space-4
Original: space-4 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title / intro panel (top left): SPACE MISSIONS TO CAPTURE THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION:
First concept (top right) -- a black space panel showing the icy moon Europa being cracked open, with a jagged spray bursting from its surface. Banner header: POPPING EUROPA
Second concept (middle left) -- a pinkish/red panel. Caption text: REALITY SHOW INSIDE THE THIN SHELL OF VENUS' ATMOSPHERE WHERE HUMAN LIFE IS CONCEIVABLY POSSIBLE. Below, in a title card: Celebrity Purgatory: Season 4
Third concept (middle/bottom right) -- a panel with the banner/title header: "MARTIAN MAKEOVER". Caption text: WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GET A WHOLE NEW ATMOSPHERE, BUT LOOK HOW MUCH MORE SURVIVABLE IT SEEMS WITH THIS LIGHT-TONED DRAPERY!
Final panel (bottom right) -- a figure in a spacesuit/armor stands on the reddish Martian surface holding up a sheet of light-colored, draped fabric (the "drapery").
Votey:
A single panel. Speech bubble coming from two domed igloo-like habitat structures (survivors' shelters): PLEASE SEND A RESCUE MISSION. WE ARE SO THIRSTY.
First concept (top right) -- a black space panel showing the icy moon Europa being cracked open, with a jagged spray bursting from its surface. Banner header: POPPING EUROPA
Second concept (middle left) -- a pinkish/red panel. Caption text: REALITY SHOW INSIDE THE THIN SHELL OF VENUS' ATMOSPHERE WHERE HUMAN LIFE IS CONCEIVABLY POSSIBLE. Below, in a title card: Celebrity Purgatory: Season 4
Third concept (middle/bottom right) -- a panel with the banner/title header: "MARTIAN MAKEOVER". Caption text: WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GET A WHOLE NEW ATMOSPHERE, BUT LOOK HOW MUCH MORE SURVIVABLE IT SEEMS WITH THIS LIGHT-TONED DRAPERY!
Final panel (bottom right) -- a figure in a spacesuit/armor stands on the reddish Martian surface holding up a sheet of light-colored, draped fabric (the "drapery").
Votey:
A single panel. Speech bubble coming from two domed igloo-like habitat structures (survivors' shelters): PLEASE SEND A RESCUE MISSION. WE ARE SO THIRSTY.
Alt text
A vertically stacked comic riffing on absurd "space missions to capture the public imagination," pitched like reality-TV concepts. The intro panel reads "SPACE MISSIONS TO CAPTURE THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION:". One concept, headed "POPPING EUROPA," shows the icy moon Europa cracked open with a jagged spray bursting out. Another, on a pink Venus-themed panel, is captioned "REALITY SHOW INSIDE THE THIN SHELL OF VENUS' ATMOSPHERE WHERE HUMAN LIFE IS CONCEIVABLY POSSIBLE," titled like a show: "Celebrity Purgatory: Season 4." A third, "MARTIAN MAKEOVER," is captioned "WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GET A WHOLE NEW ATMOSPHERE, BUT LOOK HOW MUCH MORE SURVIVABLE IT SEEMS WITH THIS LIGHT-TONED DRAPERY!" -- and the final panel shows a spacesuited figure on barren red Mars proudly holding up a sheet of pale draped fabric, as if redecorating an uninhabitable planet. The joke skewers treating space colonization as cosmetic reality television. Votey (aftercomic): a single panel of two domed igloo-shaped habitat shelters, with a speech bubble pleading, "PLEASE SEND A RESCUE MISSION. WE ARE SO THIRSTY."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.