Cedra and I had a long debate about the underwear. About how it’s unrealistic for modesty — since Jabby doesn’t care, and theoretically everyone else on the ship is dead. But long ago I decided against showing nudity in Spacetrawler. Our answer was that, since he has been unconscious, it has absorbent qualities.
Makes me miss Potty-Bot though.
I decided against showing nudity
A design decision not shared with other scifi cartoons one could mention such as this one (but which also sidestep showing full frontal with clever use of shadows, obstacles, and viewing angles)..
Still, the story arc delves into mature topics: self-sacrifice and preservation of self and other, and the question of consent, free will, and responsibility for murder, pro-active and retro-active.
These struggles are externalized to great effect in the image of Mauricio turning into a cyborg with metal parts and ominous flares of pink that make HAL’s red light pale in comparison.
Therefore I very much doubt that even those puritanic (but functional) shorts, whose color matches the flooring and so nicely complement the pink-viole(n)t Jabby, are enough to disneyfi Spacetrawler…
I find the fact that Mauricio is wearing adult diapers to be hysterical in the context of his situation.
I was wondering about those briefs, and trying to figure out if the metal was grown underneath them, or what.
I like that they’re in the same color range as that other inexplicably present garment, the Hulk’s shorts.
Bring back Potty Bot!!!
Ha! I’ve considered it! But not a lot to add to that character. Plus, it’s in love with Pierrot. 🙂
I’m sure you can retcon a strip in sometime last year where Potty-Bot 2.0 is introduced to the despondent Mauricio in an attempt to get his mind off of his troubles.
Also, it’s been a long time since I thought about that alien sex ship comic. Happen to have a link to it, or is it offline?
I strange dilemma I’d say only found in the USA. Nudity is bad, grotesque violence is somehow okay. Sums up our warped culture thanks to religion. What ever makes you happy. I had expected him to be naked. But either way is fine. I don’t think about things in any relation to how much of a human body is shown.
Nice body detail on him. Looks like he won’t be able to bend much. That could hamper him some. Unless it is a bendable metal, then never mind. He is still left one handed though. But much better movement he has now.
I envy how Europe has a very healthy view on the human body. It won’t warp children to see it. Not gonna happen here in the next century that is for sure.
Mauricio’s conversation with the Killer A. I. reminds me a bit of the one in Dark Star the discussion with the bomb trying to convince it not to explode.
Those are briefs not a diaper.
I had to go way back and look, but yeah, we have seen Mauricio 2.0’s left hand (10/23/17) and it’s human-looking now.
One must consider the audience, I’m afraid — and since a goodly portion of it is American and therefore simultaneously sex-mad and seized with horror of the physical like a Mormon bishop, briefs seem a reasonable alternative to making what must be a psychotic case for nudity in the context of a story that, to be fair, really does not resemble “Little Annie Fanny” in any way.
No point in making a point that will poke a lot of people in the wrong places, whether they considered them ‘wrong’ or not in the first place, the making of said point evoking vigorous defenses from people whose own lack of prudence now becomes evident and, indeed, impossible to hide further. And so the spiral into madness would begin. No thank you. Your solution works for me, Chris. Let those who seethe over it bubble quietly in the corner and not bother the readers.
I think it makes a later decision to publish an easier one. Nothing to cover up. ????
All this talk over whether his genitalia is covered or not. I wouldn’t have noticed it one way or the other if it hadn’t been mentioned.
What I noticed was his left hand with the modified Jabby. The fingers are capable of movement as seen with his index finger raised in panel 7. So is that part of Jabby attached at the palm only or what? Curious to know, now that Jabby is even more melded with Mauricio’s body, is how much of it has melded itself into his brain. After all, for Mauricio’s arm to have lifted to kill creatures previously, Jabby must’ve had control of at least enough of the brain that governs motor function. I’m convinced that Mauricio’s mind is now a Jekyll/Hyde hybrid whether he knows it or not.
I wish I had thought of this joke long ago: “I’m warning you, I’m… armed.”
Which leaves Nogg in the in-enviable position of sharing a nice breakfast with Mauricio and being …
…ahem…
“disarming.”
Well, I appreciate the underwear.
I’m having flashbacks to ADS’s Sentenced to Prism, in which one of the characters winds up with most of their body replaced with crystal after some misadventures.
*ADF
About the underwear… some ppl are just self-modest.. (not prudish!), and then there’s the security part of holding dangling bits from swaying into sharp things; there’s warmth; there’s soaking up sweat; there’s keeping musky odors from being ever-present.
There are a lot of good things about underwear. ????