That’s exactly what I was thinking, although this ‘bag of snakes’ has a name and is known by the others.
3oranges
Klohturr says “we” are new at this, which seems a lot like an admission of plurality. (I hope that doesn’t count as undue speculation – I’m new here too.)
Bags of snakes are terrible at birding. And assassinations.
andreas
@ Coyote
I’d like to see you spot fast moving flying animals if you were an assembly of slithery hoses with small eyes in an occluding bag who decide by committee.
Or assemble a charge for that matter: “The green wire connects to here. No, the red one. The blue one reminds me of my grandmother. Careful, if you make this connection, it will go off. Which one is green? Wait, can this be right?”
@Jude, It was cut off at some point. Replacement prosthetic antennae aren’t in fashion there.
Harrowed
Apparently Yig has gained a foothold in this sector…
Nomi
So snakes are behind this whole war?
Night-Gaunt49
They might be Nagas who aren’t snakes, yet resemble them. Imagine they went off world.
Muzhik
Chris, I don’t know if you ever followed the “Schlock Mercenary” web-comic, but years ago he had a character/species called “The Attorney Collective.” They were these serpentoid creatures (attorney drones) that shared a common consciousness. They also had a nice living serving as both prosecuting and defending attorneys in most legal cases. As one drone put it, it’s more efficient that way. (And you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a snake carry a briefcase.)
The drones disappeared as characters in the comic after the mercenaries won a contract (after the drones did something heinous and particularly lawyerly) where there was a bounty paid for every drone they killed. Now, with your “bag o’ snakes”, I have to wonder if the Attorney Collective managed to sneak into your universe and have set up this war to keep their lawsuit business alive.
Then again, maybe great minds think alike.
Sardtok
Why do all the snakes have skin conditions? 😛
Night-Gaunt49
Great minds think for themselves, by the way. I missed that part with the snake collective. I only started reading it back in 2010.
I would think either a force grown antenna or useful bionic implant would be needed for them that lost their antenna.
Antenna would be the most likely body part to be lost.
Ryan
Ah, you have to at least start with the origin of the Gavs. Imagine if there was one of you for every adult in India. I met Howard Tailor and suggested that a specialized new kind of prostitution would likely arise among the less lucky Gavs called “Gav-Wives”. These would be “leggy blondes” (along with other attributes the original Dr. Gaven Darnell liked in a woman), who would all know everything intimately about the baseline Gav, and treat otherwise toatal “strangers” (Gavs they had never met before) or repeated clients as if they were her husband who had simply come home from work. They ONLY cater to Gavs, who in turn are encouraged to play along. The individual pays and stays for the night, and she does whatever the average Gav loves done for him.
Howard was not interested in exploring that side of things!????????????
Jonesy
Are these the galactical versiob of Italians? Trying to not do something which is considered hard and cumbersome, then trying to assassinate those who are trying to do peace. Like a mafia.
0z79
*winces* I’ll admit to making certain assumptions about Russian stoicism, but *that* may have been over the line.
Yang_Tomoe
Dear Mr Baldwin:
Are you afraid of snakes?
I have been really enjoying your comics. Thank you for the alternating comic / real life story structure. It is very unique as it offers a view into the day to day life activities of a maker. This really is very rare and we are most honored and appreciative of it’s inclusion. Also the frequency of your posts are wonderful.
Thank you, @Yang! And nope! Not afraid of snakes, but them doing this impersonation/shapeshifting/whatever they’re doing for some reason cracks me up. 🙂
Yang_Tomoe
I have commented on art style before, but what the heck here we go again.
Please notice the eyes of the aliens. They are all different. It is the little details like this that really keep me coming back for more. Well done sir, well done indeed! Also I am happy to see such a wonderful variation between alien and human. Not every sentient life form in the universe is going to be a bipedal humanoid with two arms and two legs and such. Heck it’s not even true of the species here on this planet. So nice to see this comic moving away from that bias.
I cant but help but wonder what is preventing all these races from going through some form of social shock at meeting off-worlders. Xeno-freaking ought to be a pretty normal reaction for a species that has not seen off worlders before. I imagine it could get especially messy if the contacting race is similar in form to a natural predator.
Makes me wonder just how much they have been exposed prior to our hero’s arrival. It almost seems like the population has been prepared in advance and expecting visitors. I hope it’s is not a devious trap of some sort. There are all sorts of interesting and valuable members in the group now.
The translation nanos would have to make changes to a brain’s conceptual areas in order for everyone to understand each other’s languages. This may include the concept of aliens as contemporaries instead of people-eating monsters.
Charles Boylan
There is a reason snake disguised aliens all have ‘bad skin’. Snakes are killing aliens for skins as disguises. Skin preservation results in ‘bad skin’. Please insert skin job joke here.
I really wanted to see this one pop! Pretty please? Oh and everybody else probably saw it before me and already commented, but I just wanted to say that the new Spacetrawler logo is awesome!
@Muzhik, Chris probably does follow Schlock Mercenary since he includes it in his list of sci-fi comic links. It’s thanks to Chris’s links that I’ve discovered some new favourite aND read his other web comics now retired.
