Interim Update: Next week’s page won’t be up on schedule. I have to go to Washington, DC and will be gone until Tuesday at the earliest, and this page needs more time than I can give it right now – and I’ve learned my lesson about posting half-assed work! Jeez, and things were going so well on the comics schedule! But that’s life in the fast lane. I’ve got a lot of commitments to live up to this week and next, so God willing, this will all go down the way it’s supposed to. I’ll try to update and answer posts and all from the road, and maybe even squeeze in a little drawing on the side, but unfortunately, I gotta do what I gotta do. As compensation, I have posted a new voting incentive on topwebcomics.com – the desktop image is still underway, and is one of the many commitments of which I speak. Godspeed, and see you all real soon, folks!
Yet again, I’m obliged to abbreviate my post, as it’s WAY past my bedtime. But I did want to make a special mention, here, of the extraordinary efforts of Hilvon, our fellow-reader and frequent poster here, who helped me work out a rather sophisticated bit of Russian dialogue on this page. When it all comes out, as it will in the end, you’ll all see just how subtle Hilvon’s suggestions were, and how much it helped the dialogue on the page. For now, though, take my word for it – it’s quite a good bit of back-and-forth.
I’ll do a full update tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the page! And now I must rest.
So, if a Russian coughs, will that be in Cyrillic?
Seriously, though, I love the interplay we can see between military intelligence and the doctor, and I love how we have to guess what is going on. Is the doctor arguing with the other guy over the Hippocratic oath and whatnot, are they plotting how best to deceive and interrogate her, or are they simply exchanging funny jokes and laughing by looking very angry?
You know, I hadn’t thought of that, but maybe it WILL be!
But seriously. I don’t know if you can read Russian (I can only do a little) but Hilvon outdid himself this time, helping with the translation. In fact, its more than a translation, as what I’d written in English was pretty mundane in comparison. Russian is an inflected language so there are subtleties to tone that carry out in parts of speech that just don’t translate, a force to sentences that would only be carried by tone of voice in English. It added a real layer of verisimilitude that I was really excited about, and so I gave him a good deal of latitude to embellish my original script. I think it paid off handsomely.
–M
Actually Now that I see the page I can notice a misstake in the script. Not a fatal one though…
Also Sarah’s yeys on the pre-lastpanel bother me… I do know that removing a tube from a throat feels really nasty. I only had “expirience” with a gastroscopyc tube… the breahing tube must be way worse, since throat is actuallu more suited for solid objects moving within it… But still yeys this big are just… too unnatural. And that really spoils the page in my opinion.
As you’re privy to some “state secrets” by virtue of doing these translations, I don’t want to get into the specifics, but I shot you an email about that.
I do see what you’re saying about the eye thing, though – I tend to play with facial proportion rather loosely, especially with Sarah, as it makes her, to me, at any rate, more endearing when she has a more exaggerated set of facial expressions. I may have gone too far, but I’m okay with it. As with everything, though, I always keep these suggestions on file, and when I edit, I may take another look at it. As I always say, this is a work in progress, and all the input I get here on the site is helpful in the extreme, so thanks for the comments!
–M
Hey Mathieu –
I met you last september at the NY comic con. I really starting to get into your work. I’m going to have to reread everything again to get a firm grasp of what is going on storywise but I am enjoying the page layouts, the line quality and color . GOOD STUFF!.
I remember! I see you’ve been developing your web presence, which if I recall correctly is what we mostly talked about. Unfortunately your current link is down, but I found your stuff at http://www.anti-starcomics.com/.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far! Very cool that you stopped in for a look!
–M
Great comic… recently started to follow you and what i can say is:
Great job on doing the russian language! `Tis really a new look to comics in overall…
And to those readers who don`t understand russian, i myself advise to read this with a dictionary, because the argument is worked out perfectly, and gives me (personally) joy to imagine this situation in real life… this is, i guess, as close as it gets, to a real situation like this… ^^
And Mathieu… Great job. Keep it up!
I only wish I were proficient enough in Russian to do it myself – the generous assistance of Hilvon, a reader and commenter on this comic from early on, has really helped. And on this page in particular, he outdid himself!
One of the earliest concepts I had was to have the Russian characters actually speak Russian. In the West, Russians are “stock villains,” due largely to the Cold War. But when Russians appeared in American films and TV shows, up to the 1990’s, they were almost always portrayed by German and Austrian actors, and Germans in turn were portrayed by British actors. So in the American collective consciousness of the 1970’s and 1980’s, Germans spoke with British accents, and Russians spoke with German accents. It was kind of ridiculous.
So for 6-Commando, I thought it would only be fair to have the Russian characters speak actual Russian. And a large part of it is that they are actually carrying on their own storyline parallel to the main one – that story is only seen in bits and pieces by the main characters, most of whom don’t even really understand it, not speaking Russian. But it’s there. In that sense, 6-Commando is actually two parallel stories, one which you see and understand, and another which you only get bits and pieces of through the eyes of distressed and biased individuals.
Man, but you should have seen my original Russian dialogue. It was DREADFUL, pieced together from phrasebooks, dictionaries and what little I remembered from College. Hilvon graciously stepped in and saved his language from bastardization, and his assistance on that aspect of the comic has been invaluable. Basically, nowadays, when I have a scene where Russian is being spoken, I work it all out in English, including the various bits that don’t translate easily – I make notes on tone, who’s taking a superior or inferior stature in their speech, whether it’s an official or colloquial relationship, etc. Hilvon then sends me his best interpretation of the intent of what I’ve written. That way, it comes out not as a direct dump of English into Russian, but an actual bit of dialogue, as it would be spoken by Russian characters. That extra layer of complexity is really very satisfying to me, I have to say. On this page, in particular, it came out quite well. My original English was very simple, and Hilvon pointed out that there was no real way to make all of the unspoken force of what I’d written in English work out right; instead, he came up with a bit of conversation that captured the intent of the scene, and really added a great deal of depth to the two Russian characters. I’m really thrilled to have a base of readers who appreciate it, both from the Western and the Eastern perspectives!
This project has given me a whole new appreciation of just how nuanced and elegant the Slavic languages can be. It’s also improving my understanding of Russian in a surprising way – I’m picking up a little bit here and there. Not enough to do my own translation, of course, but enough to make the scenes work.
–M
I don’t know if you’ve ever ran across this yourself or if it has been pointed out, but while doing a search related to your site I found this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._6_Commando
Turns out, there was a real-life “6-Commando” during WW2.
Yes, I did know about the real 6 Commando – a British unit, mostly infantry. They were excellent special forces. I made my version a combined-arms unit, but they serve a similar purpose: small, highly mobile and well-trained combat group.
I actually got the name “6-Commando” from the mercenary unit “5-Commando,” led by Mike Hoare, and was involved in the Katanga Crisis in the 1960’s.
–M
Also, this comic makes me want to play”World in Conflict” for a ridiculous amount of time.
I don’t think the good doctor is going to let that intel goon anywhere near Sarah.