a-city-on-mars
Original: a-city-on-mars on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (Zach's intro note, beside the book cover):
HEY GEEKS!
This comic is an ad for my new book, A CITY ON MARS, which is available for preorder. It's about the science and politics of space settlement, and you should buy it because (a) it's good and (b) Andy Weir, Mary Roach, and the Expanse guys said so (see bottom of comic).
Also because the more copies we sell, the more bonus SMBC episodes I'll do, until at last my left hand is a used up cinder of former flesh.
Sorry to interrupt your comics. Please click back twice for today's double update, and thanks as always for your support.
[heart] ZACH
Book cover shown: KELLY AND ZACH WEINERSMITH / A CITY ON MARS / Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?
Label: click for info! (with arrow)
Panel 2 (narration banner): IN 2017 WE RELEASED A POP SCI BOOK CALLED SOONISH THAT DID PRETTY WELL.
Woman with brown hair/glasses (Kelly): That was the most stressful experience of my life.
Man with red hair/beard (Zach): We should do it again!
Panel 3 (narration): WE CAME UP WITH AN IDEA.
Kelly: Okay, all these rich guys and governments are talking about space settlements. Let's do a book about all the human stuff - biology, psychology, economics, law, war!
Zach: How hard could it be?
Panel 4 (narration): THIS WAS US FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.
[MENTAL SCREAMING]
(Kelly and Zach sit buried in stacks of books, looking stressed.)
Panel 5 (narration): WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A STRAIGHTFORWARD POP BOOK ABOUT THIS COOL THING HAPPENING SOON SLOWLY CHANGED INTO A MUCH WEIRDER, MUCH RICHER PICTURE.
Kelly: Okay, I've completed the dossier on what we know about space-reproduction, including what I believe to be every documented case of space-masturbation.
Zach: Bless your thoroughness.
Label (pointing at the papers Kelly holds): she actually made this
Panel 6 (narration): THE BASIC DEAL IS THAT IF YOU FOLLOW MOST BOOKS, ARTICLES, OR MOVIES ABOUT SPACE SETTLEMENT, YOU'LL GET A FAIRLY WRONG PICTURE.
Kelly: It's much harder to do than you'd think and the economic case is quite questionable.
Zach: The laws of space and of nation-creation are practically designed to spark conflict if countries start scrambling for the moon.
Panel 7 (narration): WE BECAME THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO YELL AT NEWS.
Kelly: Oh my GOD this whole discussion is based on a false premise!
Zach: This guy is promising something in space that's already cheap on Earth!
(Both are shown on their phones, agitated.)
Panel 8 (narration): WHAT WE HOPE WE'VE CREATED IS A BOOK THAT'S NOT JUST ENTERTAINING...
Zach: A few subjects include: space-sex and space-baby-construction, space-medicine, space psychology, space-food, farming on Mars, legal aspects of eating astronauts, legal aspects of space-state creation, and the time a founding father of rocketry almost killed himself in order to promote a movie.
Panel 9 (narration): ...BUT ALSO FULL OF ALL SORTS OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF.
Zach (in front of a packed home library): Behold our home reference library! Bodies in space! Law of space! Theories of space warfare!
Kelly: Hope you like your bibliographies thiiiiiiick.
Panel 10:
Zach: Most of all, we hope to have some small chance at shaping the discourse, because a good look at every aspect of space settlement suggests that a near-term effort could be existentially dangerous for humanity, but almost nobody is talking about it.
Panel 11:
Kelly: We aren't arguing against space settlement exactly. What we ARE saying is that once you understand the details, there's a pretty big checklist humanity needs to work through first.
Panel 12:
Zach (holding up the book): Listen, I know I'm the guy who writes comics about clown-sex, and this book DOES have jokes and illustrations, but it's also the most comprehensive look at space settlement ever written for a popular audience.
Panel 13:
Kelly: And if the clown-sex guy didn't convince you to grab a copy... maybe these people will:
Blurbs:
"Scientific, educational, and fun as hell." -Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary
"Despite the breadth and depth of research and some impressive near-wonk-level detail, this is a clear, lively, and hilarious read. Slam dunk, Weinersmiths!" -Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Fuzz and Packing for Mars
"A City on Mars is deeply researched, hilarious, and sobering. Zach and Kelly Weinersmith have given us a bracing to-do list for the new age of space. Highly, highly recommended." -James S.A. Corey, author of The Expanse series
Votey:
A hand-lettered book-spine / title-page style line reading: SPACETURBATION DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE UPON SOLICITATION.
HEY GEEKS!
This comic is an ad for my new book, A CITY ON MARS, which is available for preorder. It's about the science and politics of space settlement, and you should buy it because (a) it's good and (b) Andy Weir, Mary Roach, and the Expanse guys said so (see bottom of comic).
Also because the more copies we sell, the more bonus SMBC episodes I'll do, until at last my left hand is a used up cinder of former flesh.
Sorry to interrupt your comics. Please click back twice for today's double update, and thanks as always for your support.
[heart] ZACH
Book cover shown: KELLY AND ZACH WEINERSMITH / A CITY ON MARS / Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?
Label: click for info! (with arrow)
Panel 2 (narration banner): IN 2017 WE RELEASED A POP SCI BOOK CALLED SOONISH THAT DID PRETTY WELL.
