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Post by Daedalus on Dec 2, 2015 8:00:02 GMT
Two new milestones reached: maximum Lovecraftian Horror, and page 1600! |
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Post by aquamafia on Dec 2, 2015 8:01:38 GMT
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Kat created an eldritch abomination.
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Post by Daedalus on Dec 2, 2015 8:02:47 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Could Kat's designs be evolving past their intended functions, or is Robot seeing a more complete future version of her work? Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? |
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Post by Chancellor on Dec 2, 2015 8:05:06 GMT
Okay, yeah, now I'm worried.
Is it too late to put Robot back in the box?
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Post by hellohello on Dec 2, 2015 8:05:57 GMT
Love when Tom goes eldrich.
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Post by arf on Dec 2, 2015 8:06:38 GMT
IIIIIAAAAAAAA!!!!! ...and welcome to the Gunnerkrigg centrefold of Horror. Shub-Niggurath edition. (Also: BOO) |
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Post by Daedalus on Dec 2, 2015 8:10:15 GMT
Okay, yeah, now I'm worried. Is it too late to put Robot back in the box[bot]? You wish to put the Holy Messenger...in a box[bot]? This is heresy of the first degree! May the Angel have mercy on you. The Inquisitors certainly won't. ...Her glorious revelations are not for the faint of stomach, granted. |
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Post by prestidigititis on Dec 2, 2015 8:15:04 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Could Kat's designs be evolving past their intended functions, or is Robot seeing a more complete future version of her work? Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? Kat's using actual genetic material, so Robot would have access to the entirety of the genetic code. And since every part of a body can potentially be constructed from that code, well.... Do we know what the source of the genetic material was? 'Cos that's implying some real Frankenstein's Monster stuff, in addition to the Eldritch Horror goodness. |
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west
New Member
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Post by west on Dec 2, 2015 8:15:46 GMT
That first minute with a new funnybone is always the strangest.
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Post by birdwhisperer on Dec 2, 2015 8:21:32 GMT
I stuck it together best I could.  |
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Post by Chancellor on Dec 2, 2015 8:40:08 GMT
I stuck it together best I could.  Oh, the book buyers are in for a real treat. |
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Post by keef on Dec 2, 2015 8:41:32 GMT
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Post by feraldog on Dec 2, 2015 8:42:26 GMT
Junji Ito would be proud.
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Post by fish on Dec 2, 2015 8:45:33 GMT
Two new milestones reached: maximum Lovecraftian Horror, and page 1600! It's also the first "real" two-page spread, as far as I remember. Edit: Oh, ninja'd by speedwell a day ago, haha. |
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Post by Toloc on Dec 2, 2015 8:49:52 GMT
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 2, 2015 8:50:38 GMT
Double page spread: A human's allegory of a robot contemplating describing to humans what it is like to suddenly gain flesh.
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Post by Daedalus on Dec 2, 2015 8:52:46 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Could Kat's designs be evolving past their intended functions, or is Robot seeing a more complete future version of her work? Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? Kat's using actual genetic material, so Robot would have access to the entirety of the genetic code. And since every part of a body can potentially be constructed from that code, well.... Seems like a reasonable assumption, but this hasn't been confirmed, as far as I know. In fact, I assumed that Kat just wrote genetic code from scratch, using Diego's template. I don't think we have evidence either way... |
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Post by foresterr on Dec 2, 2015 9:17:36 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Could Kat's designs be evolving past their intended functions, or is Robot seeing a more complete future version of her work? Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? The way I understand it, a robot arm is simple. A few servos, and that's all. That's what, five sensors total? Aw, hell, let's go for a hundred. Still barely a sweat for any halfway competent processor. Now, a biological arm (and by extension, the synthbio arm designed by Kat) has a goddamn neural ending down into nearly every goddamn muscle fiber. No to even mention all the pesky receptors. I think Robot is experiencing good ole' sensory overload and it's not pleasant (hence, visual representation of it is intended to look nasty) He'll come to grips with it. Probably faster than humans learn to use all that crap (which is a few years). |
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Post by Daedalus on Dec 2, 2015 9:32:01 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Could Kat's designs be evolving past their intended functions, or is Robot seeing a more complete future version of her work? Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? The way I understand it, a robot arm is simple. A few servos, and that's all. That's what, five sensors total? Aw, hell, let's go for a hundred. Still barely a sweat for any halfway competent processor. I am an engineer specializing in robotics*, and I somewhat disagree with this part of message, heh. Especially in the fields of prosthetics, good robot arms are rather hard to make, because there are a bunch of complex feedback loops and degrees of freedom to keep in mind - our arms, which evolution designed for us, work REALLY well compared to most of what we create. We do tend to use a lot of sensors for feedback when designing prosthetics. And it's pretty hard on a small processor. (But not nearly as bad as designing legs. Balance is even harder to maintain without resorting to clever, unorthodox solutions.) Either way, I agree with the overall thrust of your post. Our biological parts (and therefore Kat's squishy creations) involve much more sensory data than most robotic arms we design today, so this is definitely an easy way to represent sensory overload. I'm just bothered by Tom's use of eyes in particular, if Kat designed this to be an arm. After all, eyes have been quite a motif throughout the comic (ref: Rey), so it's probably not unimportant.
*(no, seriously, why do you think THAT's what my pet cult is about?) |
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arzeik
Junior Member
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Post by arzeik on Dec 2, 2015 9:37:23 GMT
Mr. Eglamore is looking odd in these two pages.
But I still think the art is eldritchly gorgeous, anyway.
