20091121 (3) – Drawn and shaded. Very minor cleanup… but the art was drawn Really Huge, so a lot of the little errors were smoothed out when the pieces were scaled into the page.
1930 – Lettered. Sorta. Not sure how I feel about the level of information in panel one, or the display of module icons in panel two. For the moment it works, though I may revise it further after I letter the next couple of pages. If it holds, then that’s three more pages near the bag.
20091124 2246 (2) – The minimalist information display – both inside the Aeon’s Super Astral “Holodeck” and everywhere else in the story – owe a lot to the sentry gun display gear in Aliens. Amber. Minimal. Essential information only. Oldschool. I can let my compulsive tendencies get the better of me and chase HollywoodOS for the rest of my life (no thanks, I like the 3d stuff more!), or whenever Information Display is required, create Exactly What Is Needed And No More.
By the same token, Aeon’s “emoticons” (hieroglyphics?) follow the same design mandate from a slightly different angle. There’s no reason the ship should “speak” english, there’s no reason one should expect the ship’s Avatar to speak english (Talking dog? In ATC?), the ship must be understood, and I’m really not a “language” guy.
I sketched Aeon’s dialogue out before seeing Moon, by the way – I liked GERTY quite a bit, and seeing GERTY’s means of emotional communication solidified the idea of Aeon talking in icons. While I shudder to think how such a concept would translate into film or prose, it’s perfect for comics. As an added bonus, it condenses what would otherwise be complex or obtuse dialogue into a smaller area.
I’m glad that part of this scene has proved out – the “beta” test is near the end of the next chapter. All that had to do was convey a form of frenzied urgency. In this case, Aeon needs to be intelligible… and I think the practice paid off.
20091125 1934 (2) – Barely visible at webscale but relevant nevertheless – some last minute cleanup to the “display” in the first panel. Each detected annex has its own “status bar” (differentiated as a base pentagram for Prime and a pentagram with a semi-transparent circle behind it for Two). Alias’s “status bar” has been changed accordingly. He had a circle before it meant anything (it didn’t mean much until about three minutes ago), and now he doesn’t. Dyluck is, as always, “special.” Circled pentagram, but two status bars. Good times.
Mastering notes, 2016.12.06 – Changed a word in panel three.
