Far Out There

A little glimpse into my obtuse creative process: Maunu here is obviously inspired by a heavy 80s aesthetic, like if a Patrick Nagel woman dressed up as Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice. For the longest time, I heard the Miami Vice name thrown around as shorthand for bright, cheesy, colorful 80s escapism… which threw me for a bit of a loop when I finally sat down and WATCHED some of it and discovered what a downbeat, depressing show it really is. Somehow, that thought festered and manifested into the idea of a bright pastel character who’s also comically gloomy and melodramatic and brooding over herself all the time. That, and I’d never tried doing a character where her skin was literally solid white and just wanted to see how it worked.

(Historical Notes: I feel a bit bad admitting this, but I actually have no idea how to pronounce Maunu’s name.  She’s named after guitarist Peter Maunu, but I’ve only ever seen his name in writing, never spoken out loud.  I’m ASSUMING it’s “MOW-noo,” but if I ever hear that the actual guy says it differently, then his preferred pronunciation is also how our Maunu says it.  Also, just to make things more futuristic, I decided that her FULL name is actually “531 Maunu” because 5:31 was also the running time of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”…except it actually isn’t.  The official runtime is 5:34, my copy just has a bit of the fade-out clipped off at the end.  So no it’s just meaningless numbers, which is pretty on-brand, really.)