Comics

Memoria by Laura Fae

A four panel comic of Hera and Lovelace in a painted style. Lovelace is a dark-skinned woman with short black hair and a scar over her right eye. She is wearing a baggy blue jumpsuit with orange accents. Hera is a humanoid artificial intelligence, with bright blue skin and frizzy hair. She is wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with light blue accents. The first panel is a close-up on Lovelace’s face against a dark grey background. She asks “How many systems on this station are fully operational?” The second panel shows a cutoff side profile of Hera while Lovelace turns her back, gesturing in the air. Hera says, “Oh no, not this again.” and Lovelace asks, “How many parts of the infrastructure are stable?” In the third panel, Lovelace and Hera have their backs to each other. Hera has her arms crossed and says “Nope. I’m not getting into this.” Lovelace has her arms still raised and says, “Oh are you? Tell me, what’s going on with the showers in the crew quarters.” In the fourth panel Hera is sitting with her head in her hands against a black background. She is still talking with Lovelace, who isn’t shown. Hera says, “I’m not listening.” and Lovelace responds, “What about the interface in the radar system?” Hera says, “Don’t care.” Lovelace says, “Dead circuits in the hangar bay rigging?” Hera says, “You’re not going to-” and is cut off.
A six panel continuation of the comic. In the first panel, Lovelace is glaring and says, “Well that’s nice. You know what all those things have in common? They were all broken before the star went crazy. Face it, it’s not just the star,” The second panel shows Hera looking down and glaring. Behind her are the words, “it’s the autopilot.”, finishing Lovelace’s sentence. There are three lines in front of her to show shock. The third panel shows a glowing blue circle with wavy lines coming from it, presumably the intercom through which Hera speaks. Hera says, “You want to get out of my face. Right now.” In the fourth panel, Lovelace has her arms crossed and says, “Okay, tell you what. Do something for me. Just count to ten. Without glitching. Prove to me that you can do something right, and I’ll leave you alone.” The fifth panel shows Lovelace and Minkowski, a woman with light skin and blond hair. Minkowski waves up at Hera and says, “Hera you don’t have to-”. The sixth panel shows the blue intercom and Hera, who has an angry expression on her face. She says, “Be quiet commander.”
A five panel continuation of the comic. In the first panel, Hera floats against a black background, a focused expression on her face. She says, “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. E-eight.” In the second panel Minkowski and Lovelace look solemnly up at Hera. The third panel is a close up on Lovelace saying, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” In the fourth panel, Hera looks angrily down and says, “That’s not my-” She cuts off and in the fifth panel she yells, “fault!”.
A four panel continuation of the comic, featuring Maxwell and Hera. Maxwell is a brown skinned woman with reddish-brown hair. She is wearing glasses, black pants and a shirt that says “SI-5” on it. In the first panel she is sitting on a rock on a beach, with Hera looking at her. Hera says “Oh, for God’s sake, there has to be a better way to do this.” The second panel has close ups of Maxwell and Hera facing off and glaring at each other, the beach in the background. Maxwell says, “Sorry, I- almost lost you there.” and Hera says, “Yep. I noticed.” The third panel is a close up of Maxwell’s face. She has a serious expression and is holding her hands up in front of her collar. She says, “There’s still some time left, we might still be able to fix-”. The last panel is a close up on Hera, who has a saddened expression on her face. She cuts off Maxwell and asks, “-me?”
A five panel continuation of the comic. The first panel shows Hera and Maxwell from behind. They are looking at the ocean together, the sky turning pink as the sun sets. The second panel is a close up of Hera, with an angry expression. She says, “So here’s what I don’t understand: I remember things. Fine, whatever. But why not stop there?” The third panel is another close up of Hera, holding her arms up in a shrug. She asks, “Why make me forget things? Why can my memories give me fears, insecurities and weaknesses?” The fourth panel is another close up of Hera, looking to the side, now with a sad expression. She says, “Seems like a design flaw.” In the third panel Maxwell holds Hera’s shoulders, with the beach in the background. She says, “Because you’re a person.” Hera says, “Ha ha, very funny.”
