False Economies
The idea for this strip has been hanging around in our pile of prospective comics for quite a while now — it even pre-dates this one.
There’s something about the regimented movement of Space Invaders that is simultaneously benign and malevolent. Benign, because there’s nothing unpredictable about it: get your timing right and you can shoot them all quite easily. There are no tricks here, no unexpected changes of direction, no extra shields or powers, just human reactions against the speed of a machine.
Malevolent, because the march of the invaders is reminiscent of the public troop displays of countries showing off their might to the world. There’s something about wave after wave of pixellated creature relentlessly attacking that is reminiscent of zombie invasions. It’s not a question of winning; it’s just about how long you can survive. Quite what that says about the political aim of those troop displays, I’ll leave to your imagination.
There is a reason why this strip has finally seen the light of day, though: in my ongoing series of Inkscape tutorial articles in Full Circle Magazine it’s almost time for me to delve into the details of one of my least used tools in the Inkscape arsenal: 3D boxes. What better way to get to grips with how they work than to use them to draw a comic?
Cette bande dessinée est aussi disponible en français
This comic is also available in French
Click here to download the SVG source for this comic
G2: What do you mean?
G1: Well, I know a new spaceship isn't cheap, but just think how many man-hours are lost every year to scores of pilots and co-pilots climbing up these relentless ladders to get into their craft.
G2: Hmmm… I suppose it does add up pretty quickly.
G1: And then there's the question of how we're supposed to do our job properly with a 30 year-old ship — it's not really as intimidating as it once was.
[Final scene show they've been climbing up a ladder attached to an enormous Space Invader]
G1: Still, ours is not to reason why. We've just got to fly this thing in battle formation, no matter how uneconomic or outdated it is!
Our comics are released under a 
... which requires suitable attribution if you use them...
... and doesn't allow commercial use...
... and requires any derivative works to be released under the same licence.
This symbol indicates an SVG file that you can download and use under this licence
Discussion ¬