09/02/13 Dimitri, Emily, and Pierrot


Ah, Labor Day weekend. I actually did take a break, and my girlfriend and I drove to some remote town we like simply to walk around and enjoy being somewhere different. Perspective is a really good thing. And what does it all matter if we’re all simply part of some computer simulation, right?

In other news, Miyazaki is retiring. Sad! But, well, good for him. Thank you, for all the great movies and comics.

The pre-press for the book plods along. I’m still thinking I’m on schedule to have it done and off by the end of the week. Keep your fingers crossed!

And again: Many of you have already told me that you missed the Kickstarter, and others that they wanted different combinations of goods, and you want to still get it. Well, I’ve opened up a stripped-down temporary store PURELY for pre-sales between now and when the book is shipped. For books #1 & #2 I have only added them as “doodled” versions. Glasses and certificates will be pulled sometime in mid-September when I put in the order to the printer (I won’t be printing extras). If you wish the straight-up books, please visit my TopatoCo page. Visit the “Book #3 store HERE.


  1. Michael Rubinstein

    I see the whole thing and love it. One minor grammar correction though: in the second-to-last panel, “to speed up it’s road” should be “to speed up its road”. No apostrophe. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is”. For possession, use “its”. Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.

  2. Onlooker

    Christopher, I have been enjoying this comic for quite some time. The ending is nothing but a very very sweet finish to a wildly flavorful cake. Very sweet with just the right amount of bitterness tinge to it. Poor Martina :c

  3. Long Time Lurker

    Little known fact: The Universe is really run by cats.
    There are roughly 80.000 intelligent life forms in the Milky Way alone, and they all have cats. All of them. Think about that.

  4. RedDwarfIV

    Yes ZB, it was, to prevent everyone all rushing in to nick Uranus’ materials.

    Later on, there was a review of Dark Planets to make sure they weren’t that way for the benefit of politicians instead of for the benefit of the inhabitants. Earth still technically IS a dark planet.

    However, there are issues such as Dmitri’s bank account, and Uranus’ materials, and the fact that there ARE a few humans away from Earth to look after. Earth may still be a dark planet, but there are still things that the Earth seat can be used for.

  5. WellWellWell

    Am I the only one slightly wondering about aliens with distincly penis-shaped snouts crawling into cute female science-majors bedrooms while they are asleep?

    But a worthy ending nonetheless!

  6. skythorn

    May we see an intergalactic std? The dreaded Russian tea cake disorder from the other side of the drach simm (?) Imagine a cure involving Dustin.

    Still pleased about Yuri’s salvation.

  7. ronald

    IMHO a bit of a shame that we never learned more about Emily being raised by coyotes. I don’t think that fact was ever even relevant to the story (there are any number of bad-ss fictional characters who *weren’t* raised by coyotes, so it’s not as though Emily couldn’t have been Emily without that background detail). Oh well.

  8. Night-Gaunt

    If Emily was raised by coyotes, why did she eat them? Looks more like she was raised in the rough and preferred it that way. More nice wrap up. So worth staying with it all this time. I was never disappointed in anything I read.

  9. Wei-Hwa Huang

    “How Pierrot Got His Cat Back” could easily be a story in and of itself. Remember, as far as Earth is concerned, his body was mysteriously missing after a roadside accident. If the accident had any survivors the last thing they would remember would be Pierrot getting violent. I’m surprised he wasn’t declared dead and his assets auctioned off.

    I hear Miyazaki keeps coming out of retirement because he doesn’t like what his successors are doing (his son is a good artist but a crappy director).

  10. Wei-Hwa Huang

    “And mining Uranus was finally begun.” has grammatical problems. The easiest fix is probably changing “was” to “has” and adding an “of” — “And mining of Uranus has finally begun.”

    Long explanation: “Begin” is transitive if the subject is doing the action; but intransitive if the subject is the action. “John begins fighting” — transitive. “Fighting begins” — intransitive. In this sentence “mining Uranus” is the subject, so “begin” is an intransitive verb. But if it’s intransitive, you can’t use it in the passive voice. “John begins fighting” converts into “Fighting was begun by John”, but there’s no equivalent transformation for “Fighting begins”, as you’d have no subject: “[missing subject] was begun by fighting”. What you can do is use the perfect aspect: “John begins fighting” converts to “John has begun fighting”; and “Fighting begins” converts to “Fighting has begun”.

  11. ronald

    >>>If Emily was raised by coyotes, why did she eat them?

    Because at times their corpses might have been the only food that was available, not only for her but also for other coyotes?

    I’m not an expert on coyotes, but I’d presume that when a wild animal is hungry, it eats whatever’s easiest to acquire, and a dead coyote is just as edible as a dead any-other-kind-of-animal. Some animals will eat their own *offspring* if that’s all that’s available. Not much use for sentiment in the wild. It’s eat or be eaten, be quick or be dead.

    The strip stated a number of times that Emily was raised by coyotes. If we can’t trust what the strip tells us about the characters, well, what else is there?

  12. Michael O.

    Wei-Hwa Huang – The passive is fine; the (true) subject was just left out, common to passive constructions. The GOB began mining Uranus; the mining of Uranus was begun by the GOB. I agree that it’s awkward, and is better with “the mining of,” but it’s not technically grammatically incorrect. I would not use the perfect “has.”

    Great story and great ending, Mr. Baldwin!

  13. BlueNight

    I am enjoying the wrap-up; this was, after all, Martina’s story. I just wanted to say that Pierrot has always sounded in my head like Wilt from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.

  14. Nomi

    I respectfully disagree with Wei-Hwa Huang. “Mining Uranus was finally begun” is pitch-perfect; one of those English forms that convey EXACTLY what is meant where the more technically accurate one would not.

  15. Hahaha, eesh.

    While “was finally begun” is grammatically fine, why not just put the subject in? “And the GOB finally began mining Uranus” is a bit clearer–although what you have now is fine. (I didn’t even notice it as awkward, and am only commenting because others did.)


    Shouldn’t Pierrot be able to understand what his cat says now that he has that universal translator chip in his head? Or does that only work on “intelligent” life…not to say that cats aren’t intelligent. I’m surprised it didn’t turn out that cats are actually undercover aliens from another planet and now, because of Pierrot, they have been found out.

  17. Christopher

    @Jpthunk, Yes, it only works with sentient beings with language (like it didn’t work for furryites). Cats (we have many) and other animals do have verbal communication, but… well… too complex an additional issue, I’m just not going there. 🙂

  18. mouse

    Actually, I see no reason _not_ to believe he understands his cat – we see him ask the cat a question, but he doesn’t tell us what answer he got (and we don’t see how he voted). And I am quite certain that cats can say “Thank you” – my girl-cat says that every time I let her outside rather than leave her to just use her cat door (I’m assuming she’s saying “thank you” and not “Sucker!” because …. well … she’s really sweet, and she wouldn’t say that to me, right?)

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