Carcinus

Carcinus by The Winter Cynic first appeared in issue Issue 93 in 2021.

Creator's Notes

Cw: Incest, dubcon/noncon, implied PIV penetration for a trans character, implied codependent relationship

The moment the August issue dropped, I was already working on this. I was practically possessed with the need to tell the story of a brother who goes to space on a mission which goes terribly wrong and Comes Back Wrong. Friends and those who squint hard enough can see the fandom inspiration for this one. Or maybe not. IDK how many codependent, bordering on inappropriate brothers do you know?

I reviewed the rules closely and decided that sure, I can push the 10-image rule a bit while being able to tell a whole story. The result is 9 “screenshots” from a faux movie.

The Object has been orbiting Earth for several years, always at a distance. And now China is sending a reconnaissance team to investigate, Operation Hevenly Ship. Part of the team is Dr. Jia Zhihao. His brother, Jia Qiuheng, is rightfully worried about the mission. They know nothing about The Object, what it is made of, why it’s entered Earth’s orbit. If Zhihao can even come back. And then Zhihao does Come Back, just like he promised. Not in the way Qiuheng expects.

I spent quite some time reading up on taikonauts and how the China Space Station is – hilariously – equipped with the first working microwave in space and has larger quarters than the International Space Station. Zhihao is a scientist first before he trained to be an astronaut for this mission but his death benefits have been aligned to that of the military. Zhihao is also implied to have graduated from Peking University’s School of Earth and Space Sciences.

Qiuheng is, on the other hand, a civilian. He’s the older brother who had to grow up fast after their parents died. It’s implied that their parents passed away after Zhihao got into Peking University. He’s been devoted to supporting Zhihao’s education and career. Qiuheng’s life practically revolves around his baby brother so losing Zhihao devastates him. Qiuheng is also trans but that does not really affect the story except where I am being self indulgent.

To be honest I drafted out the whole story first before I even came up with the characters, which was a change up to how I normally do things. I had a specific story I wanted to tell. I did not expect to fall in love with these characters. There’s a No Aliens Involved story kicking around in my brain, which is worse because then it’s just two normal humans being problematic.

Carcinus is a reference to the Cancer constellation, and to the kind of deep sea creature I eventually settled on. I knew that I did not want to do something with tentacles because 1) that’s too much in my comfort zone and 2) the deep sea is full of weird stuff. I ended up being inspired by spider crabs and hermit crabs — yes, Zhihao has become a shell for a crab. Did you know that hermit crabs have really large and long penises?? I am disappointed I did not get to draw that. :'(

Someone asked me, is Zhihao still driving the bus? And the answer is also yes. He’s now got a friend with him!

Thank you for “watching” my extremely self indulgent space crab incest movie. This was truly my labor of love, dare I say my masterpiece. I learned so much while doing this – how to compose scenes, how to switch my brain from “this is a comic” to “this is a movie” framing, and how to build a workflow that was fast efficient and impactful. Big shoutout to gradient maps that did all the heavy lifting! And a huge heartfelt thank you to my friends who helped me check if the composition made sense, if the horror was terror, and if my naming was sensible.