…but I don’t think he’s told Brendan. Also, it sure doesn’t seem like Al knew anything about what Brendan was going to say- do you think he’ll be upset that Brendan hasn’t mentioned this fairly important idea to him, or just relieved to find out?
(and I knew it, I knew he was sick, hopefully people will stop thinking Brendan murdered him)
(also “mansions for the souls”, I am just going to edit the shit out of this comment aren’t I)
I knew it! It all makes sense now – Al knows he’s sick but hasn’t told Brendan. Now he’s shocked to hear that Brendan is, in effect, a transhumanist that not only believes in downloading the mind to preserve it, but actually is trying to create the means with which to do it. Al knows how brilliant Brendan is, so I’m sure he has no doubt that this is exactly what he/the world is in store for.
I love this comic so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It makes more sense to me for him to have been sick, because if he was murdered:
1) Why would Brendan kill him just to try to bring him back? (Granted, it could be someone besides Brendan, but we don’t really have a likely candidate yet.)
2) Wouldn’t Al be just a liiiiiitle more upset with his murderer, if that were really the case?
Also, replying to SI and Scalesandfins, wow those are two major things i hadn’t thought of, I think I’ll just go crazy waiting for next week’s page to see if any of this gets cleared up.
According to my own personal theory, he was suicidal. It explains all the symptoms.
He’s just seen a way out of the life he’s leading. He doesn’t feel like he fits this body? Well, he can make himself a prosthetic body. And he’s just realised that.
Agreed. I think it’s related to his gender and sexuality issues.
On the other hand, Brendan underlines the sick so much in his speech, it could be a clue as well. Maybe both interpretations are right, but the characters will realise them at different points? (now Al thinks about his sexuality but later he will need the technology when he’s in the hospital)
yes, that’s definitely something i hope is discussed later in the comic. too much sci-fi tries to ignore mental differences or outright “cure” them, and this story could do some commentary on that (if it hasn’t already- i’m still reading).
AHH okay twitter interpretation challenge accepted. Wow. THAT FACE THOUGH. Al has just realized that they’ve created a.) new sentient life forms, b.) functional immortality. BOOM. וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר; וַיְהִי-אוֹר.
Okay, hope my other comment got eaten and isn’t in limbo where I will end up spamming you, but
The expression of fear/awe on Al’s face in the last panel is AMAZING with his shining eyes– yeah there might be some trans and illness realizations there, but I think mostly this is Al figuring out that how tremendous this is– that he and Brendand have created new sentient life forms and functional immortality. And God said, let there be light. He’s trying to wrap his mind around the future implications of this for both humans and the people they’ve both made– because they’re definitely people– and all the fear he was talking about as the big barrier to robotics improvements with Brendan in the park is kicking in.
And I’m reminded of the layout on p28 of Chapter one, Sulla’s face transforming in delight and Al in existential shock.
And to my huge shame both comments appear, super pretentious and full of typos and kind of wrong? Yeah, this is totally an intense, intense trans epiphany, and the Sulla page was 1.23, not 28, sorry :(
Sorry if you aren’t able to go back and edit your past comments – I’m only able to approve stuff once I get home from work, so if you’re a new commenter I may have to fish your comments out of my spam filter. I approved both of yours because they were different enough, and pretty interesting. :)
And other folks – if your comments don’t show up right away, please be patient. I may just be at work.
I read through the whole thing last night, and I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it!! I’ve been thinking about the story all morning. Can’t wait for more!
Hey Blue, I haven’t commented here for a little while but I just felt the need to reiterate again how much I adore this comic. The story has been building wonderfully, the structure of present and flashbacks is perfectly constructed, the themes and characters are beautifully worked out and the artwork is an absolute joy. Every page is a delight to read, seriously.
Also your faces, good lord. Al’s face in that last panel!
Al is the tinkerer, Brendan is the visionary. It’s a shame it looks like they never talked with each other about the implications of their work. No wonder Brendan was such a basket case getting ready for this. He knew what was on the line.
I just started reading this comic. I’m surprised people thought Brandon murdered Alister. My first thought was suicide when Al first “woke” up in his robot body but then as time went on it seemed pretty obvious he had some fatal illness. Especially when Brandon said he failed to copy Al’s mind when he was dying in hospital.
Ooh, that’s interesting… maybe that’s what he means when he wakes up and says “No”- he doesn’t want to wake up in a male body. However, Al’s so closeted that I’m not sure he would leap at the ability to transition, and he’s so accustomed to failure that I don’t think he would risk his own life gambling that their technology would work. So I’m not sure what to think.
