Author notes

147 - Submerged

El Cid

on Feb. 7, 2017

For once, a page where I didn't agonize over the dialogue! I actually kinda like the way these dialogue-free pages turned out. I need to do pages with less dialogue in general – that's not a new revelation; I've known it for a while, but the flow of this chapter just hasn't cooperated with me.

If the nude color-changing woman in the last panels isn't familiar to you, that's because she's a character from earlier in the chapter (actually, we first met her in Chapter 1). That's Kai. She's Councilman “Ozzy” Ozuna's bodyguard, who we last saw saving the day by gunning down a rampaging cyborg assassin intent on killing her boss. That was all a great many pages ago, so if you're just now tuning in you may have missed it.



Hopefully it's clear enough what's going on here. The reason I included Kai's pet octopus in the first two panels is because the octopus and other cephalopods are among nature's most accomplished masters of adaptive camouflage. The cephalopod's ability to rapidly change its color, shape, and skin texture to match its environment even complex patterned and differentiated environments is astonishing. The Youtube video below is a great example of how ingenious these creatures can be. I'd say its ability to hide in plain sight is something like the Predator character from the movies, but honestly I could spot Predator before I'd spot that octopus! Even rewatching it, knowing exactly where it's hiding, you still can't see the damn thing.



The octopus is able to change its color by manipulating pigment cells called chromatophores. Humans don't have chromatophores, but could it be possible through super science that we could be implanted with them, or have our DNA rewritten so that our bodies produced them naturally – so that we could change color at the drop of a hat like Kai does?

Well, it's possible in this comic, at least!

And, just to be gratuitous, here's some more octopus porn. This is the amazing Indonesian mimic octopus, a true master of disguise. Not only can it change its appearance, but it actually mimics other sea animals. In this video, you'll see the octopus take on the shape and behavior of a sea-hugging flounder, a venomous lionfish, and it even impersonates a dangerous sea snake to scare off an inquisitive fish. Pretty cool stuff.



That's all for today, folks. Just six pages left in this chapter! Whoo-hoo!