Getting an ever-so-slight Quantum of Solace flashback here.

You know, I thought the same thing when I saw the thumbnail.

But how'd that moth get in the canteen? Or in people's wallets when they're out of cash, for that matter.

Why, did know one tell you? That's how baby moths are made, when critical items like money and water go missing from their storage locations (when a reservoir dries up they can blacken the sky).

That's probably one of the funnier explanations I've heard for that.

And here I was thinking that it was just a matter of bad quality control.

If I understand it right the Atacama and the Namib Deserts are the world's driest. Luckily there are places in the Atacama where there's an accessible water table, so for some weird reason towns still spring up there.

At least her shoes aren't getting dirty

She probably prefers the pebbles and sand underfoot to a twisted ankle.

I love Elise's expression. She looks like she wished she packed a handgun somewhere in that basket.

Shirtless in a desert is actually a bad idea. The body dehydrates faster because sweat evaporates off much faster.

Which opens the question of whether or not these characters sweat. The less human-like they are, the more likely they are to just use their tongues. One of those grey-area things about anthropomorphizing that's a pain in the butt when you're trying to do it hard-SF-style.

Fortunately the world of Fred Savage is more 'anthropomorphic by coincidence' rather than carefully planned sci-fi. The nuances of animal vs. human anatomy are, at least to me, less important than the storytelling benefits and sense of humor. I do love to postulate about what little details would make an anthropomorphic world different, but it's strictly secondary to the story and serves mainly as an amusing 'what if?'

The nuances of animal vs. human anatomy are, at least to me, less important than the storytelling benefits and sense of humor. I do love to postulate about what little details would make an anthropomorphic world different, but it's strictly secondary to the story and serves mainly as an amusing 'what if?'

That is a very good strategy for most stories, and you seem to be deploying it well. Go you.

He's carrying a rifle while she's carrying a picnic basket... yet considering the characters it seems so perfect. They make quite a pair, and we haven't even seen them in the comic together yet XD
Looks almost like a movie poster.

Making this image was actually kind of fun. I wanted to break in my new sketchbook and I also wanted to try a bigger canvas than usual. The image above was actually two separate illustrations on two pages, scanned in fragments and pieced together in Photoshop. I like how the result is large, yet still crisp (at least as far as my artwork is concerned). What proved surprisingly tricky was determining the size and scale of the background- I wanted to give an idea of the vast open desert without making the characters seem tiny in it.

They hadn't even settled down to eat yet when Fred started thinking that perhaps this picnic was a bad idea to begin with. Still, he counted his blessings: he still had a full clip of ammo, and if worse came to worst he had a full bottle of wine that he could crawl into before he died of thirst. Wasn't his vintage, but he wasn't too picky at this point.

really awesome!

Thanks!

Everything about this picture is ace!

Thanks! It's actually a larger piece than anything I've done before. Fred and Elise were drawn on separate pages in a new sketchbook I have, and I had to make 4 scans to get all the line art. I pieced it all together in Photoshop afterwards and started working from there, so there might be a subtle difference in the detail from my other work.

well, they atleast have wine xD

Oh they think it's bad now, just they wait until nightfall and the cold sets in. (Dry climates have greater temperature variations between night and day than humid ones. Fred's expression is perfect, "What the hell is a fly doing in there?" I'm sure he regrets not bringing any flare ammo for the launcher.

I guess they'll just have to cuddle up to stay warm...

Also, and this is a serious question, do you know if flare grenades exist for the 40mm launcher? It seems like a very reasonable idea, but I've never seen such a thing.

Oh yes. They're called illumination rounds and there are even in IR visible only ones. They are launched into the air at a high angle and at the apex of their flight they deploy a small parachute to stat aloft long enough for the flare to burn out. There are many kinds of rounds for the 40mm launcher, both lethal and non-lethal. Lethal include: HE-Frag (new super sized ones are called Hellhounds), HE-DP (fragmentation/anti-tank), buckshot, and fletchette, .22 LR adapter (fires a cluster of 10 rounds, EVIL), 20 GA shot shell adapters, incendiary and more. Non-lethal include: rubber buckshot, beanbag, flare (parachute and starburst), smoke (various sizes and colors), teargas and more; though rubber buckshot and beanbag rounds are actually considered less-lethal since they can still kill when used wrong, or right depending on how twisted your point of view is. And now I have given you more information than you probably ever wanted to know.

Actually, I found it quite enlightening! I had some idea of how versatile the 40mm grenade platform was but some of the options you mentioned were quite new to me, as well as practical and tactical.

yay chile! im from chile

HOW DID I MISS THIS!!!!??? SON OF A B*&#H! INSTANT FAVORONI

"I knew I forgot something" LOL

wonderful work