A four panel continuation of the comic. In the first panel, Maxwell is holding her hands to her chest with a sad expression. She is saying, “Really. No one expects perfection, that’s never been the point. You’re here to be a member of this crew, to have your own opinions and your own unique perspective. And that means you’re going to be wrong sometimes. That’s the price.” The second panel is a close up of Maxwell’s eyes as she says, “Hera, perhaps I haven’t been clear. We have exactly two options: on one hand, we work together. We find what’s wrong, we fix it, you get better.” In the third panel, Maxwell has a more forceful expression. She is saying, “On the other hand, Colonel Kepler makes me delete you. How is that even a choice?” In the fourth panel Hera crosses her arms stubbornly as she floats against a white background. She says, “It’s not. Delete me.” From out of panel, Maxwell says, “Are you even listening to yourself? I can rewrite your-” Hera cuts her off and says, “No. They had their chance. They could’ve made me better, they made me me. Now you get to live with it.”
A five panel continuation of the comic. The first panel is a close up of Maxwell with an angry expression as she says, “Aren’t you forgetting your responsibility to the people on this-” She is cut off. The second panel is a close up of Hera glaring at Maxwell, saying, “No.” In the third panel, Hera holds Maxwell’s shoulders and is saying, “No. This is my life, and you don’t get to rewrite it to fit what you need.” In the fourth panel, Maxwell and Hera look at each other with the ocean in the background while Hera says, “I don’t want to go, but if this is it…” The fifth panel is a close up on Hera’s face. She has a melancholy smile and says, “I’d rather go as me, thank you very much.”

Call and Response by G. J. Smith

A page of grey text. In the top left of the page in bolded font is “Call And Response” and on the top right of the page is “by G. J. Smith”. The text reads, “...and then the third guy turns to the genie and says ‘I don’t wanna be alone, I wish my friends were back here!” “The captain’s joke rings through the Hephaestus, and the laughter of her crew answers. They’re gathered in the mess hall-or maybe the hangar bay. Or they could be in one of the store rooms, in front of a metal create so large it looks like part of the walls-it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the captain jokes, the crew laughs, and the mood lifts from whatever argument they’d been having.” “God, that’s dark!” says Hui, or maybe Fisher. The others nod in agreement as they chortle.” The word dark is in italics. “It is pretty grim,’ Lambert agrees, his tone critical, but the wry smile on his face close enough to a smile. Even Selberg can’t fight off his amusement.” “Well yeah, but that’s the point,’ says Lovelace, the real and proper Captain Lovelace, proudly surveying the response to her handiwork, ‘Look on the bright side, at least that’s not our crew.” The phrase, “the real and proper Captain Lovelace” written in neon blue text, with pale red text underneath it, slightly to the right so that they overlay, but don’t line up perfectly. The text continues. “Right, and with friends like that, who needs enemies?” Hui-or-Fisher again. The sentence “Isabel Lovelace is watching them, the captain and her crew.” Is written in neon blue text, with pale red text underneath it, slightly to the right so they overlay, but don’t line up perfectly. The text continues. Lovelace laughs, and Lovelace watches. The phrase “...and Lovelace watches.” is written with the same neon blue and pale red effect. The text continues. A glass wall stands between me and her, and all these other people who only exist in memory now. The phrase “All the same” is then written in neon blue text, with the phrase “All different” written in pale red text, and upside down so that the bottom of the words touch. The text continues. Like a ghost watching other ghosts. I try to move, or speak, only to find myself choked off. The laughter dies down-the noise makes Fourier look at me. The work “look” is in italics. The text continues. Maybe we’re in one of the labs. Maybe it’s not just a glass wall between us-maybe it’s a giant glass jar. Maybe before Captain Lovelace told her joke, they were arguing about what to do with the specimen in the tank. The words, “Do you know what trying to breathe formaldehyde feels like Sam?” Are written in neon blue and pale red text, layered to align almost perfectly.
The text continues on the top section of the page, in layered neon blue and pale red font. The words start off nearly perfectly aligned, but get more disconnected as the words continue, making it difficult to read. The text reads, “It’s probably not too far from drowning in your own blood. I can’t move, I can’t even breathe, as though I’m being pinned in place by Captain Lovelace and her crew staring at me herself, as though I’m something to be afraid of.” The words “breathe” and “herself” are in italics. The text continues in darker blue text, with pale blue text layered behind it and reads, “And the thing is, I don’t know I’m not.” The text is cut off by “BRRNNNN” in bright yellow and red writing, which turns into scribbly lines as it continues. There is a four panel, mostly grayscale, comic of Lovelace, a dark skinned woman with curly black hair. She is wearing a white t-shirt, pants and socks. In the first panel she is lying in bed, under some blankets. She has a startled expression, as if being woken suddenly by the alarm. The second panel shows her sitting up in bed from behind. She is outlined in red and sections of the Hephaestus are shaded in blue. There are two white text boxes, the first of which says, “Reveille” and the second of which reads, “Time to wake up.” The third panel shows her legs as she sits on her bed. She is still outlined in red. There are two text boxes, the first says, “Get up.” and the second says, “Deep breath.” The fourth panel is a close up of her face, with a tired expression. There is a text box that says, “Day’s about to start.”
