Future Pencils
Shaenon: Every Couscous Collective anthology includes either a Narbonic story or a Skin Horse story. This is from the Narbonic story I’m drawing for the next anthology, FUTURE. That said, Artie’s also in Skin Horse, so I guess this one could count double.
Channing: Man, it’s great to hear from the Narbonic crew again. The end-of-page punchline is exactly why I love Shaenon’s writing so.
Frankly given her mother I’d be more concerned about the cat and what it would do, whether alive or dead.
Perhaps she could give the box to her brother.
No air holes… left alone, the mystery will resolve itself! Dare I hope Sir Pounce was somehow rescued?
A nice thought, but I rather doubt it. He was shown in-strip to be in Hell, so it would take an act of necromancy to bring him back. And Helen has said she doesn’t do that sort of thing. (“Have you seen the outfits you have to wear?”)
Not that I wouldn’t be delighted if it were really him, of course.
Beta brought back Dave, so necromancy isn’t beyond her capabilities.
In the epilogue, he was shown to be with Seth.
I really miss the Narbonic crew. It’s so nice to see them again. (In particular, more of Dave And Helen’s Daughter, who we never got to see much of.)
I’m curious about how Artie will instinctively react to the cat. How will the cat react to him? It would be funny if it kept trying to stock and pounce on him despite his size.
Sort of like Unity gnawing on someone, so I agree, this would be amusing.
I don’t suppose her middle name is Frank?
Eh. More universes aren’t bad. How else would you power time travel?
Besides, the moment you look away, the cat should be in a superposition again.
Nope, does not work that way. Quantum collapse is irreversable.
A *new* superposition.
I was looking at Artie here, still looking the same with Dave and Helen’s little girl as he did when he was originally transmogrified. And I wonder, does he age, do you think? Will his extremely modified genes keep his body in this state indefinitely or did Helen create him to grow old with the rest of us?
Well, his /Cricetidae/ genes are designed to make him look more or less the same during most of his life. Of course, his lifespan has been multiplied 20x with the transmogrification. He probably would age normally if he was 100% human, but I guess the gerbil part is still there.
Helen seemed to be unsure, and implied that his lifespan would be around a normal human’s or somewhere between that and a gerbil’s.
Artie was a bit freaked out over having decades that he didn’t expect or plan for.
To the point where he simply refused to accept (at least straight away) that he might live for decades. He was overjoyed when she told him he had six months to live.
Who’s idea was it to name her Rosalind? Dave, Helen, Artie, or Mel?
Which reminds me, about how old is Rosalind now? Would she be older or younger than Robin?
With all the time travel she’s been doing, who can say?
That’s a lot of universes. Fortunately, they probably didn’t want to exist as much.
Well, you know, if you wait long enough, both of these possibilities become the same…
Are digital versions of the anthologies ever going to be available? (Or am I just missing the correct link in the store?)
Because the topic today is kind of related to Narbonic, do you mean digital versions of Skin Horse, or digital versions of Narbonic?
Digital versions of these anthologies, I’d imagine. Alternately, digital collections of the anthology strips.
We don’t have ebook versions of the anthologies right now, but we’re planning an omnibus of the first three anthologies that will be in both paper and ebook format.
The universes were already created. You just confirm yourself as being in or or the other.
Actually, you’re still in both. The yous in them just lose touch with each other when you become entangled with the cat.
“What’s in the box!?”
(Somebody had to say it.)
But, seriously… open the darned box. 😛