Rollin, Rollin... - Page 78 of the cartoon about Phill from GCHQ - a free comic that I have been working on since September 2016.
Previous page: Phill from GCHQ - page 77 - Latisha Babin
Introduction to this weeks page
On the road again! Phill and his friends have decided to get on with the story. I just had to make this cut-through drawing of the electric car, Mary, first. (Mary who is named - not after the Danish crownprincess - but after the ship of Rasmus Klump). I loved such cut-through drawings when I was a child, and I think it is a good way to start a comic-trip.
I have been reading a lot about electric cars this week. A reader of the comic from Diaspora was kind enough to use some time discussing it with me and that led me to realising just how simple and perfect a solution an electric car is... except for the batteries. Most fascinating is how people have started to convert old cars with obsolete motors. When a better battery technology is invented all they have to do is replacing the Lithium-ion batteries. All the rest is simple and proven technology.
And.. there is still some suspense in the last panel.
Happy reading.
Translations
Thanks to some very dedicated and helpful people the comic about Phill from GCHQ can also be read in other languages. New pages are published on their respective Steemit pages. Please follow them and support their work!
- @vcelier has made the French translation
- @shortcut has made the German translation
I would be very pleased if you considered supporting the comic with fiat-money on:
or with cryptocoins:
Ether: 0x779f31b12862e6d750cbbcdb9a2c315b44504d83
Litecoin: LcUeDDMSzhaGwMd7m6x1qptdNZ3nrPEyiq
Steem: here on Steemit :)
The comic is, like all my digital artworks, made exclusively with open source software:
The last frame has a great atmosphere. Also loving the cross-section ;-)
But who is Jim?
Thanks, mate. I have had a confusing start on 2019, but now I am going to make Phill regularily again. Every Thursday. Steemit seems a bit discouraged, and I feel it too. I have had a hard time commenting on other peoples post, mainly concentrating on just getting all the work done. When I have translated it into English I will send you the pages of a for-fun-comic project I have made together with some old artist friends. We will maybe publish it the same way I do with Phill, but haven't quite decided yet.
Jim is a user on Diaspora who helped me (the notorious anti-car person) to understand electric cars. He is a big fan of the comic and knows it very well. Well enough to notice that Oliver, Judith's evil hacker, was present today at the Peruvian Embassy! Look at this!
Same here, 2019 has also been really challenging for me so far and I'm happy to have my #dailyart challenge, which keeps me posting. But I'm also more active on classic social media and various telegram groups around the cryptoart community, than hanging up and commenting on Steemit. This might probably change again, but I somehow feel a disappointment when a translation of Phill, that I've put several hours of my time into, just gets 0.99$ rewards. I never did it for the money, but it definitely feels daunting. When you send me the next pages, I will continue with the translations nevertheless.
Jim is really a well informed reader, even I had to literally scroll through the pages up to pages 51/52, until I rediscovered Oliver and remembered - he really looks like him! Hehe ;-)
Looking forward to getting my hands on the 4fun comic.
Next step for me is finishing the front page and setting up the Kickstarter. Probably in May - hopefully it will generate a bit more than 0.99$ in steem. The money do play a part in Steemit, but I think the collective crypto-depression is weighing us down even more.
Jim really is indeed an expert in Phill.
I love the cross-section. I'm also a fan of electric cars even though I don't have one yet. I've seen videos of old cars like a VW Beetle converted to electric. Batteries will continue to improve.
Let's hope so; it has been slow going the last decades, and as they are now, they suck greatly.
I read that there is doubt about batteries ever really reaching a satisfactory level. Fuel cells and not yet envisioned technologies are the hope of the doubters.
I have this engineer's gut feeling batteries will prove to be a dead end for cars. I also have some good reasons to think that.
H2 is a pain to store and transport, but that may be solved someday.
I have been wondering about synthetic gasses that could be transported using existing infrastructure. They would produce CO2 when burned, but no more than what went into producing them. And the cars would still sound good. Not the most efficient or clean solution, but feasible and good enough.
Did I mention the cars would still sound good?
And the good reasons?? It would interest me to hear why you think so.
We have busses in Copenhagen going on biogas made from the households food waste so it is already there.
There are many good reasons, but I don't feel like writing an essay on them. Maybe later.
Biogas is great, and you can synthesise methane and the like from CO2 and H2. Not the prettiest of processes yet, but they have been finding new catalysts for the Sabatier reaction lately.
My wife and I never owned a car - mostly because embarking on a life of low consumption gave us the economic freedom to create art - so me watching all those EV-videos reminded me of a friend I have who is videogamer and voluntary shut-in who used to love watching gardening and outdoor shows in the telly.
Fascinating thing is that all the beautiful old cars can be converted. The gas-engine is normally the thing that makes the car obsolete, so fitting an electric motor is really a great way of saving all the energy waste from the car production. The electric motor is an age old and proven technology and both simpler and better than the gasoline engine. What's really brilliant about it is that only the battery should be replaced from time to time, and when new and better tech (hopefully soon) arises (Aluminium–air battery!) it is the simplest thing to just put in a new battery and connect it.
You can't just go about ripping original engines out of classic cars, you Philistine. It's a sin.
Well...
Stop posting horror movies.
I won't lie to you.
Why? Did I overdo the alliteration in my comment about my DS?
That would make a nice camper van, if it had a proper engine.
Nothing wrong with the engines! Except maybe slightly over proportioned. 2 x 165 kW is close to 450 hp and electric motors have much better torque and faster acceleration. So the real challenge will be finding enough juice for your batteries so you won't get stuck in the Rumanian Carpathians with a grumpy wife and two screaming kids.
Yes, I am aware of that technical stuff, but batteries suck greatly, and electric motors don't sound good. Blip the throttle and kill a tree, I say.
I never suffered from gasoline nostalgia. I kind of invested that part of my brain in pornography and single malt whisky. But yes, batteries suck greatly and gasoline is killer fuel - with the motors it is the other way around. I bike until perfection is achieved...
You don't know what you are missing. I especially liked the sound and smell of my 1971 Citroën DS, which didn't have a catalytic converter. A cold start blackened the street, and you could watch the woods wither in her wake. Bliss.
At least I can appreciate the most beautiful car ever. I love the look of the DS.
I love those vehicular / buildings being cut with annotations too, i think they are very geeky and cute when used appropriately. Which you totally did, here :)
And the title is of course from this song:
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