10 thoughts on “Page 346

  1. Terrazin

    There, I knew it.

    Cockroaches are responsible for everything happening, all around the world !

    Jokes aside, I don’t feel safe about that red spot in Lisa’s eye, cuz it sure has some Al vibes (from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Like, a part of Lisa praying for her to fail whatever she tries to do. Not sure if I’m not babbling about it all altogether, though.

    Reply
    1. steven Post author

      That’s fair, it does have vibes of terminator and HAL. I’m using it to show her kind of “adrenaline” kicking in, like in a human it would be like butterflies in the stomach and hairs rising, pupils widening, getting the fight-or-flight response ready. So in that way yes it could have meant trouble for that cop 🙂

      Reply
      1. Observer

        Interesting… I saw it as the scanner picking up her retina [I really must stop thinking of her as human!] – like the “red eye effect” from a flash gun. Maybe Terrazin is thinking of Arnie in Terminator?

        I was a bit worried too by panels 1 and 2 in row 3, but for a different reason. I thought it mean that the scanner had ‘unmasked’ her. So why didn’t the cop see her? [Which is why I wrote the quote from StarWars – had someone Used The Force on him?] I don’t know if this can be resolved: a technique I’ve seen elsewhere is to split the panel diagonally: bottom left is “the fourth wall” for
        the reader’s PoV, upper right is the NPC’s PoV. But it would be such a pity to ruin a particularly brilliant piece of drawing!

        Reply
        1. steven Post author

          Yes here’s another occasion where I could have benefitted from filling an entire panel with exposition and explaining the tech lol, but of course I don’t want to break the flow… here’s what I would have written: the scanner uses several different sensor methods, IR, magnetic sensors, radar of multiple bandwidths, x-rays, gamma rays, motion detectors, maybe even sonar, etc, these sensors are located in the cop car, then an AI merges and overlays the data and fits it to a preset profile, in this case androids. The hand-held device then shows the result in an easy to read manner (so non-tech personnel can use it). It can only do this for a relatively small search radius.

          Now a mechanical contraption like the cockroach would have been, would have been built along similar lines to an android, using similar materials and motion control, just with a much simpler layout, weaker “muscles”, and very tiny AI. That’s why this works, the cop who isn’t an expert is unable to tune the sensors more precisely, and perhaps more importantly is unable to do much creative thinking by himself. 🙂

          Reply
      2. Obseerver

        Looking back through the pages, I found on page 163 that Lisa went all red-eyed over a bowl of ramen. Strange that none of us thought that significant. I guess we just know that androids (and gynoids, presumably) have red pupils. Well how else would they see in the dark? Or was it just she added too much Siracha extra-hot sauce? [I recognise that one!]

        Reply
  2. Observer

    Another thing: on panel 2, row 2, it would be better to say “Oh that’ll be the mechanoid cockroach” (because a regular mechanical ‘roach wouldn’t come up on the scanner as a robot).

    Reply
    1. Aname

      My take is that daddy Mark is trying to not appear too cluey about things, especially robotic things.
      This is a tense situation and not just because they are hiding Lisa.
      The way the cop cuts of Mark’s replies shows the cops disrespect for him.
      The statement “You seem nervous” without further elaboration and extended silences are methods of getting people to elaborate more themselves. Mark however is smarter than the cop believes him to be from Marks presented persona, also an old trick – be smart, act dumb, say nothing.

      Reply
  3. Tomas

    I’m suddenly reminded of reading on the web site for RealDoll sex dolls that they can also be used as manakins for your respectable retail establishment. So, yeah, there could be a real exterminator in this setting who bought a sex bot and dressed it up as a roach so he could claim it as a business expense.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *