So, believe me or not, I actually tried to get arting on this one a bit earlier than usual. But midway through my Photoshop froze up, and when I opened the file back up I saw that I hadn’t saved in.. AT ALL. So started over.
So, it’s a Colors Later day today, but I thought I’d do something different with the half-colors today. Looks better than empty white, anyway.
-EDIT- Sorry for the bait-and-not-switch, but after looking it over a bit I’ve decided to keep this strip in it’s original look, plus a few modifications (panel borders, Zappyboi text, and a dusting of secondary color on the background). I’m gonna retroactively call this a Style Trial. I used to do that, sometimes.
Proactively saving the world.
That seems like such a weird complaint, but then I don’t have kids, maybe “making a sandwich” is a significant milestone?
How long has it been anyway, he makes it sound like weeks instead of days like I assumed.
Any time your kid does something like that it’s a big deal.
There were days that I would go away to work and when I came home my newborn son was *different*. Little kids grow at an incredible rate. If Sarnothi kids grow as fast as humans the differences will be even MORE apparent because we don’t go from being fish to people, we just go from little miniature people to people.
Wait, how can Suko actually *eat* a sandwich? I’d assume any kind of bread would be a problem.
Maybe it was chicken between two slices of ham.
Sugar is the problem, as in they are super sensitive to the taste. Most obligate carnivores still eat grass or what not for fiber, and refined starches shouldn’t be too hard to digest… Maybe there are aquatic tubers?
Wonder if Sarnothi can eat baccopa or Anarachis or hornwart, my fish love them and they WILL eat each other.
A sandwich in this context is more of an Atkins Diet type of sandwich, meat-within-meat. Chicken between Ham as Alpo said, or a few slices of roast beef between slices of cheese.
Aka – the KFC Double Down
Ah, so a stack of meat.
Not my thing, but I can see it.
i´d say its less about a significant milestone and more about an example for ‘i´m having way too little time for my family and are missing tons of stuff’…which makes it all the more awesome that he´s still taking the time to help selkie
In most cases, Doctors usually have access to “humanitarian leave” that they can use to do this kind of thing also. My kids’ pediatrician used to go to Africa every couple years on this kind of thing.
Given that his origins are out in the open now, Pohl ought to also be able to pull hardship leave for a while, just so he can do what he can for the refugees full-time.
I live in Southeast Texas, just south of Houston. I kinda have experience with this one due to Hurricane Harvey. :-/
He probably just doesn’t want to leave his patients hanging, would seem in character for him. Like he doesn’t have to be helping the refugees either but feels that since he can, he ought to do as much as possible.
You help the ones who are in the greatest need of help, especially if you have specific skills/talents that cannot be easily replicated by others.
Mom raised us on this general idea: Sometimes one kid is sick, and the other kids get ignored for a bit while the sick get gets more attention. That’s normal.
In the case of this situation: Almost certainly the human patients can be easily shifted to other doctors for a bit. It would cause them mild inconvenience and a slight risk of the other doctors missing something because they’re not as intimately familiar with the case. Maybe they’ll have to wait a little longer for treatment in some cases.
The refugees, however, cannot wait, and must be attended to immediately. In some cases this is a matter of life and death (especially with the kids). Pohl should absolutely take leave if he has that available (to be fair, he might not be aware of dispensations given to human doctors in unusual circumstances) so that the refugee crisis can be resolved faster and with less danger to the refugees (or to the humans they end up running across — you don’t want desperate refugees stealing food/clothes/animals/whatever because they literally don’t have any other choice to survive).
In fact, I’d suggest that if it’s possible for him to live in that area for a couple weeks (e.g. in a car), he should. His powers are too valuable to waste on the commute, and the sooner this is dealt with, the sooner he can get back to his own family. He’ll miss some of his daughter’s earliest days, but he’ll miss *less* of them if the operation is more efficient.
Nobody *had* to help out the refugees in Southeast Houston, either.
There was a caravan of boats, trailers, SUVs and trucks filled with supplies, gas, life preservers, and anything else you can think of that DROVE from Lousiana to Houston just so they could drop their $20,000 boats into raw sewage and try to rescue people who were flooded and trapped in their homes. Check out the Cajun Navy for more info.
One quote from one of the volunteers– “I dunno, I never launched my boat off a freeway onramp before.”
Another quote from a volunteer– “First time I drove my jetski into a living room.”
