Aimee Concept Sketches
Shaenon: My first sketches of Aimee. For a while I was hung up on the idea of covering one eye with her hair as a reference to the horrible nerdgirl protagonist of the manga WataMote, but between that and the messy braids I lost too much of her face.
Nick’s T-shirt reads “Kid Icarus” because he can fly. Aimee’s reads “Zero Wing” because she can’t fly. This is the kind of layered allusive wordplay you get from writers like me and James Joyce.
Channing: Basically James Joyce if he were a video game nerd. I really enjoy these character designs; my script is basically devoid of helpful information on how Aimee looks, so Shaenon shoulders the burden here.
So THAT’S what the shirts said. I do love those little details you throw in.
I was trying to figure out the “no casuals” sticker on Aimee’s door…
Maybe that’s her idea of formalwear?
Where I work, it refers to a certain lower level of employee.
It’s a reference to “casual gamers” and indicates that only “hardcore gamers” (or “core” for short) are allowed.
The the ‘casual/core’ divide isn’t so cut-and-dry. Here’s a vid from the folks at Extra Credits on the matter.
no casual gamers.
Means people like me – who play a bit on phone – don’t qualify.
So basically, it’s just the old FIAWOL/FIJAGH divide, applied to gaming?
I love the bit with Aimee eating “pot noodles” in the first when Nick opens the door. Its a lovely callback to when we first met Nick. Dr. Lee visited him in his virtual apartment virtually disguised as an old man. He reminded Nick that there were other uses for water beyond reconstituting pot noodles.
possibly a good thing we aren’t reading this strip in smell-o-vision.
One wonders why you have the extraneous word ‘possibly’ in there.
I’d say the “possibly” is warranted. Does food actually have an aroma in Aimee’s world? It’s all based on a simulation designed for people who don’t have the hardware needed to experience in-game odours, so I’m not sure it would.
For what it’s worth, the stuff Aimee was eating when Nick turned up looks far too straight to me to be (what Wikipedia calls) instant noodles. Maybe the pot noodle guy delivers spaghetti here?
http://skin-horse.com/comic/than-he-thought/
Good call on the hair bands rather than braids.
And I always love the ghost images from the other side of the note paper.
I assumed her shirt read “Zero Wing” because all their base are belong to her.