Author notes

165 - First Name Basis

El Cid

on June 23, 2017

I made a few speech balloon faux pas on this page, but nothing major. Nothing nearly as bad as Avram's faux pas here. But this is an Adult comic, so of course he gets away with it.

Next week is the last week before the Drunk Duck Awards voting kicks into gear, so I guess I need to start doing promo type stuff for that, at some point. I've definitely been slackin'. I should at the very least have a (very lame) For Your Consideration comic up by early next week.



I forgot to point this out earlier, but one thing you may have noticed (though you probably didn't) is that the interior of the spaceship is divided into two halves with subtly different colors. The “top” half is blue, with blue lighting around the hatch, and the “bottom” half is green, with green lighting around the hatch. It's easier to notice on other pages, but I intentionally made the effect very subtle to keep it from looking too goofy.

Why two different colors? Well, I got the idea from reading about astronauts on the International Space Station, and how easy it is to get disoriented with no gravitational indicator of what is “up” or “down.” Of course, any direction can be up and any direction can be down, but it's helpful to have some indicators to help you get your bearings. Thus, the idea to have one half of the ship (the “top”) painted one color and the other (“bottom”) half another. It just helps the crew find their way a bit easier.



Most astronauts experience some form of motion sickness when they first enter the ISS. In some cases, a new arrival will be fine at first, but then something unexpected will trigger sudden vomiting, like seeing someone approach them upside down, which can totally throw your brain for a loop (and which they try to avoid doing, for that very reason). So why do we puke when we get dizzy or motion sick?

Nobody knows for sure, but one theory is that it's a defense mechanism we evolved to protect us from getting poisoned. The wobbly feeling we get when we're seasick (or when we board a space station) is not unlike the effects of some poisonous plants our distant ancestors may have consumed, and so having a natural reaction to puke your guts out in that case may have been advantageous for survival.

*shrugs* Makes sense to me!



Btw, the “spacers” in this comic would not get motion sickness in space, because one of the first brain mods they'd get would be to disable their puke reflex.

More to come next week! Maybe another (final) three update week. And then we can all catch our breath!