Girls in Space
by James Spence is the story of two girls having space adventures in a converted VW Camper Van, trying to find their way back to Earth.
The Plot: A spacecraft on a delivery mission is forced to make an emergency landing on the backwater planet of Earth, specifically in Edinburgh, Scotland. The crew, two space girl sisters by the names of Zoe and Faye Strider hide out in a local Classic Car Dealership belonging to a down-on-his-luck gambler called Fergus Macrumble. He and his sister Scarlet (better known as Red) help the girls. However, things don't go to plan and instead of using their technical equipment on the spacecraft, Red's VW Camper Van is accidentally upgraded and launches into space carrying Red and Faye away from Zoe and Fergus.
Girls in Space is the story of Red and Faye's adventures trying to return to Earth.
Girls in Space is split up into individual stories of 34 pages:
- The Prototype
- Push the Button
- The Pickled Past
- Around the Universe in a Bath Towel
- Hell Creek
- Colourblind
- A Drop in the Ocean
The site also contains amusing classic Star Trek reviews in a weekly feature called Silly Trekker, weekly pin-ups of the characters and the author contributes to the weekly The Webcomics Company podcast.
This series provides examples of:
- Alien Among Us: Zoe Strider is an alien on Earth
- Alt Text: Every page has an additional joke by hovering over it. In addition, the Star Trek Reviews on the site have images with Alt Text
- Art Evolution: Spencey's artwork improves throughout the run of adventures
- Big Red Button: The VW Camper has one.
- What Does This Button Do?: No one knows what it does in Push the Button. However, its purpose is later revealed.
- Blank White Eyes: The Henchbot is upgraded example
- Bounty Hunter: A Bounty Hunter and her Henchbot receive the girls' distress call in The Prototype
- Censor Steam: Red's modesty is preserved by it in this strip.
- Censor Suds: Red's modesty is preserved by them in this strip.
- Chekhov's Gun: Frequently used in Girls in Space. Examples include: The Big Red Button on the Bus, the sink plunger Faye carries in the Pickled Past and Red's bath towel in Around the Universe in a Bath Towel.
- Clothing Damage: There is a Running Gag that Faye's dress is lost, damaged or left behind in each story.
- Cool Car: Red's VW Bus is cool although somewhat unlikely as a spaceship
- Cool Starship: As above, Red's VW Bus is cool although somewhat unlikely as a spaceship
- Deliberately Monochrome: After an explosion in the 'Greyverse', all colour is drained from the normal universe making the Colourblind story appear in Black and White.
- Distress Call: Zoe Strider places a distress call in the opening scene of Girls in Space
- Fiery Redhead: Scarlet 'Red' Macrumble is a Scottish Red-haired hothead
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Red wears a 'hand bikini' in this shower scene which sets up the Across the Universe in a Bath Towel storyline. Also an example of Censor Suds.
- Infinite Supplies: The girls live on a Space Station called The Sanctuary. This is an enclosed ecosystem with fields, cattle and recycled water.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The girls travel through space in a VW Camper Van. This was converted into a spaceship when the Universal Upgrader (a prototype made by an intergalactic electronics company) was fired at it.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That: "I speak ALL of Earth's languages. Doesn't everyone?"
- Hammerspace: A "strippotamus" produces a gun from nowhere in this strip.
- Loincloth: The girls are marooned on Prehistoric Earth and wear Loincloths as part of their Cavegirl costumes.
- Ms. Fanservice: At various stages the female characters appear in short skirts, underwear or in cheesecake poses. The fourth story Around the Universe in a Bath Towel sees Red having an adventure wearing only a towel.
- Meanwhile, in the Future…: The Pickled Past is set in two time periods
- Modesty Towel: Red spends almost the entire fourth story wearing only a towel
- Omniglot: Zoe.
- Outrun the Fireball: When Red fails to defuse a bomb a gateway between universes is opened, exploding colour back into our universe. Red is forced to run for her life.
- People Jars: In The Pickled Past
- Running Gag: Faye's Dress is ripped, lost or destroyed in each story.
- Science Fiction: Girls in Space is a Science Fiction story.
- Shout-Out: Around the universe in a bathtowel.... hmm, always know where your towel is. And you can always change into a dressing gown, Scarlet Macrumble...
- And the pyschotic killer robots. Anyone for Krikkett?
- Time Travel: The Pickled Past is set in the year 1644. Hell Creek is set in Earth's Cretaceous Period.
- Transformation Ray: The VW Bus was converted into a spaceship in the first story, when the Universal Upgrader (a prototype made by an intergalactic electronics company) was fired at it. The Protoype also transformed character Fergus Macrumble from a fat gambler into a muscular hunk and a horse called Asthmatic George into Athletic George.
- Unfazed Everyman: Red is a normal human travelling the universe, surrounded by aliens.
- Upgrade Artifact: the Universal Upgrader instantly cures Fergus's gambling addiction and gives him enormous muscles. There are also Infobadges, which are Upgrade Artifacts used to teach the characters language and other skills.
