He Threatened Me With His Sidearm
UPDATE: 01.17.2012
Someone pointed me to a thread today on a web forum – I honestly don’t remember where but it’s in my email somewhere – where some folks were opining on the subject of this little comic-o-mine. Opinion seemed generally positive, which was nice; though the typical issue is that it only updates once a week. But that’s just a fact of life. And of course, some was the curmudgeonly “moves too slow,” “it looks weird,” and “I don’t like it” complaints, which I’ve heard before; I can’t do so much about people’s opinions on that end, of course, and I’ve found this story is one of those things people either like or don’t, so I don’t sweat it. But positive or negative, at least they all took the time to comment, so thanks for that, and even criticism can work out for the best. It put me in mind of some rather sound ridicule I got on some Russian websites a few years back for my dreadful translations, before one of them stepped in to save me from myself. But I digress.
Really, of greater concern was the complaint that some people are having trouble reading the comic; in particular, the text is showing up blurry or obscure for some readers. That is something I CAN fix, and so I’d like to poll the electorate here on the subject – is everyone able to read the pages clearly or is that an issue? I’ve recently been using some compression techniques on the artwork, you see, to make the page load faster for you, and to save space on my site. For me, with my hi-def monitor, it looks more or less the same. But if it’s making the dialogue blurry or incomprehensible, I’ll go back to the old, uncompressed file structure: I’d rather you be able to read it clearly.
So let me know if it’s an issue – I’d like to correct it if I can.
Original Post: 01.16.2012: Another week, another late night, another page!
Another painfully brief blog post. Ah, well.
Anyhow. Some stuffs to mention before I collapse into much-needed sleep. First, the spread is up, as promised, for viewing with a vote over at TWC! This is the first month I’ve been averaging the middle-130’s in the needlessly artificial world of comics rankings, but you know, whatever. If that’s how the game is played, so be it.
Second: Comic Creators for Freedom is entering their second week of their donation drive. Things always slack off in the second half of things, but nevertheless, I urge you to check them out and consider donating to this worthy cause.
And finalmente, we’re nearing the 100th page of 6-Commando, and I’m going to have to do something to celebrate! Perhaps… a contest? Perhaps… a MUCH EASIER contest than the last one, to get you people off your dupas to get free 6-Commando stuff and a chance to appear in the comic? Yes. I think that will happen. More info on this when I’ve properly hatched my plans!
Until then, be well, and have a great week, folks!
LoL to go from “tell the Col. i need to check something out first” to “he threatened me” sound like the paige was one of those overly sensitive individuals. Great way at introducing a twist, I wonder how this is going to turn out.
Saleem, old bean, If you can’t read between the lines when someone gives you a hard look and taps the side of a large weapon while saying something innocuous, well, you will find yourself in many awkward situations where you will get thumped. body language trumps words.
” Have a nice day”, ( he said as he slipped the brass knuckles onto his scarred fist. ) That could mean ” It’s time for you to get lost while you still can make it on your own power.”
Well, I mean, it was innuendo, but the guy had his gigantic super-magnum revolver drawn and stared him down. That’s a pretty good way to intimidate someone. I would have called it a threat if I had been there.
–M
Great dynamics with the small panels included around the larger panel.
😀
Thanks! The command center was a tough draw – in the end I was saved by a book of photos of NORAD from the 50’s.
–M
I like the saw effect, and the newly shown engineer armor 😛
But couldn’t that guy have radioed in, rather than walking back himself?
I think Mike has taken over the internal coms system in the base and he simply didn’t have a personal radio.
I guess he might not have a radio, but Haulley is using a wireless radio to talk to Santelli, so clearly Mike hasn’t gotten to those yet.
Yet, he says! 😀
Yeah this was a thing that made logical sense in ny mind but would have been too clumsy to write out. The headsets are able to dynamically encrypt speech, so they can keep them secure from Mike… For now. But the base is a retrofit – it was built by the Belgians in the late 1960’s, so to use the headsets you have to be in range of a wireless hub, or have a minihub on you, like in Santelli’s command helmet.
In the end it made no difference to the plot to explain all that so I just let it go. But you all do make good points on the matter.
–M
I think this is turning into probably the worst day of the colonel’s life so far. He’s had one of his officers get captured, a giant robot tank go AWOL on him, said robot tank trigger an atomic war, go on to hijack his base’s systems, apparently killing several people (They were referred to as casualties, so I assume dead) and now his EX-O is drunker than Boris Yeltzin at lunchtime, with a gun apparently used for blowing holes in powered armour. He’s gotta be wondering now, just how this day could possibly get any worse… And thats when the Aliens invade.
Well, in poor Rucker’s defense, he did spill a bottle of scotch on himself. That’d make anyone smell like a lush.
But yeah, right now Colonel Haulley is about ready to call a mulligan on the whole week.
–M
And this is why good Colonels don’t tinker with fate and provoke a nuclear incident in order to save “millions”. ^^
Depends on the Colonel, depends on the incident. I don’t think Haulley expected Mike to go off the reservation.
–M
Ah, yes. Polyalloy. Like one alloy, but many.
E Pluribus Alloy.
–M
Mr. Average, I was just wondering if the word ” Bolo” conjured up anything in your memory synapes? Liking the story and the layouts, by the way.
No doubt about it. Rumblers are very much the inheritors of the BOLO mantle, for me, at any rate. As weapons they are not as lethal, but as AIs, they are rather more sophisticated. But Rumblers fill a similar niche in the order of battle, heavy combat support.
–M
Very clean perspective work on command center panel.
Thanks, man! Two-point interior perspectives are tough, because with such controlled angles, you have lots of objects that need their own vanishing points, and keeping it all in place can be a chore. But it just feels so much more real than a simple one-point, especially for a big room like the command center.
–M
I can read everything perfectly. Both on my 10 year old laptop and my RIM tablet.
Updates once per week are fine. I wouldn’t want it any other way. First thing I do each week on monday is to check 6-Commando for it’s update.
Same deal here. I prefer a quality webcomic that updates slow as opposed to a hasty, poorly drawn one that updates more.
Good things come to those who wait 😀