Latest blog post: Redraw of chapter 1 is happening (2024-05-11)
Author's comment:
Goodbye, Jupiter. I don't think we'll see you in this comic ever again.
Another chapter ends... And you know what this means?! I did it! My milestone! I was able to keep updating the comic without interruption for more than a whole year!
Though, with this, I'm going to take a hiatus. The next chapter is a FINAL one, and I'll need to gather up my thoughts, make final touchups to the story... But also, honestly, to recharge a bit. Before the Final Push, I need to get my shit together. See you soon, in a couple of months! I'll try to post some new extras meanwhile, and draw more of the first chapter remake.
Add Comment
This policy contains information about your privacy. By posting, you are declaring that you understand this policy:
- Your name, rating, website address, town, country, state and comment will be publicly displayed if entered.
- Aside from the data entered into these form fields, other stored data about your comment will include:
- Your IP address (not displayed)
- The time/date of your submission (displayed)
- Your email address will not be shared. It is collected for only two reasons:
- Administrative purposes, should a need to contact you arise.
- To inform you of new comments, should you subscribe to receive notifications.
- A cookie may be set on your computer. This is used to remember your inputs. It will expire by itself.
This policy is subject to change at any time and without notice.
These terms and conditions contain rules about posting comments. By submitting a comment, you are declaring that you agree with these rules:
- Although the administrator will attempt to moderate comments, it is impossible for every comment to have been moderated at any given time.
- You acknowledge that all comments express the views and opinions of the original author and not those of the administrator.
- You agree not to post any material which is knowingly false, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy.
- The administrator has the right to edit, move or remove any comment for any reason and without notice.
Failure to comply with these rules may result in being banned from submitting further comments.
These terms and conditions are subject to change at any time and without notice.
Comments (8)
Saw someone post a link to this in a discord server, and I'm really liking it so far.
You did a great job writing the characters. They have believable flaws and it can be gutwrenching when this leads them to make mistakes that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, even if I find it less believable that certain aliens with more serious flaws wouldn't have been sent for a meeting with the psychiatrist at some point (Gharr, cough, cough).
The art is very nice, and though you still seem to struggle with portraying—shall we say aesthetically pleasing?—human faces, I do think you have improved a lot over the years that this comic has been posted.
It is also refreshing to for once see human leadership being portrayed as fallible, rather than stupid or overly aggressive.
I am seriously unimpressed with the level of competence displayed by some of the raharri crew as the plot progresses however. If in the future Earth needs to be defended from the 'ghosts', then I would not feel particularly assured if these same officers were the ones who have to defend it.
I also hope we get to see the different species in the alliance play bigger roles in the future, because the raharri really are running the show right now.
As for my opinion on the shootdown of the shuttle, I feel bold enough to say that humanity bears absolutely no blame for that. As it is currently written to have happened, shooting it down was the only sane decision available to the air defenders.
I am glad that Zane stated something to that effect, but it gets undermined by how...cold and businesslike he sometimes acts towards humanity, particularly in that first message he sent back to us. Given how important the directives supposedly are, and given that he is ultimately responsible for this whole shitshow, I was actually expecting him to be kinda apologetic about it.
An even bolder opinion of mine is that humanity should demand reparations for the satellite that the alliance hijacked. Ain't no way we're gonna keep using that thing even if they offer to remove all the spyware. It needs to be scrapped and replaced to make anyone at all feel safe that there isn't a massive security breach in our network.
Speaking of security breaches, assuming humanity finds out about the data scraping that a certain comms officer and engineer got up to, and what sites were visited, well...it would be incredibly funny if someone went up to a raharri official with the receipts in tow and went: "You know, it would appear that before official first contact, some mysterious data traffic which we tracked to that satellite you hijacked spent an awful lot of time looking at human pornography, among other things. Now, it *is* very good pornography, and since it is clearly of great interest to you, we feel that it is only fair that humanity gets access to all of your porn as well. >:)" (F**k you Ahshu! Your actions have consequences too!)
As I was reading, I realized I was seeing some familiar elements. I wonder if you have read The Nature of Predators on Royal Road? The way you treat flawed characters as well as the overall vibe feels very similar to me, even if humanity finds itself in very different circumstances in that story.
Lastly, I want to say that I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this story, and if you have any questions about my feedback, feel free to ask!
