Phantom Thumbnails
Shaenon: Some recent thumbnails. I was reluctant to bring in Mell from Narbonic, but it was fun to draw her again.
Channing: One of the great struggles of doing a follow-up comic in collaboration with a fan of your previous work, as Shaenon has surely discovered, is dealing with your co-author always wanting to cram your current project with references to your previous work.
Yeah….That’s exactly how I would be.
My 2¢.
I’m waiting to enjoy Narbonic after Skin Horse concludes, so I know little about it. But I like what I’ve seen!
It was great being introduced to Unity’s “biological mother” (so to speak). 😉 So thank you very much, Jeff and Shaenon!
I’m torn between advising you to space it out or binge it in one siting
Binge it, life is short.
but, the years are long
if you understand the reference TANSTAAFL
To semi-quote one of Spider Robinson’s characters, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t get the TANSTAAFL reference but also mildly jealous because they still have the chance to experience all of Heinlein’s works for the very first time. Not that I don’t enjoy rereading them frequently…
If you’re wondering, Spider’s character was talking about the works of John D. McDonald, but the author is also a massive Heinlein fan so it could have applied there too.
According to William Patterson’s biography of Heinlein, Heinlein picked the acronym up from Jerry Pournelle. (Volume 2, page 264.) Reportedly a common phrase in the Deep South.
“Not ‘while the evil days come not.'” And *that* phrase comes from Ecclesiastes 12:1, Authorized (King James) Version.
My favorite Heinlein story remains “The Rolling Stones“. 🙂
As for TANSTAAFL, that depends on whether the personal effort required exceeds that needed to walk down to the corner bar and if the cost is low enough it can be charged to ones descendants!
The first step of course is energy too cheap to meter. Then “Santa Claus machines”.
Mel showing up worked well as a dramatic move. Her presence made it clear that larger forces than A-sig and Skin Horse were taking an interest.
Heck, she fits right in!
I think having Mel show up worked.
Having Mel show up was the plot twist none of us expected.
But all of us WANTED!
I think Mel and Artie were the right characters to make appearences in “Skin Horse”. As “Narbonic” was basically Helen and Dave’s story, having either of them turn up here for more than a panel or two would’ve been a bit much.
A collection of recent-done roughs. With details that proved to be muffs. It’s agony knowing it will soon be a-going, but, till then, keep putting up stuff.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Jeffrey C. Wells!
Was NOT expecting Mell to show up here, despite the obvious fact that the existence of Artie as a character that they exist in the same universe. The perfect surprise cameo!
Now I have to read Narbonic again.
Not to mention Li’l Mell