Velour and Tweed

Here’s some answers to questions you’ve been asking about. Feel free to let us know if you have any more.

Q. What’s up with the Mud Pie Comics logo?
A. You might think it looks like it was drawn by a 7 year old. And you’d be right! Mud Pie Comics and it’s “so-bad-it’s-wacky” logo was created by James Mosbey the Artist .

Q. What is Burst Ball?
A. Burst Ball is mentioned in the issue “Chuck Wagon in the Alley“, and although Velour and Tweed wait in the ticket line, we never get to see the game played. Think of it like contact baseball, where beaning players is not only allowed, it’s encouraged! And the pitcher uses a ball cannon, so it’s a good thing they wear pads.

Q. Why did are the issue titles named the way they are?
A. Some are attempts to be clever, some are based on life experiences.
–This Thing Really Sucks In addition to actually having something do with the fact that this issue includes a death by vacuum, it was preemptive self-deprecation in case people didn’t like it. Hey, we didn’t like it first!
–And The Award Goes From Pretty straight forward attempt to be clever, in the award-theft/recovery issue.
–Chuck Wagon in the Alley Back in the 70’s Mosbey’s father was a Private Investigator. On one case someone called asking if he’d heard of “Canteen in the Alley”, and requested a sandwich be delivered to him from there, a difficult task considering he was two states from it. This title pays homage to his not so action packed story.
–Magic Hour Deliveries Alright, if you’ve read this issue the explanation might seems straight forward. However, there is a fun little tale that goes along with it. Mosbey was working on a show as a graphic designer where one set was a bar called “Magic Hour” whose delivery entrance needed a vinyl sign. Instead of sending the file to the plotter, he sent it to the printer which happened to be loaded with iron-on fabric paper, obviously it couldn’t work on the set, but ended up being a fun souvenir, albeit the image was mirrored, and it was quickly ironed onto a shirt. About four years later working on another show Mosbey was wearing the shirt and got the call from his very pregnant wife. She was having this baby now. Mosbey calmly rushes home to find out the mid-wife was still on her way, and in the past his wife had been very efficient during childbirth. This was shaping up to be the case. Needless to say, Mosbey was given the terrifying honor of delivering his son. It was magic.
–Drugs and Other Monsters If you’ve read this, it makes perfect sense.
–The Least of These An allusion to Matthew 25:40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” And here we find that Jasper, is the least of the Least Weasels.
(To avoid potential spoilers titles of unpublished issue will not be explained.)
-An Affair to Forget
-Little Lost Lobos
-The Smell of Violets
-The Negentrope Strategem

Q. So Anthromotes? Rentals? User Owned? What?
A. Anthromotes. The name is a combination of Anthropos, the Greek for Person, and the word remote.  These are essentially remote robot people controlled by those who can’t, or don’t want to, leave home but still want to get out into the world of Port Orion.
Most people can’t afford to own an Anthromote, they log in and rent these machines from the despised Crux Co. 
For those who can afford it, for pure or nefarious purposes, buy and often modify their own. 
There isn’t much say about those who use their personal remote android for innocuous purposes. Getting groceries, going bowling, or whatever. 
But there have been some notable known cases of immoral and illegal activity. 
Like that in “And the Award Goes From,” an Antromote is used as a proxy robber, with someone controlling it remotely and through a series of encryptions. 
Another type of Anthromote misuse is like what we first see in “Chuck Wagon in the Alley,” and it’s as complicated as it is havoc inducing, mainly because it involves tricking people to control Anthromotes; unwittingly committing crimes. 
How it plays out…
An enthusiastic gamer finds a game deep in the web, still in beta testing, and can’t resist. It’s a simply charming fantasy game where you follow the leader of your merry band across the countryside fighting goblins, evil wizards, and the like. And although it’s “open world” (meaning you are not locked into a specific path) if you stray too far from the group leader, you get disconnected and thrown back into the long queue to play again. There is no clear objective, this game is still in beta testing, remember? It’s a fun fantasy beat’em-up. So it appears.
What’s really going on is the gamer is unknowingly controlling an Anthromote while viewing the world in augmented reality. The streets and alleys of Port Orion are transformed into the forests and valleys of Mintaka Vale, and the goblins and ghouls they beat up are random pedestrians, Least Weasels, and homeless people who dare to tread the seedy areas of the city. 
The User-Owned controller, the evil Oz behind the curtain,  gets an unwitting posse, harder to trace, all while causing the most destruction. 

Q. So now there’s a cat lady?
A. In “The Least of These” there’s an Old Body Auger
So what’s a Body Auger? Before Crux Co. there was a company called NegenCorp, and Guallian Barre who, while working for them, developed advanced body repair and augmentation procedures; with it came the ability to graft in the likeness of animals. People were mesmerized. Tattoos? That’s kids stuff. If you really wanted to express yourself, you got a body augmentation.  Then maybe another. And Another. But there are always consequences. After so many augmentations, the minds started to be affected, work and family life of those who went overboard with these changes, the “Body Augers” or “Augers”, as they were called, and pretty soon, after a scandal, were either dead or on the streets with only a few exceptions.

Q. Velour’s gun, why does it glow?
A. What’s the technology behind that blue glow?
It’s a take on Yaron Silberberg’s concept of light bullets.