Ellie Evolution
We’re running late with today’s comic, so instead we have another little treat for you. We’re used to seeing Ellie right here, twice a week, but she didn’t always look this way. Years before she was launched into space Ellie went through a lengthy design process. Over a roughly ten year period from when she was first conceived, through a series of big changes and tiny tweaks, Ellie finally became the little robot we all know and love. Take a look below to see her history of revisions. Click the pic to bigafy.
As good as a new strip and in many ways better. Great that you’ve saved all these snippets.
Thanks, Frank. Yeah, I tend to save eeeeevvvvveeeerrrrything.
Saving everything is easy. The real clever trick is finding it again. 🙂
They are all great! I especially love the one with the scientists putting on her cap. Awesome.
You just reminded me, I need to redo that one for the book. Man, more work.
Good stuff. 🙂 I bet Ellie’s glad she lost the tutu from image 1!
Thanks, Stewart! Totally impractical and unwieldy. It’s a good thing the Strang Institute developed a much more efficient solar panel skirt for her.
“Hey, Mr. Strang! I’ve got the design for the probe to planet X!”
“What are you, nuts?”
“But… it fulfills all the design specifications…”
“We can’t show that to the press, make it cuter now or you’re fired!”
If you were an alien, wouldn’t you like to meet a cute little friendly looking robot over a cold mechanical thing with arms that end in dangerous looking probes?
It’s fun to see how she evolved. Interesting that some of the earliest elements stuck with her.
Yeah, it’s kind of surprising that the basic idea never really changed much.
Well, this stuff is stellar! The only question that comes to my mind, seeing all this great design is – how do you know when you’re done making design tweaks?
I just keep simplifying. I tried eliminating the outline altogether, but it didn’t look quite right.
You don’t! You just run out of time before the launch window!
Or…yeah…what Frank said!
2nd row, last column, the real orangey sketch — I love it! Nice and buttery-textured painterly. All those sketches are terrific, but that one caught my eye particularly. I love when you post these behind-the-scenes entries.
Thanks, John. That was back when I was thinking of making Ellie more of a children’s book and giving the illustrations a paper cut out look.
Fascinating Evolution!
What a long, strange trip it’s been.