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Post by foresterr on Dec 2, 2015 9:49:52 GMT
I am an engineer specializing in robotics*, and I somewhat disagree with this part of message, heh. Especially in the fields of prosthetics, good robot arms are rather hard to make, because there are a bunch of complex feedback loops and degrees of freedom to keep in mind - our arms, which evolution designed for us, work REALLY well compared to most of what we create. We do tend to use a lot of sensors for feedback when designing prosthetics. And it's pretty hard on a small processor. Heh, don't misunderstand me. A robot arm, or any robot part, can be, and often is, a marvel of engineering. Precisely because it's designed. And simplicity in this case is something to be striven for, as much as possible. Biological parts, on the other hand, are not designed at all, as evolution can't design anything (but I understand you used the word figuratively  ). They are something that grew up from a bunch of amoebas that decided to gang up on some other amoebas. It's a massively redundant pile of crap that works only well enough not to fall apart (and maybe eat the versions more prone to falling apart). Evolution is a bloody moron. It just had a lot of time on it's hands. (not sure if my being a biologist by education has anything to do with my views on the matter ) I think you could dig up all the five senses out from this picture. That can be metaphorical. On the other hand, that would be boring |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 2, 2015 9:57:03 GMT
I don't think we should view the eyes as biological entities or symbols like in human culture, philosophy or mythology here but more as representing highly complex input devices... perhaps with the lens representing the complexity of external reality magnified. In a variety of [newly added] colors.
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sotha
Full Member
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Post by sotha on Dec 2, 2015 10:04:41 GMT
I don't think we should view the eyes as biological entities or symbols like in human culture, philosophy or mythology here but more as representing highly complex input devices... perhaps with the lens representing the complexity of external reality magnified. In a variety of [newly added] colors. Is that why the large eyes have RYGBV irises, and the small eye cluster has cyan, magenta/pink, etc? Whatever! The point stands. |
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Post by dliessmgg on Dec 2, 2015 10:11:49 GMT
Is there any chance we'll get to buy this two-page spread as a poster? (Ideally without the two bits cut off at top & bottom?)
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Post by kittygirlhazel on Dec 2, 2015 10:49:28 GMT
My interpretation of this page is that Robot is trying to explain to Kat and Paz how alien this feels. To him, this new sensory input is like nothing he's ever felt. He can only speak of it in alien terms.
I'm trying to think of a comparison... imagine that some elder, extra-dimensional being came to Earth and gave a human the power to perceive the world as it does. We wouldn't be able to comprehend it at first. (Remember how Robot had to reboot?) When we got our heads around it, the extra-dimensional being would ask us if we were all right, how we felt. To explain it in our language, we'd have to use the most incoherent and alien metaphors, because normal language just would not cut it.
That's what's happening here. Robot has seen what it's like to be a god. This is a completely unnatural experience for him, and putting it into words... it's not easy. I think the above few posters are right and this is sensory overload, but in a form that we, the readers, could never experience unless something really weird happened.
Alternate theory: Tom just read a bunch of Junji Ito's stuff and got inspired.
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Post by Lightice on Dec 2, 2015 11:20:01 GMT
Real question though. Why are there eyeballs...on an arm? Looking back at page 1598, it's not attached to his optical apparatus in any noticeable way. Or is it just an aesthetic choice on Tom's part? I'm suspecting that this is representation of Robot's senses trying to make sense of the new data, and he's just learned the joys of synaesthesia. He is seeing his new muscle sensations. Or else Kat's invention just went terribly wrong and the artificial muscle is sprouting all kinds of unintended specialised organs, right now. |
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Post by lemmingatk on Dec 2, 2015 11:24:41 GMT
Robot can feel the Warp overtaking him. It is a good pain.
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Post by AluK on Dec 2, 2015 11:39:13 GMT
I'm suspecting that this is representation of Robot's senses trying to make sense of the new data, and he's just learned the joys of synaesthesia. He is seeing his new muscle sensations. Or else Kat's invention just went terribly wrong and the artificial muscle is sprouting all kinds of unintended specialised organs, right now. Yup, that's what I'm getting from it, as well. Either Kat wrote a Hardware Abstraction Layer in such a way that Robot's existing hardware was swamped with data that it had to scramble to interpret (and, in the process went through a few novel synesthetic interpretations) or Kat process to "grow" a synthetic nerve system failed at differentiation and grew some stuff that shouldn't be there - not unlike some stuff that actually happened in real life, when they tried using multipotent stem cells from olfactory mucosa to regenerate peripheral nerve damage and, while it did its job, it also differentiated into olfactory bulbs and other related tissue that shouldn't be there. |
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Post by wanderer on Dec 2, 2015 11:39:22 GMT
...This actually feels lovecraftian. As in, when I look upon that stitched-together image, I feel like my mind is trying to collapse and the best thing to do is start huddling in the corner and gibbering.
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Post by calpal on Dec 2, 2015 11:44:45 GMT
Huh, interesting. So based on the idea that this is actually some primitive "map" of Robot's pre-brain (or brain?) of the biological body, maybe this will give us a few clues as to what the new body should look like once complete:  Sorry about ruining your otherwise beautiful two-pager birdwhisperer, but I figured this was the best way to visually interpret this potential "map" of the new biological body. Any other interpretations? I'm open to hear about them! |
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). They are something that grew up from a bunch of amoebas that decided to gang up on some other amoebas. It's a massively redundant pile of crap that works only well enough not to fall apart (and maybe eat the versions more prone to falling apart).
