Going through the old comics again. It’s Dranglaex everywhere, but in 3.07 there’s another case of Drangleax. Hopefully Tim will revise that when he’s re-doing those pages for the books.
You are correct, Alain. Sometimes when I’m writing, I think my brain defaults to “eax” because its a more common order of the letters. This one slipped through.
The instance in issue #3 has been fixed for the books as well 🙂
Heck, for the past five chapters, in my head it’s (incorrectly) been “Drangelax.”
I am unclear why he says they would have the Federation smoking in ruins, though. If the Feds have 2 casters and they have 2, wouldn’t that be even odds? I thought it was kind of a “Mutually Assured Destruction” scenario.
Yes, even odds for Starcasters. But the Dranglaex have a large, collected fleet that poses its own significant threat. They are a force to be reckoned with regardless and Starcasters have some limits which prevent them from necessarily being an “I win” button, so having two Starcasters AND the bigger fleet was the preferable path towards an easy conquest.
That brings up something that’s always bothered me. Back on page 22 of issue 1, Speck says that there are six Starcasters – two for the federation, two for the Dranglaex (which is now one for them and one for Cort)….and then Nyrah interrupts him. Are we ever gonna find out who has numbers five and six? I’ve read through the archives twice and I’m pretty sure that hasn’t been covered.
I’m assuming this is your reason for going past issue 7 (assuming this is build-up to the climax and 7 is the actual battle/immediate prelude).
Otherwise you could have a “natural ending” (season ends, everyone is happy, Cort, Speck and Nyrah go away from everything and spend their days having picnics, creating solar systems and annihilating anyone who tries to kill them.)
Of course, you probably like the characters too much for that 🙂
I suppose, however, Speck states in https://cad-comic.com/comic/the-starcaster-chronicles-01-23/ “The assumption that the empire controls TWO starcasters is the primary reason the Federation won’t declare all-out war.” Of course, they could just be vastly overconfident about their fleet strength’s vs. the Dranglaex. The federation certainly does look to have a bit of internal rot, though we’ve only really seen it first-hand in the fringe system in chapter 3. Otherwise, we just have Cort’s word for it. Cort sure does manage to accumulate a lot of enemies. A sadistic bounty hunter, the intergalactic mafia, and an evil empire of (presumably, based on the… Read more »
Imagine you had a gun, and someone else had a gun.
You both have the same reflexes and same aim.
You will both hit if you fire.
The difference is, the other person has an extra two layers of clothing and has 10 extra people aiming more guns at you.
That is roughly the scenario.
James Rye
6 years ago
Yay, War time!!!
Also I got a question about page 14, ch.1 of the Chronicles – Who is Jack and why is his picture on the ship?
Yeah, maybe his partner or his smuggler teacher or something like that. Can’t be his dad, I think.
Hope we get to meet a “Psychomancer” in this universe, sounds pretty badass, like a wiz who can fuck with minds, surely useful in battle. <3
And I'd like to know who holds the other two Starcasters, 2 are in Fed's hands, 1 in the Drangleax Empire and the other one is on our protagonist, but which empire/star realm holds onto the other two Starcasters?
This reminds me of the recent Civ games where the AI calls me out of building up a big army and having it sit on the edge of their border. “Invade? No! We’re just passing through, you have absolutely nothing to worry about! Yeah…..” XD
Yeah. When I build up a massive army on a border, its so that they don’t attack ME. And so that when they build their army besides mine,my nuke has a clear target ;p
Hyronimous
6 years ago
Yes real people often address their siblings as brother, that’s definitely how real people talk and not clunky exposition at all.
Uh, actually, they do. It’s how we get cute phrases like “Brother from another mother” or “Bros before hos” or whatnot. I commonly might call my sister ‘sis’ if I’m just shouting to get her attention. And you don’t even know their culture, man. On certain real-life cultures, it’s considered rude to not include either a title or honorific when speaking to another. And besides, it even makes sense for the situation. If you’re criticizing someone who’s just murdered an innocent because he was upset with you, casually mentioning family ties is a good way to prevent that rage from… Read more »
Quite possibly, but I feel like this is a little violent for a book of The Berenstain Dranglaexes.
Then again, what do I know? In their culture, a popular children’s book may include Mama, Papa, Sister, Brother, and baby Honey Dranglaex participating in their very first ritual sacrifice or something.
What if the emperor’s name is Gaylord and the humans always get a giggle whenever his name gets announced and all other alien races are like “why are they giggling at such a terror inducing name?”?
Sure, let’s talk about it. We run a video ad that plays auto-muted, runs a single ad and then disappears. It does not cover any website elements, its down in the corner and out of the way. We only play it on desktop, not mobile, so that its easy to close if you wish. It is as completely ignorable as we can make it. And letting it run provides the site with more revenue than the rest of the static banners combined. The bottom line is this: I love what I do, and I want to do it for as… Read more »
And as an addendum, if you ARE in fact getting pop-up video ads that block anything, that’s a bad ad. Report it with the “Bad Ad Report Tool” over on the right hand side of the website. Right is this way: ———>
Mistborn
6 years ago
Tim, what is your updating schedule? I love your comics, but am a new reader. I caught up with all of them in about 3-4 days (I love reading), but I’m not sure when you release a new one. Do you even have a schedule?
