Part of the fun in drawing these new comics is having the ability to go back and tweak things from their original designs. In my previous post, I discussed the fact the the Lucky Strike received an overhaul, that of course meant the internal aspects had to fit this new shell as well.

This panel shows a couple of aspects about the new helm of the ship. In prior designs, the helm was a room tucked onto the port-side of the ship, separate from the bridge. While this was pretty cool and gave the ship a feel that was similar to The Millennium Falcon, it wasn’t feasible with the new design, so I had to make a compromise.

Now, the helm is still in it’s own kind of "room" however it is a room built into the bridge itself. The  hastily drawn image below should illustrate what I mean:

The helm has seats for two vital crew-members. The pilot (Senn "Kracker" Toucair), and the Captain (Mara Senten). Kracker’s seat is built for comfort and accessibility when it comes to using the flight-wheel. Flight-wheels are really only required for landing and when maneuvering needs to be handled with finesse. See the large panel against the wall? That’s a large-screen-interface (touch screen) that allows the captain to program the computer to take routes and perform automated flight. Aside from showing the route, it displays a lot of information on other aspects of the ship. There are several monitors located in the helm as well including two highly-mobile and adjustable monitors that are geared specifically for the pilot to have the ability to view the surrounding area from any part of the ship he wishes. The ship will also display urgent alerts on these. Perhaps the most important screen for the pilot is "windshield" itself, which is coated with a layer of electrons to form a window-wide monitor, this is also capable of displaying anything Kracker wants. Generally, he likes a small portion devoted to viewing the underside of the ship since pirates tend to sneak up on ships from underneath (three-dimensional space, after all).

Mara’s seat however is more like a standard office-rolling-chair. She is never in one space too long. She also performs duties such as being a navigator and communications officer. Her section has several monitors displaying various information which are in turn all touch-based. Her touch-board is similar to a keyboard, only the keys are able to be grouped as the user sees fit, and is a more specialized and pressure-sensitive screen. However, any instances where she is sitting down are rare, as she’s obligated to move around the ship constantly to where she’s needed, and often NOT needed, a hands on personality being a trait of many great captains.

Anyway, hopefully you guys found this interesting!