One quote from a newsguy– “Heroes don’t have a red S on their chests– they drive fishing boats under freeway overpasses and chop holes in the roofs of houses looking for people to save.”
People’s capacity to help others and give their all to help people they don’t even know is absolutely amazing.
If Pohl is needed to go help and build homes for the homeless, he should go. He’ll feel better about it himself, his co-workers and patients will understand, and if I know anything about her, Sai Fen will drag him out to the car herself if she has to.
I’m just saying he’s the kind of guy who feels like he’s leaving people hanging if he takes off time, not that he shouldn’t or couldn’t.
I assume that if he says he has to, he has to. I feel like he would probably dedicate his time completely to the refugees if he could, but he can’t, either because of the rules ( the “human” part of humanitarian leave could maybe play a role here? Shouldn’t, but could) or because he feels it is not morally acceptable for him to do so (again, his idea of right and wrong and of duty, might easily differ from any of ours, considering he grew up in Sarnothi society)
One last thing, I’m really liking the fact that Pohl and Todd have someone to talk to now. Having someone you can heart-to-heart with is a good thing.
I’m really glad that Todd has a Friend that he can go to, that has a kid who’s significantly older than Selkie and so knows about “real” development, instead of “by the book” development. Sometimes kid’s stages are completely out of synch, in the same kid. Also gives Todd a friend that can help Todd deal with Selkie’s MOS questions, when needed.
Pohl’s kid is significantly younger than Selkie, not older. Unless you meant someone else?
Todd MAY be able to consult with Agent Brown, whose adopted son is older than Selkie.
This coloring really adds emotion to the whole scene, you should either keep it as it is or save this version. On the housing contruction crisis, they could get humans to help them, with scuba suits and heavy duty underwater construction equipment. Well, maybe not heavy duty.
Sort of “film noir”.
Yes, there are human civil engineering concerns that could certainly help. There’d have to be government money in it though!
That’s something I’ve been wondering myself. Like, couldn’t the human Gov start mass-producing cast concrete housing, or modify shipping containers or something? Like, it won’t be perfect, but they don’t need perfect long-term houses. Just enough to provide shelter immediately. And it’s not like humans have never built things that are meant to go under the water.
Anvildude, the problem with cast concrete is that it leaches chemicals into the water. It seriously bolloxes PH among other things those houses are going to…I imagine Feel/taste/smell wrong to Sarnothi. Maybe if you Glazed them Or used actual CERAMIC rather than poured concrete OR very Large versions of the Resin Décor items I use in my fish tanks.. which DONT leach…
He did say assist so others are hopefully involved now unless he just ment Scar.
I do like the mindset of “the most useful thing I can do to benefit X is to [do this thing you wouldn’t think would directly benefit X].”
Helping to ensure that a superpowered being grows up with a healthy view of their own superpowers is, indeed, a way of helping the next generation survive and thrive and not get cut down in their prime (or harassed by humans who are upset at the superpowered being doing nasty things five counties over).
Actually I really love this “Half color” style. It fits this scene well.
Selfie takes back the HomeLake.
*SELKIE
(Stupid autocorrect…)
Yes, let Instagram be their undoing…
Hey Todd, just remember: “At Farmers, we know a thing or two cause we’ve seen a thing or two.”
No, no, Pohl: it’s okay. Go on home, I’m completely confident Selkie won’t get any worse while you’re gone. Selkie’s “weapon fascination” should recover completely- I mean, be perfectly fine in your absence.
Looks neat, Dave!
I like these half-colors!
“How fireproof is plaster? Asking for a friend.” Would spark an instantaneous panic attack in me, because such questions have a high chance that it’s already showing scorch marks, of not already on literal fire. XD
When you coming home, Dad?
I don’t know when
But we’ll be together then, son
You know we’ll have a good time then…
Alkuna: Plaster (including wallboard) does not burn and is used for fire resistance. It absorbs heat and releases water. The one little problem is that too much heat for too long will break it down to powder, and then it’s no longer a fire barrier – but it will hold up to the fire longer than most materials, and while it lasts is not conducting heat to the other side.
If the kid is experimenting with exposing plaster board to fire, the things to worry about are damaged paint, damaged plaster possibly requiring replacement, and dropping flaming bits on something that IS flammable.
If you plan to switch the comic to semi-grayscale, I think this style of shading works.
The first time I saw this page I assumed we were seeing them through Selkie’s lit eyes. Like night vision,but more like “water vision”, you know? Optimized to work underwater.
I would LOVE if this was a thing.