Starslip Crisis

Starslip Crisis (formerly Starshift Crisis) is a daily independent science fiction/comedy webcomic written and drawn by Kristofer Straub. Starslip Crisis was part of the webcomics cooperation collective Blank Label Comics, until Straub split away from Blank Label to merge Starslip with his new collective, Halfpixel, in November 2007. The comic initially ran under the name Starshift Crisis. The nearly-identical Starslip Crisis appeared early in the strip's run, with its own website and associated content, differing only in that the term "starslip" replaced "starshift". The two ran in parallel, until a strip in August 2005 which definitively ended the plot of Starshift Crisis, but which played out differently in Starslip Crisis. Reportedly the name change was caused by a legal issue.

Setting

Starslip Crisis is set in the 3440s, aboard the starship IDS Fuseli, named after painter Henry Fuseli. The Fuseli is a former luxury warship which has been converted into a starship museum. It is still capable of military activities. The Fuseli travels from system to system with its exhibits (using to a faster than light "starslip drive"), and the comic details the adventures of the ship's crew. Much of the art featured upon the Fuseli dates from the 20th or 21st centuries.

Characters

Much of the strip centres around the exploits of, and relationships between, the three main protagonists:

• Memnon Vanderbeam is the "The fussy, arrogant curator of the Fuseli." He tends to be self-centered, often putting the lives of his crew at risk, while acting in his own self-interest. He constantly abuses Mr. Jinx, and suffers from "Space Affective Disorder". He is wholly devoted to art and his beloved museum, valuing it more than anything.
• Cutter Edgewise is an "ex-pirate, drunk, and the Fuseli’s pilot acting on behalf of the Terran military." (ibid)
• Mr. Jinx is the "alien operations assistant to Vanderbeam. Like C-3PO without all that raw courage." (ibid) Jinx is cirbozoid, an asexual incectoid race that has repeatedly faced extermination at the hand of others.

Other characters who make frequent appearances throughout the strip include:

• Princess Jovia is the "royal ambassadrix from the Jupiter Colonies. The object of Vanderbeam’s desire." Because of a design flaw in the Fuseli's Starslip drive, the Fuseli and her crew are in a universe where the Princess is dead. Vanderbeam is currently looking for a way to get her back by jumping to a universe where she still lives.
• Meridian Holiday is the "Fuseli’s head engineer. Inquisitive and smart. In recent comic strips it has been revealed she has a crush on Vanderbeam"
• Lord Katarakis is "your typical crazed space despot. Recently tried to conquer the Consortium with a piece of art." He has also made two attempts to wipe out the cirbizoid race
• Vore is "an antique robot from Earth who wants to kill all organic life."
• Obdrath von Lucifuge is the "CEO of Esquigent, the starslip drive corporation."

Alterverse War

In August 2007, Straub initiated Starslip Crisis: The Alterverse War, a multi-webcomic "crossover," featuring the Fuseli from Starslip Crisis in battles against prominent ships from other webcomics, including Schlock Mercenary, Real Life Comics, Melonpool, Goats, Irregular Webcomic! and Zortic. There are twenty-nine different webcomics involved in the crossover.

Awards

Starslip Crisis was nominated for five Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards in 2006: Outstanding Newcomer, Outstanding Black and White Art, Outstanding Use of Flash, Outstanding Web Design, and Outstanding Science Fiction Comic (which it won). Kristofer Straub was also nominated in 2006 for Outstanding Writer in the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. The strip was nominated for three Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards in 2007: Outstanding Black and White Art, Outstanding Science Fiction, and Outstanding Web Design.

References

External links

• Strip Homepage