I hope this means you’re going to start addressing the psychological effects of her torture. When she described what was done to her it was all dramatic and everything, but then it was just back to business as usual. Someone can’t go through something like that and be fine after it. She would have serious PTSD. Nothing takes me out of a story more than the cliche of a character enduring unendurable torment and just shrugging it off after a giving a dark speech about it. People are fragile, things like this will change them forever. I think audiences want… Read more »
It is something she is going to have to continue to deal with over time. She’s a highly trained warrior, and she was strong enough to resist their various torture attempts for a long time, so when she’s focused, when her guard is up, its something she’ll (mostly) have a handle on. It will be when things slow down, when its quiet, trying to sleep like the scene in issue #2, that’s when the trauma will rear its head.
There’s an assumption present in your observation: That the alien has psychology and physiology which has similar or identical responses to trauma as a human. That may in fact be quite unlikely. They may shake off trauma more quickly, or experience issues only at certain times (versus it being more generally impactful in many humans). They may also simply respond differently – which might look quirky but not like a traumatic behavior by our expectations. It all sort of depends how alien they are. We often say we want aliens that are alien, then complain when their responses aren’t in… Read more »
Diceman
6 years ago
I don’t know if this is intended, but the main page comic back/forward is messed up.
because a starcaster update is up, the back button quickly goes back to pages from 2016 because its not pulling from the comic history as a whole but rather per series history
It is definitely not how the page used to behave, thats for sure, and i’d actually missed months worths of updates till i’d checked through the series archives.
24
All the same, good messengers can be hard to find these days. Best to not run through them too quickly.
Wasn’t really a good messenger. I mean, com on, he’s just laying there. Dead. Preparation is everything, should have seen it coming, and avoided it…
Out with the old, in with the new.
I bet he just spoke the message instead of alleviating the negativity through song and dance. Everyone knows it’s harder to stay mad after a musical.
Point. If he had figured out how to fit the message into Bohemian Rhapsody, they all might still be singing now.
Mama, just killed a man
Wasn’t that race previously spelled “Dranglaex”? At least in page 1.22 it was.
Going through the old comics again. It’s Dranglaex everywhere, but in 3.07 there’s another case of Drangleax. Hopefully Tim will revise that when he’s re-doing those pages for the books.
You are correct, Alain. Sometimes when I’m writing, I think my brain defaults to “eax” because its a more common order of the letters. This one slipped through.
The instance in issue #3 has been fixed for the books as well 🙂
Heck, for the past five chapters, in my head it’s (incorrectly) been “Drangelax.”
I am unclear why he says they would have the Federation smoking in ruins, though. If the Feds have 2 casters and they have 2, wouldn’t that be even odds? I thought it was kind of a “Mutually Assured Destruction” scenario.
Yes, even odds for Starcasters. But the Dranglaex have a large, collected fleet that poses its own significant threat. They are a force to be reckoned with regardless and Starcasters have some limits which prevent them from necessarily being an “I win” button, so having two Starcasters AND the bigger fleet was the preferable path towards an easy conquest.
That brings up something that’s always bothered me. Back on page 22 of issue 1, Speck says that there are six Starcasters – two for the federation, two for the Dranglaex (which is now one for them and one for Cort)….and then Nyrah interrupts him. Are we ever gonna find out who has numbers five and six? I’ve read through the archives twice and I’m pretty sure that hasn’t been covered.
Eventually, sure 🙂
I’m assuming this is your reason for going past issue 7 (assuming this is build-up to the climax and 7 is the actual battle/immediate prelude).
Otherwise you could have a “natural ending” (season ends, everyone is happy, Cort, Speck and Nyrah go away from everything and spend their days having picnics, creating solar systems and annihilating anyone who tries to kill them.)
Of course, you probably like the characters too much for that 🙂
I suppose, however, Speck states in https://cad-comic.com/comic/the-starcaster-chronicles-01-23/ “The assumption that the empire controls TWO starcasters is the primary reason the Federation won’t declare all-out war.” Of course, they could just be vastly overconfident about their fleet strength’s vs. the Dranglaex. The federation certainly does look to have a bit of internal rot, though we’ve only really seen it first-hand in the fringe system in chapter 3. Otherwise, we just have Cort’s word for it. Cort sure does manage to accumulate a lot of enemies. A sadistic bounty hunter, the intergalactic mafia, and an evil empire of (presumably, based on the… Read more »
Imagine you had a gun, and someone else had a gun.
You both have the same reflexes and same aim.
You will both hit if you fire.
The difference is, the other person has an extra two layers of clothing and has 10 extra people aiming more guns at you.
That is roughly the scenario.
Yay, War time!!!
Also I got a question about page 14, ch.1 of the Chronicles – Who is Jack and why is his picture on the ship?
probibly an old partner or assossiate or something from when he ran from/quit the UNF.
