Oak’f here had a storyline we never picked up; named for Georgia O’Keeffe (and originally named “Jor’ja”), she was outlined as “an elder who always wanted to be a painter in a society which views art as a doomed attempt to improve upon nature,” so you can probably guess what that scroll is that she’s holding tensely and then rolling back up once Naror’Nj makes his appearance. Her seeming condemnation of human painting is a front, masking her curiosity.

Phil didn’t quite buy the idea that wood elves wouldn’t have art. In retrospect, I partly agree: that hall they’re standing in is definitely art. But rich architectural imagination doesn’t mean they have to appreciate 2-D representation via paints. There are and have been Terran cultures that likewise haven’t seen the point.

*TENSE, RESTRAINED SIGH*… Okay, you guys tell me if the use of off-panel voices in this scene and the scene with Kon’Kr’s mob seem especially confusing or off-putting. This would be neither the first nor the second nor the third time Phil and I argued over whether or not we should ever, ever employ a device I considered simply a part of the comics vocabulary.