Hmm, this all made perfect sense when I wrote it, and it seemed fine when I drew it, but now I’m looking at it and I think Zan and Ari’s dialogue needs some retooling. Just being able to “hear” somebody isn’t actually all that startling. This is what happens when the characters have got too much to say and too little panel space to say it in.
By the way, Olof Östensson, if you’re out there, I still need to get in contact with you!
I’m not 100% sure, Tara, but their dialogue seems okay to me.
Oh, did they forget to mention that bit of information? XD
“hear each other’s thoughts”? – it adds just one word to the bubble
Telepathy confirmed.
Looking at the last tier of panels of this half-month’s installment.
“Oh….boom.”
It works for me. Perhaps it could be phrased differently, but what’s here flows well, and people use their own language when stressed, not the precise scientific form they wish they’d used later.
I can tell what they mean. I have re-read some chapters, but I normally have to do that with any comic if I want to understand the plot.
They escaped. Easily. Oh crap.
They’re not just pretty insects, they’re an advanced space faring species — something very easily forgotten given how harmless they look. Escaped? Or were let go by people who will do ANYTHING to get a space ship?
Yeah, those looks in the last panel are just about right for the situation.
- They let us go. It was the only reason for the ease of our escape.
- Easy? You call that easy?
- They’re tracking us.
- Not this ship, sister.
So, clearly, the proper response would be to shoot first….
Hmm, actually I think it’s okay. The previous part of the sentence “They weren’t expecting you to be able to hear -them-” informs the meaning of ‘hear’ in the “…or that -we- could hear each other”.
I agree, but just saying “hear” instead of specifying hearing each other’s thoughts still leaves just enough ambiguity that the other three at the table might not be sure what it meant, which makes the silent “say what now?” of the last panel work that much better. I think it works fine as it is.
Aaaaaaan queue opening title sequence for “Alien”.
I was confused. Bring in the Whisper Bubbles!
Or the thought bubbles
Yep, “hear” alone is vague enough that it doesn’t really sell a “saywhatnow?” moment, but I the reader certainly am not confused regarding the sequence of events. Ah well, there’s only so much art one can bury underneath word bubbles. Maybe extending panel 4 by adding a few lines and then splitting to two pages mid-panel four might’ve worked? The layout/design of panel four is so solid though, breaking that discussion into two could easily disrupt that clear depiction of the lively/hectic discussion they’re having. Panel 7 is great, nice use of white space, and the facial expressions are very in-character.
Notice that Zan goes out of his way to say ‘LEAVE easily’, not ‘ESCAPE easily’, which I’m pretty sure is the word Ari would’ve used.
It might seem like a small thing, but it still shows the extreme difference of opinion the two have on what happened to them.