Yeah, maybe his partner or his smuggler teacher or something like that. Can’t be his dad, I think.
Hope we get to meet a “Psychomancer” in this universe, sounds pretty badass, like a wiz who can fuck with minds, surely useful in battle. <3
And I'd like to know who holds the other two Starcasters, 2 are in Fed's hands, 1 in the Drangleax Empire and the other one is on our protagonist, but which empire/star realm holds onto the other two Starcasters?
I assume a Psychomancer would end up basically being a D&D Mindflayer
Or, as the people in Square Enix call them, Piscodemons.
All in due time, James 😉
A wizard did it
I thought it was Dranglaex, not Drangleax :p
Ayup!
This reminds me of the recent Civ games where the AI calls me out of building up a big army and having it sit on the edge of their border. “Invade? No! We’re just passing through, you have absolutely nothing to worry about! Yeah…..” XD
Yeah. When I build up a massive army on a border, its so that they don’t attack ME. And so that when they build their army besides mine,my nuke has a clear target ;p
Yes real people often address their siblings as brother, that’s definitely how real people talk and not clunky exposition at all.
“Real people” he just said.
XD
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Very Bohemian of you, I approve.
Uh, actually, they do. It’s how we get cute phrases like “Brother from another mother” or “Bros before hos” or whatnot. I commonly might call my sister ‘sis’ if I’m just shouting to get her attention. And you don’t even know their culture, man. On certain real-life cultures, it’s considered rude to not include either a title or honorific when speaking to another. And besides, it even makes sense for the situation. If you’re criticizing someone who’s just murdered an innocent because he was upset with you, casually mentioning family ties is a good way to prevent that rage from… Read more »
Unless his name actually IS Brother, thanks to indecisive parents. Then it’s a whole other ball of indeterminate substance.
Quite possibly, but I feel like this is a little violent for a book of The Berenstain Dranglaexes.
Then again, what do I know? In their culture, a popular children’s book may include Mama, Papa, Sister, Brother, and baby Honey Dranglaex participating in their very first ritual sacrifice or something.
What if the emperor’s name is Gaylord and the humans always get a giggle whenever his name gets announced and all other alien races are like “why are they giggling at such a terror inducing name?”?
…I do call my brother “brother”. Am I not real people?
They appear to have a diarchy; two people rule the nation. So “Brother” may be a casual for them but formal for us.
These are aliens man!
Wow. That is a LOT of transparent aluminum! Have you ever priced that stuff?
Manufacturing costs have gone WAY down from when PlexiCorp invented the stuff.
While I totally understand the need for ad revenue, can we talk about how absolutely friggin awful those pop-up video ads are?
Sure, let’s talk about it. We run a video ad that plays auto-muted, runs a single ad and then disappears. It does not cover any website elements, its down in the corner and out of the way. We only play it on desktop, not mobile, so that its easy to close if you wish. It is as completely ignorable as we can make it. And letting it run provides the site with more revenue than the rest of the static banners combined. The bottom line is this: I love what I do, and I want to do it for as… Read more »
And as an addendum, if you ARE in fact getting pop-up video ads that block anything, that’s a bad ad. Report it with the “Bad Ad Report Tool” over on the right hand side of the website. Right is this way: ———>
Tim, what is your updating schedule? I love your comics, but am a new reader. I caught up with all of them in about 3-4 days (I love reading), but I’m not sure when you release a new one. Do you even have a schedule?
New pages on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
thanks! they are awesome! can’t wait!
I hope this means you’re going to start addressing the psychological effects of her torture. When she described what was done to her it was all dramatic and everything, but then it was just back to business as usual. Someone can’t go through something like that and be fine after it. She would have serious PTSD. Nothing takes me out of a story more than the cliche of a character enduring unendurable torment and just shrugging it off after a giving a dark speech about it. People are fragile, things like this will change them forever. I think audiences want… Read more »
It is something she is going to have to continue to deal with over time. She’s a highly trained warrior, and she was strong enough to resist their various torture attempts for a long time, so when she’s focused, when her guard is up, its something she’ll (mostly) have a handle on. It will be when things slow down, when its quiet, trying to sleep like the scene in issue #2, that’s when the trauma will rear its head.
There’s an assumption present in your observation: That the alien has psychology and physiology which has similar or identical responses to trauma as a human. That may in fact be quite unlikely. They may shake off trauma more quickly, or experience issues only at certain times (versus it being more generally impactful in many humans). They may also simply respond differently – which might look quirky but not like a traumatic behavior by our expectations. It all sort of depends how alien they are. We often say we want aliens that are alien, then complain when their responses aren’t in… Read more »
I don’t know if this is intended, but the main page comic back/forward is messed up.
because a starcaster update is up, the back button quickly goes back to pages from 2016 because its not pulling from the comic history as a whole but rather per series history
It is definitely not how the page used to behave, thats for sure, and i’d actually missed months worths of updates till i’d checked through the series archives.
From the front page, the navigation above and below the comic will surf through ALL of our archives.
Using the arrows on either side of the comic will navigate only through the CURRENT (in this case, Starcaster) archive.