UPDATE: 08.29.11
I’ll tell you the whole story later, but yes, I did evacuate, but now I’m back, although lots of roads and rails have been cut so it took a bit of doing. No troubles at my house – the sea stopped short of my neighborhood, thankfully, so my meager possessions were spared. You can, however, blame Hurricane Irene for the delay this week. But for now I’m just too exhausted to say anything else but “Yes, I’m back!”
More soon, I promise!
UPDATE: 08.25.11
I know I promised a more in-depth update but this has been just a terribly harrowing week. To tell the whole story would take forever, but I will give you the short version, in no particular order: Earthquake, Hurricane, White Paint All Over My Car, Project Emergency At The Office, Project Emergency Called Off, Project Emergency Back On, Project Emergency Called Off, No Hot Water, Insomnia.
So until I can piece all that together I have to leave it as is. The important thing is this: there IS, in fact, a hurricane headed my way (Come On, Irene!), and in all likelihood this will render it difficult to keep this week’s schedule when the power goes out, which it almost certainly will, sometime Saturday night. I’ve been through twenty-six hurricanes so far, so I speak from experience here. There’s also a possibility (though not a probability) that the government might order me to evacuate my home, because I live near the shoreline, and so that would further gum up the works. So we have to wait and see.
So, you know, fair warning. If I don’t make this week’s page on time, just know that it’s not because I don’t love ya!
Original Post: Although it’s been an eventful week, I’m unable to think of something to write at the moment, so I’ll come up with something tomorrow on my lunch break, compose a sonnet or something. Until then, here’s a comic! And now I must rest. I promise I’ll have something more substantive for the blog shortly.
Be well, folks!
Well thats not good. Not good at all.
I think somebody got a “Sad Rumbler” on their startup screen…
–M
So Mike’s brain is borked, or at least thats how the Colonel sees it, so they’re just gonna wipe his brain and start from scratch. But who is the mysterious officer watching from the gantry?
Oooooooh, suspense
😀
Like I said, this is where the story becomes kind of a mystery as well as a military action thriller. And I admit, it wasn’t til I finally assembled this page that I realized that they are basically planning to lobotomize Mike to solve his computer error. Tough sell.
But he is still a machine…
–M
… a machine who’s “emotionally” bonded to Major Rucker and Major Bronniford (in a “dumb but loyal”-kind of way). Whoever did program Mike’s camaraderie (I know I spelled it wrong…) mainframe did a good job.
The CONASAUR guy has something about him I don’t like. I can’t fathom why anyone would tolerate foreign “military observers” around in a shooting war, but that’s just me…
BTW, why are they still wearing suits? Mike was decontaminated, right?
You spelled “camaraderie” correctly – it’s a French word imported to English so it’s spelled the French way.
About the DECON suits, I put them in gear because I figured they’re still “finishing up” on the radiation mopup. I could probably have put them in standard radiation gear but this seemed like more fun. And as for the rest, well, let me just say I wish I could release a page a day, because then I could comment further on what the CONASUR guy is doing without wrecking it for you. Good ID on his nationality, though!
–M
I’m good at noticing details, like those minor inaccuracies or paradoxons in the 6-Commando “historical” background. 😉
or that guy what is watching mike is a spy… or is a new guy….
Heh heh heh… You’ll see!
–M
By the way: Nice move of having Hofmann explain to the Colonel [and the reader] how Mike’s brain works.
Heh – yeah, I tend to detest expository dialogue, but I realized I was making a lot of assumptions about what people know and don’t know about Mike and his functions, so this scene was a slick place to clear some things up.
–M
Mikes still active and sees someone he doesn’t like? I see a minigun coming online.
Don’t piss off an atomic powered tank, is all I can say.
–M
With Mike’s cameras, are they supposed to look like eyes, or is that just the shading?
Just because sometimes it seems like the darker shaded area is pointed towards what he’s looking at, giving me the impression of a pupil and iris 😮
given how a camera works it prabably shouldn’t be surprising that your seeing a pupil and iris
You win the cookie for noticing! Mike DOES have an iris and pupil! I was wondering when someone would pick up on that…
–M
Oh my, The Same Name as Mike and the Same “problem”. what luck i have.
I really wish Mike doesn’t have to have his brain lobotomized, but something happens to make him fit for service again.
I’m very glad you used the quotation marks – and that you see the double standard. If Mike were Human they wouldn’t be thinking about such drastic measures. At the root of it is fear, though – Mike is enormously powerful, and they are afraid he might be out of control. Unfortunately, saying more would ruin the story, so I’ll just stop there for now!
–M
Nice perspective distortion on the camera panels.
I really like the new way of coloring that you have introduced since the start of this chapter, gives everything more body, more texture. I have a feeling this could lead you to changing the shadow edges to a more softer variant when you start chapter four 😉
The shadows in general have gotten a lot softer as I’ve gone along – more and varied colors and gentler shading. I think here it added a lot of depth on the side of Mike’s turret, which I was afraid would end up just looking like a nondescript pile of junk.
And thanks for noticing the distortion on the camera! I freehanded that – no special tricks. It gives a nice impression of Mike’s “tunnel-vision.”
Now, when are we going to see the next Semmie adventure?! Your fans are waiting!
–M
I am sorry, but you have to wait just a little longer 🙁
I have decided I am going to present Semmie to some publishers, but before I do that I want to have the synopsis finished for the second story which will probably be 4 books in total. I also want to have the first part/book fully sketched out. And I want to have one really stunning illustration with the key elements of the second story, that all combined just has to convince those publishers to take in my stories. …At least it should boost my confidence up far enough to just sell it to them very convincingly.
Ah, yes. “Enhance.” Been watching CSI, have we?
It’s a Super Troopers reference, actually. Good guess, though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqkclCJsZs
–M
As soon as i saw the colonel looking like an apprentice butcher’s homework and saw Mike have a system crash i predicted that they were going to do a brain transplant. That’s still my prediction.
BTW: for those of us with less than perfect vision, could you please up the font in the comments section by q points, or else change it from gray on black to white on black. Either one would make things much easier to read. Thx
I’ll add it to the list – the whole site is overdue for some tinkering. Since it’s just me here, I’m afraid there’s a lot of deferred maintenance.
I do think you can select text sizes within your browser preferences, though, which could help.
–M
So it was a Space Odyssey reference!
It was indeed. Very much so.