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PA's Sand

Jul 29, 2013#1

strawman

I'm really enjoying Penny Arcade's Sand series. I don't know how long it's going to go on (I'm sure they've said somewhere, I'm just too lazy to find out), but this latest comic had me laughing:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/07/29

Jul 29, 2013#2

GasBandit

It's been giving me a very "trigun" vibe. Quasi-western, protagonist outlaw who won't die, inexplicable flashbacks to a sleeper ship in space with a minimal crew...

Jul 31, 2013#3

Frank

It's fuckin' Trigun so far, with less whimsy and more grit.

Jul 31, 2013#4

strawman

Space fleas!

Jul 31, 2013#5

Covar

I'm never a fan of their longform stories they do. I like their regular strips, but when they do stuff like this it just never seems to flow right with me.

Jul 31, 2013#6

Shawn

There is such a difference between the two stories, and neither of them are very exciting, but I can't at this time voice a valid opinion. I know that the Penny-Arcade guys can write some beautiful stories, so I'd rather let this one come to some kind of merger between the stories before I say how I feel about it. The most obvious theory is that the western world is a dream shared by those on the ship. In fact none of them can die (because it's a dream) however the outlaw is the only one they've actually tried to kill.

Jul 31, 2013#7

GasBandit

Maybe. But so far... Trigun.

Jul 31, 2013#8

Gusto

Shawnacy said:
There is such a difference between the two stories, and neither of them are very exciting, but I can't at this time voice a valid opinion. I know that the Penny-Arcade guys can write some beautiful stories, so I'd rather let this one come to some kind of merger between the stories before I say how I feel about it. The most obvious theory is that the western world is a dream shared by those on the ship. In fact none of them can die (because it's a dream) however the outlaw is the only one they've actually tried to kill.

My theory is that they crash landed on ancient Earth, which somehow caused amnesia or disorientation as a result of their sleep. Then, being a superior stock of humanoid, realized long after they assimilated into Earth cultures (ie. Wild Wild West) that they could not die.

Jul 31, 2013#9

PatrThom

Frank said:
It's fuckin' Trigun so far, with less whimsy and more grit.

And a little Man from Atlantis thrown in.

--Patrick

Aug 5, 2013#10

Shawn

Gusto said:
My theory is that they crash landed on ancient Earth, which somehow caused amnesia or disorientation as a result of their sleep. Then, being a superior stock of humanoid, realized long after they assimilated into Earth cultures (ie. Wild Wild West) that they could not die.

Close enough.
We have a winner. DING DING DING!

Aug 5, 2013#11

Gusto

Boosh!

Aug 10, 2013#12

PatrThom

Ooo, I just figured out the names.

--Patrick

Aug 11, 2013#13

Shawn

PatrThom said:
Ooo, I just figured out the names.

--Patrick

Aug 11, 2013#14

PatrThom

Shawnacy said:
?

--Patrick

Aug 11, 2013#15

Shawn

PatrThom said:
View attachment 11548

--Patrick

Gotcha.

Aug 14, 2013#16

Null

I know in one of their books they explained the notion of Sand: A colony ship with an AI crash landed on a distant world. The survivors managed to start their own settlements and form a sort of Old West frontier type culture. The AI, adhering to its programming to "care" for its charges and instilled with religious mythology, creates and sends out a series of increasingly dsyfunctional 'prophets' - androids or cyborgs or some kind of trans/posthuman. The problem being that the descendants of the survivors have no need for these 'saviors', hence the numerous attempted executions.

Essentially, Phorr is out there, trying to bring people back to the crashed ship as a kind of heaven/paradise, and they don't really want to go. He is also upsetting the local religious figures because while they offer people a metaphorical heaven in the afterlife, he's offering one that can physically be reached.

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