Captain Quail 16 - Red Shirt (Sept. 20, 2013)

Kirk, Spock, and a Red Shirt go down to the planet... woops! Wrong show.

Today's comic allows me to talk about one of my favorite pieces of meta-fiction: John Scalzi's Redshirts. Its a Star Trek universe told from the perspective of a lowly crewmember, and that premise alone will probably grab your interest if you're already reading this comic. Its also one of the more convincing pieces of meta-fiction I've read. Well, I say read. I really mean listened to, and the melodious tones of Wesley Crusher himself lend an uber-meta quality to the work when you experience it in audiobook.

Switching tracks, I had this idea a while back that we would try to highlight a new webcomic every week, because I believe in using this space to help highlight other cool things Allison and I find across the internet. This idea has not materialized yet, but that's all about to change! This week's comic highlight doesn't really need the extra press, but its a comic I've enjoyed in the past which has the same initials as ours! Questionable Content has been going strong for more years than I can remember, and its one of the few comics that I feel has consistently good storylines. Beyond that, they have some of the most original and recognizable shirts I know. How recognizable? I got stopped by someone at Ren Faire who recognized the shirt I was wearing as being a Questionable Content shirt. (Yes, I do like owls). Fair warning: QC is a 'slice-of'life' comic, where the only non-realistic elements are some anthropomorphized computers. If hilarious angsty hipster romance doesn't sound like your thing, you may not enjoy the comic. (I still think you should give it a try, though)

In site news, this will probably be the last Captain Quail posted to this old site! When you come back Tuesday morning (you do check every Tuesday and Friday, right?) this quailcomics.com will be using the shiny new system we built. Hooray!

I think that does it for today. Have a great weekend!

Thanks,

Philip