Thank you for your feedback ^^
Honestly, the satellite is so small in the overarching scope of things, it isn't even worth mentioning. Especially since there is no "security breach", the satellite was a regular run-of-the-mill comsat. Unless you count "aliens can browse the Internet also" as one.
No, I haven't read "The Nature of Predators", and since Google tells me it's an HFY, I doubt I will, to be honest. The genre's not my cup of tea.
Again, thanks for the reply ^^
The satellite being too small to matter is fair enough, I just felt a bit salty about how self-assured the alliance came across as in their dealings with us prior to their official reveal at the latest UN meeting.
However, if they want to keep browsing our internet then I would consider it to be very rude if they just keep using that thing instead of putting up their own damn satellite where we can both see it and actually verify the adresses that its routing.
As for NoP, it does technically fall into the HFY category, but it's much more restrained with it than other works. Humanity isn't portrayed as being inherently superior to the aliens in any way, and in both of the books there are alien characters who I would consider equally important to the major human characters, and whose actions actually impact the plot in a noticeable manner.
I suppose that the scope of things changes a wee bit once you factor in that with the same logic, humanity should now distrust ALL satellites that've been up there alone with the aliens. (Well, except the highly forbidden armed ones whose operators trust the proximity sensors to have detected a hypothetical approach.) Given that they had issues with the available bandwidth, and that their long-range communication works with well-aimed lasers, the fleet did have an incentive to subvert a number of our satellites, rather than just the one.
Well, right now, they're moving their entire fleet into Earth orbit ...
(Also, I don't have any hard info on that, but I think that satellite connections likely are made connection-/circuit-oriented, like in ye olde telephone network, rather than data being routed according to destination addresses ...)
i kinda want a 3D model of the Dawn, maybe for 3D printing? or just looking at online or in blender?
Well done! Looking forward to the concluding chapter when you are ready, and to future masterworks of sequential art.
Jupiter: [comes a-knockin' after the fleet to demand its Hephrene back]
Jupiter in Cockney slang ; "Thats a nice little fleet U got there ..Ey? ....Would be a shame if somebody ´accidentally´ bumped into it , Ey ? So maybe you should pay for some protection to avoid inconvenient Trouble...Ey?"
Fleet ; "uuhmmm"..
It'll be interesting to see how Earth handles this. Will they let the Raharr just show up in orbit and transmit a message to all Earth or fly down to the UN assembly and give a speech to all members and the world there as the first introduction? Or will leaders announce it all in advance so people can get accustomed to it but also speculate wildly as the Dawn approaches?
With luck they recorded the meeting at the UN Security council and will be able to transmit that around.
I don't doubt that humanity as a whole can tolerate the impact of first contact. But I expect there's a good chance some people, groups and maybe even small nations, will panic.
On a side note, I wonder where all the support ships are. I guess its possible they've already departed ahead of the Dawn. I didn't think they could all dock with the dawn at once but maybe I underestimated the Dawn't docking capacity.
Most people would be happy for an unspectacular first contact and it disproves horror szenarios like the dark forest hypothesis.
*A* final one??
yes...Final as in final for only "1 contact incident" ?
Or final as in "all of it". Since chapters have been between 25 and 40 pages long there is not much room to wrap up all that is implied in the Wiki I would think ?
(Please see the comments on blog entry 17 for how Darth defines dividing lines ...)
More likely "Final of the Volume One".
They do not average, they just get bigger and bigger ^^"
This one was 60 pages; Chapter 7 will be at least as long, I think.
As long as they get bigger, I can asure you nobody shall complain =)
And thx so far for the effort. Saves my entire monday since 1 year.
So, a couple months before we'll find out how good human in-story radars and telescopes really are (read: Whether people on Earth will go "OMG their main vessels are that much larger than their shuttles and that lone cruiser in Earth-Moon L4?!? "), gotcha.
Congrats on the stoned mile, and wishing you a good recharge, with someone other than cpt. Kas controlling the supply on the other end of the cable.
You mean it is heading for Earth Orbit ? well Zane said so much earlier so yes I think the fleet is moving towards "INVADE EARTH!" mode....If this was a B movie.
So now Gharr is parked at Dan´s house and I am awaiting a "Feed my Alien" thread on Crowfunding, since he seems to eat quite a lot. =)
"Visit the City of N, the planet's new capital of flying
saucerspizzas!"It's been a great ride so far!