EDIT: wait shit I think I just completely misinterpreted that comment, how did I even do that. Somehow what I thought you said was that Al committed suicide in order to be able to have the body he wants, which seems more farfetched the more I think about it but is an interesting thought.
My friend introduced me to comic at the end of August and I finally got around to reading it yesterday and I read all of it. I’m so glad he told me to read it.
Beyond Anthology is looking for contributors for an anthology of the best LGBTQ sci-fi/fantasy comics. I think “O Human Star” is one of the best I’ve read.
Has anyone yet proposed the theory that Al might be a trans man? It would certainly explain his averse reaction to Sulla’s gender and Brandon’s suggestion.
EYE OF MINDS
EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS
Seriously! There are some pretty severely cool parallels here, especially in regards to the program itself and it’s offer of immortality for sentient life, artificial or not.
I would draw a sharp distinction between “upload” and “copy” when it comes to self-modifying files, and say “upload” should only be used when it’s also going to be deleted from the original location.
Brendan is a fairly devout Jewish believer, as we have seen. And he believes a person’s soul can survive death if you copy their memories. I’m not going to debate his beliefs. I just find it fascinating to try and understand him. I can picture him at his death bed, shaking hands with his robot clone, feeling absolutely no fear of dying because he believes the part of him that experiences itself as a self-aware, limited being separate from the world around it is going to move and live on behind a new set of eyes.
If you can really believe that, it seems wonderful.
Great juxtaposition of emotions/reactions. (bowing in appreciation)
“We could do this…and why not this…and hey about how about this other thing, that’d be really cool!”
“Huh?…Wait a sec, is he saying…Oh sweet ***!”
It seems like Al already knows he’s sick…..
…but I don’t think he’s told Brendan. Also, it sure doesn’t seem like Al knew anything about what Brendan was going to say- do you think he’ll be upset that Brendan hasn’t mentioned this fairly important idea to him, or just relieved to find out?
(and I knew it, I knew he was sick, hopefully people will stop thinking Brendan murdered him)
(also “mansions for the souls”, I am just going to edit the shit out of this comment aren’t I)
I knew it! It all makes sense now – Al knows he’s sick but hasn’t told Brendan. Now he’s shocked to hear that Brendan is, in effect, a transhumanist that not only believes in downloading the mind to preserve it, but actually is trying to create the means with which to do it. Al knows how brilliant Brendan is, so I’m sure he has no doubt that this is exactly what he/the world is in store for.
I love this comic so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait…did Al die because he was sick? It sure seemed to me like he’d been murdered.
It makes more sense to me for him to have been sick, because if he was murdered:
1) Why would Brendan kill him just to try to bring him back? (Granted, it could be someone besides Brendan, but we don’t really have a likely candidate yet.)
2) Wouldn’t Al be just a liiiiiitle more upset with his murderer, if that were really the case?
Also, replying to SI and Scalesandfins, wow those are two major things i hadn’t thought of, I think I’ll just go crazy waiting for next week’s page to see if any of this gets cleared up.
According to my own personal theory, he was suicidal. It explains all the symptoms.
He’s just seen a way out of the life he’s leading. He doesn’t feel like he fits this body? Well, he can make himself a prosthetic body. And he’s just realised that.
I, too, have always thought it was suicide.
Maybe he was suicidal because he was sick, prob terminal?
wow, that’s … totally not the interpretation I took of the page.
I think it has to do with the vessel Al might prefer to house his soul, guys.
Agreed. I think it’s related to his gender and sexuality issues.
On the other hand, Brendan underlines the sick so much in his speech, it could be a clue as well. Maybe both interpretations are right, but the characters will realise them at different points? (now Al thinks about his sexuality but later he will need the technology when he’s in the hospital)
Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. I’m trans myself, and I read his expression as wistful longing for the right kind of vessel.
And who gets to decide who is or isn’t a “brilliant mind” ?
yes, that’s definitely something i hope is discussed later in the comic. too much sci-fi tries to ignore mental differences or outright “cure” them, and this story could do some commentary on that (if it hasn’t already- i’m still reading).
AHH okay twitter interpretation challenge accepted. Wow. THAT FACE THOUGH. Al has just realized that they’ve created a.) new sentient life forms, b.) functional immortality. BOOM. וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר; וַיְהִי-אוֹר.
