TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (Bastich walks past DEALER, a shady-looking man with crazy hair, sunglasses and a trench coat. The man is smoking a cigarette as he opens his trench coat to reveal a VR headset) DEALER: Hey buddy, wanna jack in...? I got some V.R. here that'll knock your sockets off! BASTICH: V.R.? Like in that "Strange Days" flick..? DEALER: Ayup.
PANEL 2 (Bastich holds up his left palm dismissively) BASTICH: No thanks, that whole virtual reality thing bothers me... DEALER: How so..? BASTICH: Call me crazy, but l'd rather live out my own life - pathetic as it is - than stoop to having somebody else's experiences downloaded straight into my cerebral cortex..!
PANEL 3 (Bastich stands with his back to the dealer, proclaiming to the audience) BASTICH: I mean, everybody wants to see their fantasies realized, but at what cost? Oh, nothing, just your self-respect! well, not me, mister! I'm better than that! DEALER: Ah, that's too bad...
PANEL 4 (The dealer takes out a box with a Star Trek Federation insignia) DEALER: I guess that means you wouldn't be interested in our new title, "Captain Kirk and the fifty pleasures of Risa, the Planet of Love." (Bastich suddenly pulls out a credit card) BASTICH: Do you accept VISA..? DEALER: Now you're talkin' daddy-o..!
CREDITS (c) 1995 Joshua Adam Hart Editorial assist: James Volker "Scotty, Scotty, what...is...wrong?"
Commentary
Time for some more dated references. I must have just seen Strange Days when this was drawn, because the film was released just a few days before I dropped this off at the Orion office to be published. The movie was technically innovative for its time and won some awards, but it isn't mentioned much any more in the pantheon of great sci-fi. The basic premise centered around tech that allowed one person to experience a recording from another person's POV, and it ran with the concept in some kind of disturbing and disorienting ways. It's also just adorable that we could have full mental copy-paste in late 1999 when we were still figuring out 4-digit years.
The "joke" is, of course, that Bastich will drop his loftiest ideals in a second if there's Star Trek contraband to be had.
James Volker (AKA
mirage@ecst) is credited with an assist, though what exactly transpired has been lost to the sands of time. Mirage was one of our regular gang of eclectic weirdos who hung out at the computer lab and if you know what to look for you'll spot him in the background of some Bastich strips to come.The "Scotty" line in credits box is meant to be read with a hacky Shatner impression. It probably came from some long-forgotten parody or stand-up routine, surviving only as a frequently-quoted line amongst some of my high school friends. I'm sorry to report that this is not the first, last or worst in-joke that will be found in this series.