we had this idea a while ago to have a character that looks like Headhunter come up to them. It was meant to be very clearly NOT headhunter though. We weren't trying to fake anyone out. Or were we?

Gunwild: Nah not really but we don't oppose people guessing at stuff... both you and a couple Patrons conjectured that the weird Mr. Russ notes on his ship toys thing I wrote last week was critical backstory about Xerrans.  Or a well thought-out fake-out in that direction! Which it wasn't. (Unless it was.)

Psu: Even I'm not sure what's fake anymore! But I do know what is real. That Russ has some amount of pride from having done a good in the galaxy.

Gunwild: Good for him. I hope he holds onto that and doesn't find himself thoroughly conflicted over every random thing. And that goes for all of you, too!

Psu: I get conflicted over what to have for breakfast...

Gunwild: Maybe you should sleep on it!