Hmm. Another bag of snakes?
Is Kaa behind this war?
That’s exactly what I was thinking, although this ‘bag of snakes’ has a name and is known by the others.
Klohturr says “we” are new at this, which seems a lot like an admission of plurality. (I hope that doesn’t count as undue speculation – I’m new here too.)
Ha! You’re right. “We” was NOT a typo.
Bags of snakes are terrible at birding. And assassinations.
@ Coyote
I’d like to see you spot fast moving flying animals if you were an assembly of slithery hoses with small eyes in an occluding bag who decide by committee.
Or assemble a charge for that matter: “The green wire connects to here. No, the red one. The blue one reminds me of my grandmother. Careful, if you make this connection, it will go off. Which one is green? Wait, can this be right?”
Chris, on the leader, is her one antennae short and zigzagged on the end for a reason? Or to distinguish females from the males?
@Jude, It was cut off at some point. Replacement prosthetic antennae aren’t in fashion there.
Apparently Yig has gained a foothold in this sector…
So snakes are behind this whole war?
They might be Nagas who aren’t snakes, yet resemble them. Imagine they went off world.
Chris, I don’t know if you ever followed the “Schlock Mercenary” web-comic, but years ago he had a character/species called “The Attorney Collective.” They were these serpentoid creatures (attorney drones) that shared a common consciousness. They also had a nice living serving as both prosecuting and defending attorneys in most legal cases. As one drone put it, it’s more efficient that way. (And you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a snake carry a briefcase.)
The drones disappeared as characters in the comic after the mercenaries won a contract (after the drones did something heinous and particularly lawyerly) where there was a bounty paid for every drone they killed. Now, with your “bag o’ snakes”, I have to wonder if the Attorney Collective managed to sneak into your universe and have set up this war to keep their lawsuit business alive.
Then again, maybe great minds think alike.
Why do all the snakes have skin conditions? 😛
Great minds think for themselves, by the way. I missed that part with the snake collective. I only started reading it back in 2010.
I would think either a force grown antenna or useful bionic implant would be needed for them that lost their antenna.
Antenna would be the most likely body part to be lost.
Ah, you have to at least start with the origin of the Gavs. Imagine if there was one of you for every adult in India. I met Howard Tailor and suggested that a specialized new kind of prostitution would likely arise among the less lucky Gavs called “Gav-Wives”. These would be “leggy blondes” (along with other attributes the original Dr. Gaven Darnell liked in a woman), who would all know everything intimately about the baseline Gav, and treat otherwise toatal “strangers” (Gavs they had never met before) or repeated clients as if they were her husband who had simply come home from work. They ONLY cater to Gavs, who in turn are encouraged to play along. The individual pays and stays for the night, and she does whatever the average Gav loves done for him.
Howard was not interested in exploring that side of things!????????????
Are these the galactical versiob of Italians? Trying to not do something which is considered hard and cumbersome, then trying to assassinate those who are trying to do peace. Like a mafia.
*winces* I’ll admit to making certain assumptions about Russian stoicism, but *that* may have been over the line.
Dear Mr Baldwin:
Are you afraid of snakes?
I have been really enjoying your comics. Thank you for the alternating comic / real life story structure. It is very unique as it offers a view into the day to day life activities of a maker. This really is very rare and we are most honored and appreciative of it’s inclusion. Also the frequency of your posts are wonderful.
Well done. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, @Yang! And nope! Not afraid of snakes, but them doing this impersonation/shapeshifting/whatever they’re doing for some reason cracks me up. 🙂
I have commented on art style before, but what the heck here we go again.
Please notice the eyes of the aliens. They are all different. It is the little details like this that really keep me coming back for more. Well done sir, well done indeed! Also I am happy to see such a wonderful variation between alien and human. Not every sentient life form in the universe is going to be a bipedal humanoid with two arms and two legs and such. Heck it’s not even true of the species here on this planet. So nice to see this comic moving away from that bias.
I cant but help but wonder what is preventing all these races from going through some form of social shock at meeting off-worlders. Xeno-freaking ought to be a pretty normal reaction for a species that has not seen off worlders before. I imagine it could get especially messy if the contacting race is similar in form to a natural predator.
Makes me wonder just how much they have been exposed prior to our hero’s arrival. It almost seems like the population has been prepared in advance and expecting visitors. I hope it’s is not a devious trap of some sort. There are all sorts of interesting and valuable members in the group now.
The translation nanos would have to make changes to a brain’s conceptual areas in order for everyone to understand each other’s languages. This may include the concept of aliens as contemporaries instead of people-eating monsters.
There is a reason snake disguised aliens all have ‘bad skin’. Snakes are killing aliens for skins as disguises. Skin preservation results in ‘bad skin’. Please insert skin job joke here.
“You don’t look so good, Edgar…”
I really wanted to see this one pop! Pretty please? Oh and everybody else probably saw it before me and already commented, but I just wanted to say that the new Spacetrawler logo is awesome!
@Muzhik, Chris probably does follow Schlock Mercenary since he includes it in his list of sci-fi comic links. It’s thanks to Chris’s links that I’ve discovered some new favourite aND read his other web comics now retired.