This is one of the longest installments of the Victorian storyline. I really liked drawing Dr. Pim and developing his alien mad-science backstory. He’s one of my favorite side characters in Narbonic.

The Story About Ping is a classic children’s book about a Chinese duck, but it’s not really relevant to this story. I had several readers who thought I was making a reference to a computer programming manual called The Story of Ping, though.

I think I got these octopus images from a woodcut illustration in an edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Aren’t they lovely?

Dr. Pim’s head looks like a penis. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

It was always nice when I bothered to do Victorian-looking sound effects for these installments.

As I mentioned in the last chapter of the Victorian serial, I originally introduced Dr. Pim to give Helen and Mell someone to talk to on Venus. I quickly became very fond of the character and found ways to keep him in the story. I have no regrets.

The first panel is one of the quintessential Helen expressions. Aw, she’s so cute when she’s plotting!

That back view of Madblood in the bottom panel just looks awful, which makes me sad because the rest of the panel turned out pretty well. It bugged me when I first drew it, too.