Woman with brown hair/glasses (Kelly): That was the most stressful experience of my life.
Man with red hair/beard (Zach): We should do it again!
Panel 3 (narration): WE CAME UP WITH AN IDEA.
Kelly: Okay, all these rich guys and governments are talking about space settlements. Let's do a book about all the human stuff - biology, psychology, economics, law, war!
Zach: How hard could it be?
Panel 4 (narration): THIS WAS US FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.
[MENTAL SCREAMING]
(Kelly and Zach sit buried in stacks of books, looking stressed.)
Panel 5 (narration): WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A STRAIGHTFORWARD POP BOOK ABOUT THIS COOL THING HAPPENING SOON SLOWLY CHANGED INTO A MUCH WEIRDER, MUCH RICHER PICTURE.
Kelly: Okay, I've completed the dossier on what we know about space-reproduction, including what I believe to be every documented case of space-masturbation.
Zach: Bless your thoroughness.
Label (pointing at the papers Kelly holds): she actually made this
Panel 6 (narration): THE BASIC DEAL IS THAT IF YOU FOLLOW MOST BOOKS, ARTICLES, OR MOVIES ABOUT SPACE SETTLEMENT, YOU'LL GET A FAIRLY WRONG PICTURE.
Kelly: It's much harder to do than you'd think and the economic case is quite questionable.
Zach: The laws of space and of nation-creation are practically designed to spark conflict if countries start scrambling for the moon.
Panel 7 (narration): WE BECAME THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO YELL AT NEWS.
Kelly: Oh my GOD this whole discussion is based on a false premise!
Zach: This guy is promising something in space that's already cheap on Earth!
(Both are shown on their phones, agitated.)
Panel 8 (narration): WHAT WE HOPE WE'VE CREATED IS A BOOK THAT'S NOT JUST ENTERTAINING...
Zach: A few subjects include: space-sex and space-baby-construction, space-medicine, space psychology, space-food, farming on Mars, legal aspects of eating astronauts, legal aspects of space-state creation, and the time a founding father of rocketry almost killed himself in order to promote a movie.
Panel 9 (narration): ...BUT ALSO FULL OF ALL SORTS OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF.
Zach (in front of a packed home library): Behold our home reference library! Bodies in space! Law of space! Theories of space warfare!
Kelly: Hope you like your bibliographies thiiiiiiick.
Panel 10:
Zach: Most of all, we hope to have some small chance at shaping the discourse, because a good look at every aspect of space settlement suggests that a near-term effort could be existentially dangerous for humanity, but almost nobody is talking about it.
Panel 11:
Kelly: We aren't arguing against space settlement exactly. What we ARE saying is that once you understand the details, there's a pretty big checklist humanity needs to work through first.
Panel 12:
Zach (holding up the book): Listen, I know I'm the guy who writes comics about clown-sex, and this book DOES have jokes and illustrations, but it's also the most comprehensive look at space settlement ever written for a popular audience.
Panel 13:
Kelly: And if the clown-sex guy didn't convince you to grab a copy... maybe these people will:
Blurbs:
"Scientific, educational, and fun as hell." -Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary
"Despite the breadth and depth of research and some impressive near-wonk-level detail, this is a clear, lively, and hilarious read. Slam dunk, Weinersmiths!" -Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Fuzz and Packing for Mars
"A City on Mars is deeply researched, hilarious, and sobering. Zach and Kelly Weinersmith have given us a bracing to-do list for the new age of space. Highly, highly recommended." -James S.A. Corey, author of The Expanse series
Votey:
A hand-lettered book-spine / title-page style line reading: SPACETURBATION DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE UPON SOLICITATION.
Alt text
A very tall promotional SMBC comic in which Zach and Kelly Weinersmith advertise their book A City on Mars. It opens with a handwritten author's note from Zach beside a photo of the book cover (subtitle: 'Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?'), thanking readers and promising bonus episodes if it sells, signed ZACH with a 'click for info!' arrow. The story then unfolds in colored panels: a woman with brown hair and glasses (Kelly) and a man with a red beard (Zach) recount that after their 2017 book Soonish they decided to write about space settlement, thinking 'How hard could it be?' The next panel shows them buried in towering stacks of books with the caption '[MENTAL SCREAMING]' over 'This was us for the next FIVE YEARS.' Kelly proudly presents a dossier on documented space-masturbation cases (labeled 'she actually made this'); Zach replies 'Bless your thoroughness.' They explain that most space-settlement media gives a wrong picture, that the economics are questionable and the law invites conflict, and they become 'the kind of people who yell at news,' shouting at their phones. Zach lists wild book subjects (space-sex, eating astronauts, etc.) in front of a wall of reference books while Kelly says 'Hope you like your bibliographies thiiiiiiick.' Their serious thesis: near-term space settlement could be existentially dangerous and there's a big checklist to work through first. Zach, admitting he's 'the guy who writes comics about clown-sex,' holds up the book as the most comprehensive popular look at space settlement. Kelly says maybe these people will convince you, and three glowing blurbs appear from Andy Weir, Mary Roach, and James S.A. Corey. The votey is a single hand-lettered line styled like a book spine reading: 'SPACETURBATION DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE UPON SOLICITATION.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.