Cosmic Dash – Canon Notes #1

Welcome to the first volume of Cosmic Dash Canon Notes. This is a series of posts I will be doing periodically to note changes and updates to canonicity in the comics and stories I write. I am doing these posts because, as the generally sole contributor to a lot of what is produced for the larger setting – sometimes I slip up.

In this first installment, I have a few small corrections previously listed in the series canon and timeline page over at the main Cosmic Dash website. I include them here to keep the focus of that webpage on the storyline order of the series.

Canon Notes

The following bullet points are canon notes to clarify or correct any errors in the series. As I mostly work alone, sometimes continuity errors do occur. Please e-mail me (hpkomic @ gmail.com) if you have observed any errors.

• Two Discord-exclusive comics occupy fuzzy canonicity. The first, Cosmic Dash – “Moment of Calm,” is set in an unspecified future of the comics and contains slight spoilers. The second comic is a non-canon Nightlifers story, written by Deft Beck and illustrated by Jamil Gonzalez, that features a now-depreciated take on the setting and characters.
• Previous depictions of the Blassnaught Empire’s soldiers in Vol. 1 Ep. 2 depicted them in red when they should have worn blue. That has since been corrected.

Worldbuilding Notes

Cosmic Dash is set in a very vibrant and inspiring setting for me. As a result, I will fill these canon notes with little snippets of information published on associated pages of comics. One of the ways I have been adding to the overall comic experience is by including small notes. I’ll be compiling them periodically in these blog posts.

Each entry will have a link to the corresponding page with a copy of the material – I will likely make small corrections here and there: the latest version is current canon.

CD.4.3.1 – On Secret Agents

So, it looks like Mara is about to meet a co-worker. Mara first contacted IJ Far in episode one of volume three, where she aided him in taking down a weapons smuggling operation. The Kemezeckian must have liked her because he had her work for him again to bring in Packwell Danten, a Federation mole (pun intended), in volume three, episode three.

So yes, Mara has been working as a secret agent under Ij Far on behalf of the Federation. he occupies a special position as the Hand of the High Commander, giving him the ability to conduct intelligence operations on behalf of the Federation but under plausible deniability.

Of course, we’ve also seen that Ij Far also has his hands in some curious developments. Just what has Mara gotten herself into? Is being a secret agent a dangerous game?

CD.4.3.2 – On the Med Bay

One thing that I always feel like I need to apologize for, but I probably shouldn’t need to, is little errors in the comic such as layout and details cycling in or out. Much of it involves me still coming to terms with the layout of locations and the design choices I made on certain objects. The Med Bay is a great example of that. I do work from a loose blueprint I sketched out, but I don’t have a 3D model or anything like that. I end up coming up with backgrounds page-by-page, working from a basic layout sketch and referencing panels.

Sometimes new things slip in. Sometimes it is just an issue of wanting to add visual interest, and other times I have an idea for some functionality I may want to use later. Case in point: I added a small panel below the mattress at the foot of each medical bed. It might be a drawer that keeps sterile tools for emergency procedures, so something is always on hand. Might it play out later? Who knows? The thing is, I just added those on this page. They haven’t appeared in prior shots.

I do not intend to go back and add them in, but if you notice things like that, I hope you can see how it may happen. Likewise, if small features vanish, sometimes things are overlooked.

Nobody has said anything about this, but it’s always something I worry about.

CD.4.3.3 – On the Medical Scanner…

Dorian’s medical scanner has popped up a couple of times since being introduced in Volume 3, Episode 3. It is also known as a diagnostic wand, mostly due to its profile and usage. It is a scanning device that uses a few sensors that allows a medic or physician to scan and diagnose a patient remotely. The device is synced to the medical professional’s mobile through a special application connected to the onboard medical software suite of the medbay.

Dorian’s medical scanner was a gift from Kracker during the events of Signing Bonus, which was the brief novella that followed the time after GalactiCorp purchased Lucky Strike Transport from Marken. Since then, Dorian has kept it quite handy.

The scanner was a plot device in the first issue of volume four, “Special Delivery,” as it had gone missing from the medbay. Dorian searched the ship for it, eventually stumbling upon the kemezeckian stowaways as a result. Though the actual “borrowing” of the scanner by Dr. Fyean occurred at the end of Volume 3, Episode 3, “FTL.”

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Thank you for your time. I am keeping this volume brief, but I hope this series will prove interesting, especially seeing a complicated web of characters and stories play out in real-time.