And there it is.
For the first person who can tell me where the title of this page comes from, there will be a prize.
This page is about the most minimal I’ve done since the infamous White Page, but I have to say it’s also one of my favorites. For those who want to know, although I used NASA photos for reference to draw the Earth and the Moon, this is NOT a photocomposite or other cheat: it is actually my first attempt at taking a slightly “painterly” approach with Photoshop, and though I wouldn’t say it marks a change of direction for me artistically (I’m happy with my style as it is) it seemed more appropriate, especially considering the black backdrop of space and the Milky Way. It treads a razor’s edge between photo-realism and my established cartooniness, and I tried to pull it a little back towards the former. Not sure it worked, as the shade and shadow is a lot softer than I normally do, but, well… it’s all a learning experience, eh?
Now, a little plug-a-rino, as has become my habit: the next page of the reMIND guest art saga is this week the product of Kim Ku, creator of Hearts and Holes. So check out both Kim’s work and as ever, reMIND. I have to say that the people involved in this little exercise really went into it with all they had, and the result has been terrific. It’s still a pleasure to see these pages every week, and they have, without exception, knocked my socks off!
Last week was the best week for 6-Commando in terms of visitors and votes – as I write this, we’re ranked in the middle-150’s, and that’s the best this comic has ever done! Again, I qualify that by saying that it’s all really functionally irrelevant in the greater scheme of things since these voting systems and ranks are entirely arbitrary, but to everyone who’s reading this for the first time: welcome, and tell your friends!
This is the last page of Chapter 2. That makes 6-Commando the longest I’ve ever worked consistently on a single project, including some houses I’ve helped to design. So, I guess that’s dedication, after a fashion. And so on that note, I have looked it all over and decided that Chapter 3, or 6-Commando: Mr. Transistor, will commence, after a few weeks’ time off for me, on May 16, 2011.
Will all that spare time buy me time to get ahead on the next chapter? Maybe. But far more it will let me get my life in order and do some house-cleaning. Literally: my apartment is a colossal mess; I really let things go over the winter! I also have the Easter holiday coming up, Mother’s Day, and some other traveling I have to do around New York and New England, and it would be a real pity to start Chapter 3 with a false start, don’t you think? I sure do. And so there it is.
But will it all be empty void? Far from it! I will still catch weekly updates here, with special stuff of one sort or another which I am, even now, working on. I can’t, after all, just STOP drawing. It’s not in my nature. But full-on pages and storyline take me full weekends to draw and bring to finish – that’s what I’m taking a pause from, just to try to enter the third chapter totally up to speed and in my new headspace, artistically and storywise. However, I do urge you to check back each week as usual, as I will not be neglecting the site by any means! Or better yet, subscribe to the 6-Commando RSS feed, to have the updates sent straight to your reader of choice.
And there you have it, folks! Another chapter down, and we’re two thirds of the way through Part 1 of the Graphic Novel. Thanks everyone for reading, and please stay tuned: Chapter 3 will be here before you know it!
Be well!
I’m going on a limb here, but I’m guessing the title of today’s page is a reference to the animated film and graphic novel, When the Wind Blows, about an old English couple who survive an atomic war and yet never seem to give up on their delusions that everything is fine and the war will be won in a few days then everything will be democracy and pie, even as they slowly suffer the effects of radiation sickness, even to the point that the wife tells off her husband for making a mess of the carpet, when his teeth start falling out and bleeding onto the floor.
Really good guess, but no.
When The Wind Blows is an excellent story, albeit slightly alarmist and emotionally manipulative, as anti-war authors of the 1970s and 1980’s were wont to be, and for those who don’t know it already I recommend it.
But no, this reference is far more obscure. Comics-related, after a fashion, assuming you consider the author a cartoonist, which is something that’s been debated from time to time. It mught be TOO obscure, actually, but I’ll give it a little more time, see if anyone is a die-hard enough fan of this author’s work to know what I’m referring to.
–M
Теперь я стал самой смертью, разрушителем миров!
((‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’))
Sorry, coundn’t hep myself… 🙂
Also I wonder, how did UN find that many targets to nuke in sibiria…
In the historical cold war, most of the missiles were targeted at enemy missile sites, not cities. The russians deployed quite a few in Siberia so that might be why.
Probably true… After all a northern pacific is a way shorter path to US/Cnandian lands than across all atlntics. 🙂
Plus I am a bit surprised not to see a spot over Cuba…
Yeah you’d think they’d try to hit Gitmo. Cuba, in this world, is part of the UNA, and though they have the Bomb I figured that, like Britain, they would keep their deterrent on a squadron of submarines rather than on land, as they don’t have the huge arsenals of their neighbors.
Actually, I was debating whether or not to put any missile detonations on the Moon. Just for fun. But I didn’t want to derail the story.
–M
Bingo.
–M
Strange how most of the heavily inhabited areas in N and S America seem to have been spared. I mean, there seem to be about a dozen nukes in the deserts of the western USA, and even some hitting, what, Trinidad Tobago or Aruba, but apart from Florida not one “lit up” area has been hit. Was that intentional or just artistic license?
