Ever tried to eat combat rations? They’re… not great.
The title of the comic this week is a reference to the “Thousand-Yard Stare” of a person afflicted with combat stress. Colonel Talinina, here, was originally going to have a bit of dialogue, but I scrapped it – I felt like the scene worked better like this, and carried the thread of the opener for this chapter a lot better. I’m actually quite proud of this page.
For me, this week began another period of increased work activity for me. I have three buildings to get ready for construction by the middle of October, and that naturally has me a little stressed out. But so far I’ve succeeded in keeping my work and home lives well separated, and the time off has really sharpened my pen so I’m feeling good about where things are going in Chapter 6.
By the way, thanks everyone for the attention and sharing and otherwise spreading word-of-mouth last week – it was the best week for the comic in quite some time! 6-Commando is pretty rarefied on the webcomics scene, and I’m a naturally reluctant self-promoter, but I would like to get the word out a little more in the coming months, because at the end of Chapter 6 here will be another opportunity to consider printing an edition of the comic, and I need to gauge whether or not that would be worth the time and effort. So thanks, guys! As silly as Facebook, Twitter and all that are to me, they’re still great ways to keep informed, so shares, “likes” and all that do help out a lot. Maybe one day I’ll get a review or two into the bargain.
Sigh. Wellp. Another page done (kind of) early. So, until next week!
Having been to see the elephant. I can say without a doubt that is the face you get when you get the same dang MRE for the umpteenjillionth time in a row and nobody will trade ya.
I’ve heard claims about those. Dare I ask which is the least horrible?
Also, it’s good to see the Federates’ perspective again.
I’m glad to have the Feddies back in the mix, myself. They’re an interesting bunch, and I like drawing their uniforms. Even the boots. I still can’t quite bring myself to draw a hammer and sickle though – I did it on only one page that I can recall and even there it felt too much like a swastika to me.
Meals, Refusing to Exit.
Oh, man.
I enjoy the meatballs in Marinara sauce myself but there are no good snacks in it. Still didn’t stop me from trading a pack of smokes of the supply Sergeants to get them every single time.
The last time I ate them, they were issued to me by FEMA in the aftermath of a hurricane in the Caribbean. The ones we got had a little stick of what I think was Velveeta in it, and everyone referred to getting their “FEMA Cheese” for the day.
Ahh Govm’t cheese good to a point but it’s weird making a laxitive for a meal that doesn’t leave anything to exit.
I don’t know about the newer stuff and it always has boiled (snicker) down to a matter of taste. Back when the MRE was DARK brown many wouldn’t even consider touching the dehydrated beef patty…those people had a habit of rehydrating it. But eat it dry and it was edible. Unlike the dehydrated pork patty. Now, that rehydrated and with a splash from the tabasco sauce was pretty decent. 🙂 But it’s all a matter of taste. Granted, I don’t know many that didn’t think the Beef Burrito of the late 90’s early 2000’s sucked. It made hockey pucks look chewable.
You would think they would try perfecting ‘beef’ before trying ‘beef burrito’. makes you wonder who taste test this thing before giving it a green light.
Stick with chicken. Everything tastes like Chicken so you’ll never be disappointed.
Being in Food Service for The Army, I had access to all the types.
The really HORRID ones were the Burrito, and Omelet.
The best for me was the Teriyaki.
Anything that requires reconstitution in the packet, like dairy or eggs or red meat preparations – doomed to failure. Although I’ve had pack rations with “cheesy noodles” that I have to admit weren’t half bad. Not MREs though – how can a hiker get decent food but soldiers get MREs?
nice and dark very grim too
Thanks, man. I was wondering how long it’d take someone to comment on the actual page! (With apologies to Autumn, above.)
Great job of setting the tone for the new chapter. I agree with you that dropping the dialog would make it more effective.
In this care, a picture is really worth a thousand words after all 😉
I remember reading in a games magazine, the difference between Western and Russian fiction about neuclear wars. In the west, post appocolyptic fiction, generally shows a setting wher things are bad, really bad, but there is still hope and things will slowly get better. In Russian fiction, things are just bad, they are staying bad and will always be bad and all you can ever pray for against all hope, is that things just don’t get any worse than how horrible they are now.
I think thats the look on the colonel’s face right here.
Compare the Fallout series for instance with Metro 2033 and its sequels.
In actual fact, that was the exact comparison. In Fallout, its a scorched wasteland of mutants and raiders, but there is slow recovery. New nations are rising and technology being rediscovered and harnessed and there is a general sense of hope that things can be rebuilt. Metro 2033, there is nothing to look forwards to but misery to be endured for the sake of nihilistic survival.
Oh yeah, I had MRE’s. Katrina made sure of that.
Quite pages without dialog can be very powerful like today’s. War is terrible unless you are a psychopath who is immune from love and also being shell shocked. Most people find war the worst thing humans can do to each other.
Along with major earth movement, volcanoes, tsunamis added to the mix. The only reason why World War 2 had any positives is that the USA was barely scratched back at home. So could get in on the boom of manufacturing to aid the other countries in Europe and Asia. Still we all had breaks too and missed opportunities to stop the European part of the war if England and France had treated Germany in the 1930’s the way they treated it in the 1920’s might have suppressed it. So many what ifs that were not done in our world. We can only see it in hind sight, any who saw it in foresight were not listened to.
For me I like looking at war in movies and novels and comics. So we know no one is hurt or killed. It just should not be confused with reality, but often is.
Very good work since I have been with you since I found your excellent work years ago. An interesting alternate world too.
“quiet pages”, my bad.