The Story So Far
Mischa’s Story continues. This page is the 51st flat in the series, meaning that so far there have been 199 strips (4 strips per page, minus one for the double-height intro of the Bargol). Seems as good a time as any for a recap of the plot.
Eunsuk claims that all of my characters look Korean, so as an experiment I tried to make Mischa look unambiguously caucasian. Aegis Overlord is the remnant of Pax Europa in exile, after all. I wanted a name like the Leningrad Cowboys character Yuri Euroman; Mischa was chosen because of the cosmetics company, and also because the name can mean “bear” in Russian. Later I learned that the company is based in Korea and isn’t European at all… I also have a friend named Mischa who draws horrifying cartoons but it wasn’t until after I picked the name that I realized “Mimo” is short for “Mischa”. So, there ya go.
Tama’s nick was chosen using a baby naming site; in the weeks leading up to Sean’s birth we were looking at a lot of those. Since she comes from a mining colony I wanted to find something with earthy connotations. Her first name means “Jewel” and her last name is apparently a type of clay. Later on I realized that “Tama Smitt” sounds an awful lot like “Tara Smith”, a well known science blogger.
For Sonata I needed a name with a certain degree of self-importance, bordering on the pretentious. Her first name may have been taken from a car. The thing is, and I don’t know if this will be explained within the story or not, Sonata Daring really is her birth name. She’s the clonechild of an arena pilot whose stage name was Daring and who wanted an equally dramatic name for her kid.
Gronda’s name is a combination of “Rhonda” and “Grrr”. Originally she was just going to have a bit part on Clund, but I like her so she’s going to tag along with Sonata for a while.
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