Angie Dunn

Am I the only one who thought Rankin-Bass Gollum was a fantastically kick-ass and perfect design in every single way? I so wish they went with something like this for the live action films, something barely recognizable as having ever been a human-like being.

I love the membranous flesh connecting his arms to his body, and those huge milky eyeballs, like a deep sea fish!

I have not managed to find anyone who thinks that in the wild, but it is so damn funny.

I swear to god I tried to grab my phone but I couldn’t without ruining the moment

COMMISSION

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

The Night Shepard

A little comic from last spring I made that hasn’t really had a home anywhere.

Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio), "rufous morph", family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Myakka River State Park, FL, USA