Okay, hope my other comment got eaten and isn’t in limbo where I will end up spamming you, but
The expression of fear/awe on Al’s face in the last panel is AMAZING with his shining eyes– yeah there might be some trans and illness realizations there, but I think mostly this is Al figuring out that how tremendous this is– that he and Brendand have created new sentient life forms and functional immortality. And God said, let there be light. He’s trying to wrap his mind around the future implications of this for both humans and the people they’ve both made– because they’re definitely people– and all the fear he was talking about as the big barrier to robotics improvements with Brendan in the park is kicking in.
And I’m reminded of the layout on p28 of Chapter one, Sulla’s face transforming in delight and Al in existential shock.
And to my huge shame both comments appear, super pretentious and full of typos and kind of wrong? Yeah, this is totally an intense, intense trans epiphany, and the Sulla page was 1.23, not 28, sorry :(
Sorry if you aren’t able to go back and edit your past comments – I’m only able to approve stuff once I get home from work, so if you’re a new commenter I may have to fish your comments out of my spam filter. I approved both of yours because they were different enough, and pretty interesting. :)
And other folks – if your comments don’t show up right away, please be patient. I may just be at work.
I’ve noticed that comments either take longer or don’t go through at all when you fill in the website URL. Go figure.
I read through the whole thing last night, and I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it!! I’ve been thinking about the story all morning. Can’t wait for more!
BRILLIANT!
This page shows so much of what I absolutely adore about this comic. The realization on Al’s face cut me to the quick.
Hey Blue, I haven’t commented here for a little while but I just felt the need to reiterate again how much I adore this comic. The story has been building wonderfully, the structure of present and flashbacks is perfectly constructed, the themes and characters are beautifully worked out and the artwork is an absolute joy. Every page is a delight to read, seriously.
Also your faces, good lord. Al’s face in that last panel!
i don’t want to comment on this.
L.o.L.
Al is the tinkerer, Brendan is the visionary. It’s a shame it looks like they never talked with each other about the implications of their work. No wonder Brendan was such a basket case getting ready for this. He knew what was on the line.
I just started reading this comic. I’m surprised people thought Brandon murdered Alister. My first thought was suicide when Al first “woke” up in his robot body but then as time went on it seemed pretty obvious he had some fatal illness. Especially when Brandon said he failed to copy Al’s mind when he was dying in hospital.
Ooh, that’s interesting… maybe that’s what he means when he wakes up and says “No”- he doesn’t want to wake up in a male body. However, Al’s so closeted that I’m not sure he would leap at the ability to transition, and he’s so accustomed to failure that I don’t think he would risk his own life gambling that their technology would work. So I’m not sure what to think.
EDIT: wait shit I think I just completely misinterpreted that comment, how did I even do that. Somehow what I thought you said was that Al committed suicide in order to be able to have the body he wants, which seems more farfetched the more I think about it but is an interesting thought.
i have a comment.
:-).
“page 1” now makes sense to me.
My friend introduced me to comic at the end of August and I finally got around to reading it yesterday and I read all of it. I’m so glad he told me to read it.
Beyond Anthology is looking for contributors for an anthology of the best LGBTQ sci-fi/fantasy comics. I think “O Human Star” is one of the best I’ve read.
http://io9.com/the-queer-comics-anthology-weve-been-waiting-for-1442556678
I’ve actually been invited to contribute a story to this anthology! I’m doing a story about Sulla, and I’m super excited about it.
Oh! Now it’s on my “to buy” list, just because you’ll be in it! :)
oh, i love it when you talk nerdy to me ;)
Has anyone yet proposed the theory that Al might be a trans man? It would certainly explain his averse reaction to Sulla’s gender and Brandon’s suggestion.
EYE OF MINDS
EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS EYE OF MINDS
Seriously! There are some pretty severely cool parallels here, especially in regards to the program itself and it’s offer of immortality for sentient life, artificial or not.
I would draw a sharp distinction between “upload” and “copy” when it comes to self-modifying files, and say “upload” should only be used when it’s also going to be deleted from the original location.
Back reading this after everything that’s gone down in the final chapter and aaaaaAAAAA
Right there with you. I’m getting chills!
Brendan is a fairly devout Jewish believer, as we have seen. And he believes a person’s soul can survive death if you copy their memories. I’m not going to debate his beliefs. I just find it fascinating to try and understand him. I can picture him at his death bed, shaking hands with his robot clone, feeling absolutely no fear of dying because he believes the part of him that experiences itself as a self-aware, limited being separate from the world around it is going to move and live on behind a new set of eyes.
If you can really believe that, it seems wonderful.