It takes me quite a while to get through a book, especially one as thick as Strang Tales, the biography of Dr. Cornelius Strang, discoverer of Planet X and creator of Ellie. At the rate I’m going, we’ll be celebrating ten years of monitoring Ellie on Planet X before I even get halfway through this book. Here’s another scan from the book’s insides (go here for the first one). Just click on the pic below and read how Dr. Strang was inspired to make his great discoveries!
The amazing Azucena Nava-Moreno, who also happens to be my super-talented girlfriend, claims she found this Ellie on Planet X Halloween mask that dates back to the early 70’s on ebay!
It’s just like one I wore when my sis and I went Trick or Treatin’ as kids!
This is one of those old graphics that they used back in the late sixties on TV news programs to show how far away Planet X is from Earth.
That sketch I did a few weeks back of Ellie and her satellite friend Opie? Here’s the finished art! Click to bigafy.
Here’s a quick sketch of Ellie’s Orbital Platform, or O.P. for short. But the crew here at Mission Control just call our bus-sized satellite Opie. He doesn’t say much, but he’s got the important job of relaying signals back and forth between Ellie and Earth, as well as forecasting weather, guiding Ellie on the safest path (though she doesn’t always take it), and taking fantastic high detail photos of the planet’s surface. You can see him represented in the Mission Control hologram map of Planet X in this pic here.
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.
Click to bigafy!
Last month our resident alien expert, Peanut, showed you the cover of the March issue of Awesome Science Journal that featured an interview with her.
Now here’s the interview! I was going to post this up above in with the comics, but the text was mighty small to read. Click on the pic below to big-a-fy.
A few weeks ago I posted a look into what goes on inside Ellie’s Mission Control here at the Strang Institute. Here’s a look inside that look.
It all starts with a bunch of sketches to get the idea of how to best portray Mission Control in the most interesting way.
Next, precise measurements of the interior of the real Mission Control were fed into a computer to create a virtual model of it to be used as a guide for the painting. It was sketched over, built up layer by layer, tweaked, things added, things taken away, all to get to the final illustration you enjoy today. Click the animated gif below to see a slightly larger version.
Finally, here’s a few close ups of some of the detail!
As I said last week, “Normally I’d post this in the blog down below, but I think a lot of people miss the extra stuff I include about the Strang Institute where we monitor Ellie’s progress. I’m going to post more about Ellie’s history and goings on at Mission Control right here. Don’t worry though, it won’t take the place of any comics. It’s all extra stuff for you to enjoy.”
If you want to know more about Ellie’s history, Mission Control, and the Strang Institute, click here, or visit the Extra! Extra! link in the menu at the top of the page and click on Ellie Extras. Have fun!
