December 29, 2016
Sorry for upload delay, got very ill during the holidays and am still sort of recovering from that… on the plus side I have lost several pounds, so T__T
Still gonna try and get this interlude wrapped up this year tho, so check back tomorrow :[__]
44 Comments
Feel better!
Long time fan, first time commenter here.
Just want to throw in that I love your work, and you’ve got at least one more out there rooting for you every step of the way. Your art and stories are all pure gold, and so are you.
Keep kickin’ ass <3
Feel better!
I must say, I find Bex incredibly engaging. I don’t know why, but she just draws me in…even if she DID accidentally murder our favorite Martian (accidentally in the sense that she thought it was a monster she needed to kill in order to survive – not that she accidentally killed them).
“You must be so exited” yeah, look at the person expression before you say that lol.
Feel better! These pages are always worth the wait!
How does the pregnancy affect her plans for going to Mars? And is her partner or the child’s father supportive of her decision/career? I’m assuming being picked to go to Mars is a multi-year process. She may have already been chosen before getting pregnant. And if not, she has her career as a scientist (or cricket farmer) to consider. I got too many questions!
She said that this is a one-way trip for her, she’s a permanent colonist. The main char… (Michael, I think his name was?) got upset at her for this because of the word he had previously put into her mouth, saying that a “Good Mother” would never leave her children behind on Earth forever.
It does not, lol. She is doing her shit regardless of the fact that hers is the body in the relationship that squits the babies out. Call her cold if you like, I call her a transhumanist. Fucking role model.
Call her a role model or not. She left behind her children to go to Mars. Her children. Think about it if you were her kids. Mom went to Mars, left you, and isn’t coming back.
You’d probably be confused as to why.
“Why’d mom leave me? Didn’t she love me?”
She probably realized this and is freaking out over the decision she has to make. Mars or Her Family.
There are subtle hints from this comic that she’s conflicted with the decision she’s made. Like never agreeing with Michael calling her a “Good Mother”.
this makes so much sense, and I can see why she’s acting strange now. I’m not quite getting the spider reference though… maybe there’s something I don’t know about spiders.
I honestly don’t know enough of the circumstances to have an opinion on her decision to go to Mars, but how does going to a different planet make someone a transhumanist? She’s just planning to die on Mars, how would that help with any transhumanist agenda?
No, she’s planning to LIVE on Mars.
Dying happens no matter where you go, eventually…
Sorry, i should’ve said “live and die on Mars”. I just skipped to the last part because I was lazy.
Good question. What she’s doing is disregarding the fact that her body’s reproductive role means that she would traditionally be her child’s chief carer. She doesn’t give a shit how nature does things; if nature wants her to give up her identity and subsume it into “mother”, it can go and fuck itself. She’s saying that nature, in this case, is opposed to what’s morally right, and she’s doing what’s right regardless of nature. That’s transhumanism.
I have earphones that look like that, but I’m guessing the pink adornment around the back of Bex’s head is traditional jewellery?
My other guess was it’s a babel squid.
Hope you feel better soon!
Noticing now that the salesperson is wearing headphone-looking type things too… perhaps this is actual translation technology?
My thoughts as well. It could be just some fancy, futuristic jewelry or fashion, or even ear-piece technology for devices and other stuff, but it… WAIT could this have something to do with why she can understand LEVi?
nah it’s just an AR interface, most people have one
After watching Keiichi Matsuda’s AR videos, I wonder if my brain can handle the future. I think he’s probably not far wrong. After watching them, it completely changes my view of AR in a capitalist society. As Frank Herbert said, “The role of science fiction is not always to predict the future, but sometimes to prevent it.” https://youtu.be/YJg02ivYzSs
> I’m guessing the pink adornment around the back of Bex’s head is traditional jewellery?
I have a set of bone-conduction bluetooth headphones similar to this. The band around the back of her head is a kind of spring, to make a small amount of inward/sideways pressure so the actual earpieces stay in place.
Gah, Bex!!! Please be ok!
Also: gah, Der-Shing!! Please be ok! Also, happy new year, and thank you for making such good comics :)
That look of dread on Bex’s face says so much.
D, I found your lost holiday pounds and I’m keeping them until I can get some exercise.
so weird stereotypes assuming a correlation between one’s genitalia and interests are still a thing in the future, no wonder Bex is upset :C
get better soon der-shing!
Oh… she signed onto the project before she knew she was pregnant, didn’t she?
Is that… is that a chinchilla in the first panel behind Bex?
Haha, no, just a teddy bear XD Kinda looks chinchilla-ish from the back tho
Get well soon and thanks for all the comics!
There seems to be a special spell for people awaiting their holidays. The moment they put the bag into the corner, the hammer of sickness falls down.
Get well soon, and enjoy the rest of your free time!
Oh, you gender stereotypes, you.
When I was a little girl, I spent most of my time outside crawling through the grass and digging through the dirt for creepy crawlies. I really wanted to go to school to be an entymologist, and it was only some major life-derailing events that changed that course.
Now I draw webcomics.
Biology, being mortal, and the innate tendency of human brains to generalize according to patterns can make for some frustrating situations.
Some sort of balance exists.
Of course, a sales person is going to take the opportunity she sees in front of her. But a better approach would probably be a more “active listening” sort in which she draws out what it is Bex is hoping for before making suggestions.
Oh, feel better, Shing. It seems to’ve been a bad winter for illness.
As the parent of a toddler… hahahahahaha yes, people make the most amazing generalizations. They’ll also ask what sex the baby is before calling them adjectives like “handsome” or “beautiful”. >_>
Odd set of comments above.
There’s clearly some sort of reveal developing about WHY Bex has (it would appear) abandoned her children and her relationship with (presumably) their father, and gone to Mars; but most of the comments are Gender Studies psychobabble that belong under a David Willis comic…
Hah, I hear you. Dershing’s has been creating compelling art, characters, and stories. It draws people together.
Ah… a break from Mike’s sad life… Time for Bex’s sad life!
I love the gesture in the last panel- her words say “I’m polite” and her hand says “get out of my face.”
Ouch my heart
“Are y-”
“Yes”
Was that supposed to be an “Are you keeping it?”
Seems odd that she didn’t start out with “So is it a…” or something more along those lines. If she just wanted to know the babies sex she wouldn’t ask “Are” anything.
For clarification, by not keeping it I mean having an abortion, assuming my guess is correct of course.
(Speaking strictly in terms of what I believe to be going on, not saying it to be sparking a debate about what she should do, what’s right, etc.)
If she’s 30 weeks along, that’s pretty late to be choosing to get an abortion for non-medical reasons, although they can and do happen at that stage by choice. Varies by country and/or state of course.
No judgement here, just an observation.
“Are you having a boy or a girl?”
If you didn’t want to keep it, you wouldn’t be in a baby shop looking at baby gear.
This is the sort of salesperson who I imagine goes home after a full day of being super chirpy, bubbly, and practically oozing saccharine, and drinks herself to sleep on the couch.
I feel like readers are more easily able to empathize with the saleslady than our dashing scientist lead. Like, trying to peddle baby toys by asking somewhat personal questions and making assumptions is totally expected of the average retail wage slave. It sucks.