A three panel continuation of the comic of Lovelace against a white background. The first panel shows her from behind, with two white text boxes. The first reads, “Shake it off Isabel, you’ve got a job to do.” The second reads, “You’ve got a captain to be.” The second panel shows Lovelace walking through the Hephaestus as she braids her hair, a tired expression on her face. She is slightly outlined in red and there is a black text box that reads in red text, “Day #...?” In the third panel, Lovelace looks up at Hera, a blue screen with blue, yellow and red circles to look like eyes. Lovelace asks, “Hera?” Hera speaks in light blue text in a blue text box. She says, “Good morning Captain. Today is…” She is cut off by another black text box which reads, “Day #1131” in red text. Behind are faint text boxes with different numbers written on them. Below the panels are the words, “Here’s two things there are no shortage of on the Hephaestus. Time and space.” Time is written in black and red font made to look like that of a digital clock. Space is written in white, in a black text box with white specks made to look like stars.
At the top of the page is a diagram of a star with a line that connects to a small space station. The words, “Wolf 350 -> Earth=7.8 light years. 7.8 light years=497075 AU=46,205,996,754,212 mi.” Below the diagram is text written in gray font. It reads, “Space is the easy one. Obviously there’s a lot of space in SPACE-that’s why it’s called space.” “But it’s not until you get off Earth that you realize how much you never actually realized how big space is. And I can draw you all the diagrams I want, but SPACE really needs to be seen to really wrap your head around it.” Between lines are more diagrams with drawings of planets and distance values. The text continues, “Maybe we’re not meant to get our heads around it-after all, once you’re on the other side of the 46-trillion mile road trip to the Hephaestus, that number stops meaning much of anything, except that you are impossibly far from home. You need to break it down. Make it simpler. If you don’t have those stepping stones across the space, it’s easy to lose track of things.” Below the comic is a large black spot with three drawings. First is a drawing of a person drawn in white against the black background in a space suit, with a space station and a blue star in front of them. Above the drawing are the words, “Like people.” The second drawing is of a person shaded in yellow floating in a grey space station. Above the drawing are the words, “Like yourself.” The third drawing is a close up of a hand holding a book with a photograph of a person in uniform clipped into it. Above the drawing are the words, “Like time.” Time is written in red digital clock font.
Page 5: A seven panel continuation of the comic. The first panel is a close up of Lovelace’s hands holding a piece of machinery against a dark background. Written above her hands in white font is, “Everything but the task in front of you spreads out across the dark.” Below that in bright blue are the words, “All the same.” Below that in upside-down, pale red font are the words, “All different.” The third panel has a close up on Eiffel, a man with frizzy hair pulled into a ponytail, who has a wide-eyed look and has a cigarette in his mouth, a close up of Lovelace and a close up of Hera’s screen, which now has a bright blue jagged line to look like a smiling mouth. Hera says, “Must be scary, huh. Having such tiny boxes to work with in such a big, big universe.” In the bottom right corner is a black text box that reads, “Day #...?” in red font. The fourth panel is a close up of Eiffel looking up at Hera. He says, “What, like just thinking about it doesn’t make you wanna go curl up under your own servers for a while?” Hera says, “Nope! But that’s what you get when your brain is made for a diurnal lifestyle on a rock only 24901 miles around.” The fifth panel is a close up of Lovelace, who says, “...Those of us who were made on Earth anyway.” The sixth panel is a small cartoon-style drawing of Eiffel and Hera looking at each other with wide eyes as Lovelace says from out of panel, “Maybe that explains a few things.” In the third panel Eiffel asks with a smile, “Are you saying you run on Alien Standard Time now, Captain?” Lovelace has an exasperated expression and says, “No because time is fake, actually. I mean, days, hours minutes, it’s all made up, when you think about it.”
