Recruiting Telepaths

Typly: "Look, Hyng! No legs!" Figure A.

 I recently decided to try making a comic strip version of "Meet the Phari". I used Daz Studio to make the settings and depict the characters, as shown in the image to the right. Using Daz, I made the legs of Xyza and Typly "invisible" (not rendered) and then had to use Photoshop to make it look like they were standing in the hot tub.

You can also see that the very short skirt being worn by Hyng does not fit her hips very well and her left arm actually was passing right through the material of the skirt. Another job for Photoshop.

I also made use of ClarisDraw to assemble the eleven panels into a one page comic (full size). I made a 3 page version for easy reading this blog:

Above... page 1 of 3; Recruiting Telepaths (continues below).

Above, page 2 of 3; Recruiting Telepaths (continues below).

Above, page 3 of 3; Recruiting Telepaths (blog format). Alternate format: download the single-page comic here.

 

Three pink lights used for the star-watch scene.

The first setting for the action (seen in the first six panels, above) was outside, at night, during a star-watch. In Alastor Cluster, the night sky of planets is more interesting than here on Earth. A star-watch is meant to be a social occasion where folks are more interested in meeting a new lover than naming the stars of Alastor Cluster. 

The telepathic human-alien hybrids Typly and Hyng are out on the town looking for telepaths who they can recruit into the service of Delpha. Delpha is trying to improve human telepathic abilities so as to make possible telepathic contact between the ancient Phari and humans.

Xyza is feeling the telepathic sashei of Typly and Hyng.

As discussed on this blog page, I'm using jagged captions to indicate telepathic communication. The first few panels in the comic were "expanded" for display on this blog, making it easier to read the captions. My computer has a 1920x1080 display, so using the 15.8 Mb full sized image of the single page version (3045 x 4403 pixels) and displaying it at 65% size on my screen is optimal for me and even the smallest text in the comic is readable.

In panel #7, Xyza, Typly and Hyng have returned inside from the balcony where they were looking at the stars. The indoors setting is where I made a video, experimenting with lights and reflective surfaces.

cover art by Gene Szafran

Alastor Cluster, sashei and star-watches were all invented by Jack Vance for his novels that are set in Alastor star cluster. Vance introduced the idea of sashei in Trullion. For my fan fiction stories The Alastor Network and "Meet the Phari" I imagine that some people have the ability to telepathically activate brain regions that are important for sexual thoughts and sensations.

original cover art by Ed Emshwiller

Some people carry nanocoids in their brains that can help them synchronize their thoughts telepathically to others who have similar nanocoids. Also mentioned in panel #8 of the comic is the "otrance". Otrance is slang for "orgasm trance". Typly and Hyng are intent on having sex with Xyza, as a way of testing if they can amplify their telepathic abilities as a group. For some people, during a shared orgasm, their minds are best able to synchronize, creating an amplification of their telepathic abilities. This also has the benefit of keeping Delpha's telepathic agents and helpers happy.

Typly (blue), Xyza and Hyng (red) ready for the tub.

The final three panels of the comic take place in a private location where Xyza, Typly and Hyng can relax in a hot tub and start some sex play. Will they get lucky and manage to achieve three simultaneous orgasms? As a Phyphy, Hyng is a simultaneous hermaphrodite and she has a penis which is the subject of conversation in the last panel of the comic.

Depth of field example.

Panel #4 in the comic was my first experiment with camera depth of field. Closest to the camera is Typly, shown slightly out of focus. The camera is focused on Xyza. In the background, the stars are also out of focus.

Xyza glowing pink

Another challenge was giving Xyza a pink hue in the final panel. In the spa room, to the right of the hot tub is a sauna that emits a pink glow. I was using a pink "point" light source to give Xyza a pink glow, but because of Hyng's red skin, that really deepened her red coloration (see Figure A at the top of this blog post.) I was stubborn and rather than switch to a pink spotlight, for the comic I spliced together two different renderings, one half for a darker Hyng and one half for the pink Xyza.

See also: Chapter 11 of "Meet the Phari".

Next: SIHA 2021; alien exploitation films

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