Kristofer Straub is a web cartoonist raised by 2 engineers. Engineers are the members of society who envision and design our future, so it is hardly surprising that Straub should be steeped in science fiction. Sometime around 2005, Kristofer Straub started a webcomic that would eventually become "Starslip." It started simply enough: a fussy nebbish of a museum curator running an interstellar art museum--like a library "bookmobile" showing Earth's greatest artworks to other cultures of the galaxy, if that bookmobile were something like the "Enterprise" from Star Trek--in a gag-a-day format. The story features short story arcs: a week-long story here, 2 weeks-long there, but things change when the museum curator falls in love with a beautiful princess from the moons of Jupiter.
The story arcs get longer. Characters who were once introduced as throw-away one-joke characters get long, interconnecting plots.
The starship travels in 2 different modes: a slow mode with (nuclear fusion rocket?) propulsion through regular space; and a fast mode which allows the vessel to transpose itself interdimensionally with another vessel in a similar timeline. Basically, the ships' computers find a parallel universe where almost everything is identical to the current universe, except that parallel vessel is parked where you want to be, and you're parked where that parallel vessel wants to be. Then, your 2 vessels "trade places" interdimensionally, using no rocket fuel. This form of transportation is known as "Starshift" or "Starslip" drive. Unfortunately, a big problem lurks in the "ALMOST everything is identical" specification: in one universe, the curator is courting the beautiful princess of Jupiter; but then the curator "Starslips" to a universe wherein that princess has died tragically.
Now our unimpressive curator has a mission in his life, and we witness him becoming a tragic hero. He must find some way to get back to his princess: the one love of his life, but the computer predicts it will be years--perhaps lifetimes--before they ever find the right parallel universe. Our hero starts breaking rules and stepping on toes in order to get back to his true love. He earns some powerful and villainous enemies, and overcomes great obstacles. Many strips no longer feature a joke in the final panel, instead punctuating with melodrama or pathos.
During the last year of Starslip, the loose threads and disposable characters we once thought disconnected finally tie into the main story. The end becomes a tremendous dramatic climax to what was once a gag-a-day satire comic strip.
I say "last year" and "end" because Starslip officially ended on June 15th, 2012. Sometimes comic strips (especially webcomics) simply end because the cartoonist gets busy with other activities or the cartoonist runs out of ideas, but Starslip ends with an actual conclusion. In 2006, Straub and Starslip won awards, but in my opinion, the final year was really the best year of Starslip.
You can read Starslip for free on the web, http://www.starslip.com/, or you can pay the cartoonist to send you bound volumes of the entire run of the strip on paper. Buy them. Give them as gifts to the sci-fi fan in your life.
Now, if only the cartoonist would please draw characters with noses...
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