At the top of the page is Hera against a blue background with a circuitry pattern. She says, “But there’s benefits to measuring time. Like reminding you when to eat, whether you’ve gotten enough sleep...Or how long you can keep ignoring your regular station duties before something explodes!” Below is a drawing of Lovelace leaning forward at Eiffel with a calm expression on her face. Eiffel is leaning back with a nervous smile. Hera is in the background with a nervous expression on her screen. Lovelace says, “Or what day it is...or if you’ve updated the star charts this week.” Eiffel says, “You guys are never gonna let me live that down, are you.” Below is a drawing of Lovelace from behind, with red music notes and song lyrics around her. There is a faint blue box with the words “Fast forward.” in digital clock font, and behind it is a faint red box with the word “Rewind.” There is a close up of Lovelace’s face as Minkowski enters through a door in the background.
A seven-panel continuation of the comic. In the first panel Minkowski, a muscular woman with short hair, turns to Lovelace and asks, “What’s that you’re humming captain?” Lovelace says, “Oh, it’s. Just some old sci-fi song about soldiers in a space war.” The lines in the panel are drawn in bright blue and red, slightly offset from each other. In front of Minkowski are the words, “Day #? Hr#?” in faint red font, and to the sides of the panel are the same faint “Rewind” and “Fast forward” text boxes. The second panel is drawn in bright red and blue, slightly offset from each other. It shows Lovelace sitting in a chair, saying “No way, you know that song? Go figure, you’re a real nerd, Lambert.” The third panel shows Minkowski looking down at a control panel and saying, “Guess that’s relatable wherever you’re stationed...At least we have a way to get ourselves home. Once we get things figured out anyway.” Next to the panel is a list written in yellow and is slightly cut off by the page. It reads, “Inventory: Music transmissions-, have no voice of their-, analyze and replies-, codes otherwise in-, replicate matter-, duplicates are people too?-, Fluent Eiffelese-, Do NOT want us to-, finish the process-” Next to it is a drawing of Lovelace with the words, “Assuming I can, you know, go home.” Minkowski looks back at Lovelace, confused, then says, “Is this about the crap that Kepler was spouting? Because I swear, if he thinks we’re going to let you just-stay out here-” Next to her is a black text box with, “Day #1099” written in it. Next to the panel is another list written in red which reads, “To-Do List. Get the Urania [Urania is then crossed out and replaced with] Hephaestus engine running. Get out [Get out is crossed out]. Find out what the aliens want. Go home [Go home is crossed out]. GO HOME. Don’t look back. Don’t die. [Don’t die is crossed out]. Failed step one.” The final panel shows Lovelace, with another Lovelace drawn in bright blue on one side of her and another Lovelace drawn in bright red on the other side. Lovelace says, “No it’s not that.” and the blue Lovelace says, “You can never go home.” Lovelace says, “It’s nothing.” and red Lovelace says, “You were home.”
A six panel continuation of the comic. In the first panel Minkowski looks at Lovelace and says, “It sure doesn’t sound like it…” Lovelace looks at her with a slight annoyed expression, the blue and red Lovelace’s still there. Lovelace says, “Well Minkowski...See technically? I’ve never even been outside this star system before. Can’t exactly go home if I already am home, right?” Blue Lovelace says, “And now you’re back.” Red Lovelace says, “And you can never go back.” The next panel shows Lovelace and Minkowski in front of a window that shows space. Minkowski says, “But...you still remember it. So you’re still you, right?” Lovelace says, “Guess that depends on how you’re defining ‘you’.” Minkowski looks to the side with a solemn expression and says, “Well...there’s no denying that people change. Things like this especially, they…” she is cut off by the same close up drawing of someone holding a book with a photo clipped into it from before, with the words, “...change people.” written below. Lovelace holds up a hand and says, “Not exactly the same as getting incinerated by a solar flare…” Minkowski says from out of panel, “Um...no, I guess not.” The last panel shows Lovelace, Minkowski and Hera drawn in a more cartoony style against a grey background. Hera says, “...buuuuut if it’d help, there has been some discussion of something like this in Stanislaw Lem’s Dialogi, as well as Star Trek fan-” She is cut off by Minkowski, who says, “Uh, maybe save the philosophy lecture for later, Hera?” Hera says, “Aw…”
A digital sketch of Minkowski in yellow. She is smiling down at two small cartoony Lovelace’s in her hands. There are two more floating around her head. At the top of the page are the words, “To Be Continued.” with another small Lovelace floating next to it, saying “Yaaay!” In the bottom right corner of the page is typed, “Call and Response. By G.J. ‘Gill’ Smith. A Wolf 359 fancomic. Pages complete: 8 of 23. See @eeveeEnthusiast for more updates-otherwise, watch this space.”