General

What does the title mean?

Most of my titles end up being music-related. The main title is taken from the last few lines of R.E.M.'s 'Saturn Return', which are as follows:

Easy to take off,
harder to fly-
harder to wake Galileo.

How this relates to the story is something I'll be revealing as I go along.

What's the comic's rating?

I would rate this at an R level, due to the profanity and violence, etc.

WTF. This is furry?

Short answer: Yes, sorta.

Long answer: Yes, in that a lot of the characters have both human and animal traits. It is stylistically furry, because that is the artistic background I come from, and I won't compromise on that; I am a furry artist, whatever that means at the end of the day.

It is, however, THEMATICALLY near-future science fiction, because THAT is the literary background I come from. It isn't symbolism - they really are literally what they appear to be, they really did have their DNA changed nonconsensually, they really are screwed up over it. They are NOT HAPPY being what they are. Showering with fur sucks, as does watching parents hide their children away from you due to something you never, ever asked for. It is what all good science fiction is - human beings put into situations you and I will never have to deal with, so that we can watch them respond, interact, and be human.

Along those lines, it should be noted that the majority of the characters in this story consider themselves to be human beings, not animals, and some go to extreme lengths to maintain the illusion to themselves. This is not 'OMG FURRIES VS HYOOMANS', or 'OMG FURSECUTION'. There are good guys and bad guys, oppressors and the oppressed, on BOTH SIDES OF THE GENETIC SPLIT.

Can I use your characters?

If by use you mean 'recycle and claim credit for', no. Some of them(Otiro, Koori, Sera, Cass) don't even belong to me, and are being used by permission. If by use you mean 'draw a picture of and give proper credit for', then yeah, that's cool.

What are the inspirations?

Inspirations come in both the thematic and stylistic varieties. I think you can tell which is which. :3

Movies: Bladerunner, Reservoir Dogs, Gattaca
Books: Brave New World(Aldous Huxley), The Island of Dr. Moreau(H G Wells), Evolution(Stephen Baxter), Vacuum Diagrams(Stephen Baxter), Midnight(Dean Koontz)
Comics: Transmetropolitan, Desolation Jones, Planetary(all Warren Ellis)
Games: Rifts, FF7(Turk storylines).

Many more that I'm forgetting at the moment, of course.

How is the comic drawn?

On 8x11 sheets of copy paper with a 0.5 mechanical pencil. No ink. It is then scanned into Photoshop 6, level adjusted to be nice and dark, cleaned up, and underpainted, with layers of varying opacity to get the effects of shadowplay. Clean borders, text and text bubbles/boxes are also laid in in Photoshop.

Is this political?

Not really. You don't know my politics and it doesn't matter, because in a sane world, nothing that's gone on leading up to the comic(the splicing, cloning of creatures for labor use, mistreatment of sentient life, etc) would be advocated or allowed by anyone of any political affiliation. That is somewhat the point - that this world is NOT sane. The only bit of personal politics I've injected into it is that in my little world, Ma Bell never broke up. :}

When do you update?

Once a week, Sunday night/Monday morning, somewhere in there.

Can I complain/comment/ask a question?

Yes, at liam.roark (at) gmail.com.

World/Characters

Why does everyone ride bicycles?

I can't draw cars. I'm not good at drawing bikes but I am atrocious at drawing cars. It's an artistic cop-out, nothing more. No, I'm not a Critical-Mass-er.

Why is Maren all white?

You'll find out.

Why do some of the splicers wear shoes and the others don't?

In its beginnings, the splicing project was an imperfect science, and not all subjects had the same results, or the same degree of those results. Some have feet that fit in shoes, some don't, simple as that.