Intentional.
But even in this situation it’s going to be a very long casualty list, for sure…
–M
I have only one word for this:
EXCELLENT!
keep up the good work. 🙂
Thanks, man! I really appreciate that!
It’s a but of a struggle to stop myself launching right into the next chapter but I have some things to do first, and to get two pages in and then have to take two weeks off, well that’d just be a tease!
–M
Let’s face it: this is what comes of fighting in the war room.
THis is incredible. I have NEVER heard of such behavior in the War Room before!
–M
Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.
I know this is a bit of offtopic, but the page looks fitting for that:
Congratulations on the Cosmonaut’s day!
50 years ago the first man went up into the cosmos and managed to return alive!
Yuri Gagarin. What a guy!
–M
Ok, I’ll throw this up on the wall and see if it sticks. Is the title of today’s offering from “The Daily Punctillio”? The story with no title about a war started because a man wanted the woman he liked to travel across town to his place for a visit.
Another really good guess, but again not the answer I’m looking for. I’m beginning to think I made it TOO obscure!
–M
Also, is the name a reference to W. Somerset Maugham’s The Human Element?
Okay, I guess I DID make it too obscure. But yet another excellent guess!
–M
before it rots me on the inside, i wanna say something:
HAHAHA South America is UNTOUCHED!!!
anyone up for Mardi Gras in brasil?
Not surprising actually.
Go check World decription and see that South America is the biggest faction to state its neutrality in the cold war. So no wonder neither UNA nor FSR targeteg Southerners…
Not only are they neutral, but they’re also an atomic power. The UNA and the FSR are just lucky that the Southern Coalition didn’t decide to add their own atomic weapons into the mix.
–M
This is probably the influence of both fallout and Dr.Strangelove, but when I look at this page, I imagine it set to the soothing sounds of Louie Armstrong, singing “A Kiss to build a dream on” and ironically “What a Wonderful World”
My top three preferences for soundtrack for the final scenes of this chapter, when this never gets made into an animated film, will be:
1) The Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter (The Merry Clayton funk cover)
2) The Ink Spots, A Thousand Dreams
3) Louis Armstrong, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
–M
A few other suggestions…
The Ink Spots – Maybe (Fallout)
The Ink Spots – I don’t want to set the world on fire (Fallout 3)
And one to throw everyone for a loop, Dethklok, Go Into the Water. Instrumental version.
😉
–M
Metallica- Fight Fire With Fire
MegaDeth- Symphony Of Destruction
Black Sabbath- War Pigs
Johnny Cash- When the Man Comes Around
love that song
My three suggestions are
1) Paint it Black – Stones
2) Lightening Crashes – instrumental version
3) and in a more whimsical mind. 9 und 9 Luftwaffe Balloons or 99 Red Balloons(in english)
Though I always wondered about the english title because Luftwaffe was the German Air Force, the balloons were not painted that color. As a result the english title sounds cheerier than the topic of zeplins bombing the allied forces.
Idd, in german it’s 99 Luftballons, and that means air(luft) balloons
Yes, I believe the song is an ode to German disaffection with the Cold War, and their feelings of being trapped between two paranoid countries with their fingers on the proverbial “button.”
–M
One more suggestion for a soundtrack for this scene.
Adagio for strings, by Samuel Barber or alternitively the vocal version of Adagio, for the added emotional impact
Yeah, the vocal one for Adagio for Strings was fitting for Homeworld.
Beautiful page! The fact that it depicts this massive destruction with such silent beauty really is very stong end of chapter two. Even if this is one of your most minimalistic pages it is also one that I would call a “tour de force”. Excellent!
Almost forgot how this started:
Worst rescue mission ever, Mike!
Great story, every page leaves me wanting more!
Wow. That’s really high praise, man. Thanks! I’m really glad you’re enjoying the story so far, and I hope you’ll be back for chapter 3!
–M
I might as well take a jab at it before the contest is over. The title wouldn’t happen to be a reference to a comic by Quebec author Sneuro would it? “Don’t move Gertrude. A little dash of maple syrup will sweeten you up.” Of course, I don’t see the correlation between pancakes and a nuclear holocaust, but since our beloved Sarah is from Quebec and so is the comic artist it’s worth a shot 🙂
Just gotta say, I stumbled across the Ogre board game a few months back and discovered this comic soon after. I love the sci fi and anti war theme you have going on. That being said, looking forward to chapter 3!
“Don’t move, Gertrude” appears on the first page of Edward Gorey’s “The Willowdale Handcar.
AH!
A mere 1,112 days later, the riddle is finally SOLVED! And being a man of my word, I shall remit the unclaimed prize to you! Email me at the “contact” address above, and let me know how to get it to you!
Just had a trip back here from http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/comic/probe/#comment-32711
After hearing Merry Clayton sing Gimme Shelter and imagining a few minutes long scene of nuclear destruction from a continental perspective and a zoom out to fading music and imaging Morgan Freemans voice saying something like “And so… a long chapter in the history of mankind came to an end.” just before the fade to black before the chapter ending, leaves me with wet eyes. Let it never happen. Never. ;-(