Some pages just come naturally, and fall totally into place the minute I imagine them. This page was not quite that. To be honest, it took me a long time to figure out how to draw this environment and make it look distinctly different from the Federate field hospital in Chapter 2. I was also reluctant to do it at all because so many scenes have already taken place in hospitals – Major Bronniford has spent the majority of her screen time in critical condition so far. But the moment was so poignant ad so crucial to developing Major Rucker’s character that I had to do it.
And frankly, it worked out pretty well. I find it very interesting that so much expression can be had from, basically, two or three colors. I get so carried away sometimes with what things “should” be colored that I forget how effective a very limited palette can be. Also, limited color scheme means faster drawing time. So, you know, bonus. And between that and some photos of a Bundeswehr trauma unit somewhere in Germany (don’t hold me to this, but I think it’s near Munich) which was very sleek, clean and high-tech, and this is what you have, a much more antiseptic, sterile and just slightly too orderly UNA hospital underground, in the lower levels of Command Post Alpha. I was of two minds whether to bring back Chief Petty Officer Haakman to talk to Major Rucker here, or whether to have Captain DaCosta do it, but Haakman (like his namesake) strikes me as a more sympathetic type, and DaCosta would probably just slap Rucker around and try to snap him out of it, which, though amusing, would wreck the moment.
Anyhow, here we are, another week down. We’re getting close to the New York Comic Convention, folks, and I hope some of you will be there. I’m going to arrange some kind of secret handshake with which you can get yourself cool free 6-Commando stuff I’ll have with me. I will also be running a contest that weekend for those who can’t be at NYCC, and so it will be a fun time for all, I hope. True the doodads I have for you aren’t THAT big a deal, but whatever, it’s all for a good cause.
Anyhow, I realized that it’s been a while since I plugged any fellow cartoonists, and so I thought it might be cool to point you all at a comic I discovered a few days ago called Next Town Over, by Erin Mehlos. I normally don’t dig fantasy or the supernatural in comics, but Erin has mixed the premise with Steampunk and the classic American Western in a way that I think is just awesome. And the artwork is spectacular as well. So I recommend you pay it a visit – I guarantee you will NOT be sorry. Amerimanga or Vampire Trash this is NOT!
Anyway, that’s all for me for now. Oh! Except for one thing: last week was 6-Commando’s BEST WEEK EVER for readership! Over 7000 hits on Monday alone! So, yeah! Hooray! And welcome! And if you’re new to the site and returning again this week, let me extend a personal invitation to comment and participate in the conversation here at 6-Commando, which is, for me, a huge part of the fun of doing this comic. I hope you’ll also pass the link to friends, and help the site continue to grow! You can do that, also, if you’re a hardcore comics buff, by following me on inkoutbreak.com (note the handy link at right), which some of you already are. Actually, there are TWO listings for 6-Commando at the moment, and the webmaster there is trying to merge them. But hey, the more the merrier. And if you don’t know what inkoutbreak is, it’s basically a list and aggregator that lets you queue up comics you read in a convenient way, and link people you know to them through facebook and twitter. True, I’m a bit of a social-media-skeptic (yes, I note the “k,” all you UK fans!) but if you want to help spread the word, it’s just one more convenient way to do it.
And NOW it is time to go. Until next time, then, be well, folks!
I find it interesting that the small print on the monitor has command YANKEE HOTEL BRAVO as the running command. Is M1K hacking the medical ward or is he after some brain on brain action with Major Bronniford?
The Major isn’t alone, he’s got one of the most powerful tanks on the planet performing some HAXXORZ on the local computers!
I was going to do a leetspeak thing that Mike be a leet haxor, but I couldn’t. I… I just couldn’t.
😀
–M
I for one. thank you. One of the earliest IRC text manglers (circa 1991 or 1992) that did the conversion for you was called lame.c for a reason. At least then, anyone using elite speak intending anything serious wont be taken seriously.
Yeah, leetspeak wasn’t even funny when it was funny. It was just freaking annoying. It was the hip computer geek trend when I was in college and man it annoyed the crap out of me. It’s one major reason why I still to this day cannot read Megatokyo. I would rather drink out of a toilet bowl.
–M
😀
I thought I was being so sneaky, too…
–M
I’m wondering if she will live thru her medical trauma. Her face looked half burned off when she was with the Russians. I hope she survives. She is a major character (N.P.I.) and Mike the Tank seems to care for her.
I like this alternate world that you have created, it has a lot of possibilities. I know that it’s hard to move the story line along quickly because you have that pesky real life that that interferes with your drawing of new pages. :- P I was wondering if this was going to turn into a post-apocalyptic world kind of comic. There are a few of those out there.
Two nits to pick – 1) I understand and like the concepts of the intelligent military robot and having an A.I. in a tank, but I doubt that such large tanks or machines would be viable on the battlefield. I think they would be to vulnerable to attack. 2) I find the the title 6_Commando a little confusing because it seems to imply that ‘Commandos’ are involved or that the unit is comprised of commandos. As I understand it, it means something more like The Sixth Command, or Command (section) Six.
Anyway, I enjoy your work and look forward to new pages. I’m itching to know where you are going to go with the characters, including Mike the Tank!
One thing I still wonder about is why noone has gone loco yet.
Afterall the world as they knew it is gone, grounded into nuclear ashes and psychopaths like Col.Haulley obviously only care about continuing their petty little war (and probably through doing so the only life they knew or maybe in a move to cope with the error they did, doing business as usual) – the universe of 6 Commando might be more Kafkaesque then we might have anticipated.
While a gargantuan machine of war like Mike (or the even bigger Victor class) might seem to be prime targets on >real life< (god I hate that term) battlefields, this is SciFi and Mike's probably armed and armored with living bio-metals or even thougher shielding. He DID survive getting nuked afterall, so I take the educated guess that it will take a lot of conventional weapons to tear him down…. which might prove a problem, especially if someone starts messing with his brains.
Mike’s armor is a mesh of thermal ceramics, polyalloy armor plates, and a protective foil called a molybdenum-osmium-yttrium electomagnetic neutralizer, which acts as a high resistance faraday cage to protect him from electromagnetic pulses. His main weakness is to air power, and so he relies on friendly aircraft and AAA weapons to keep him covered. However, as happened in chapter one, other runs ahead of the friendly Air Defense Environment, he can get into trouble!
–M
No comment on the possibility Kafkaesqueness? Now you got me hooked! ^^
Kafkaesque? You got it!
“One morning, as Mike was awakening from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous armored vehicle.”
😀
–M
First, welcome to the fray! Second, you are very correct that superheavy tanks have little, if any, real world viability. In modern military experience, sixty imperial tons seems to be about the upper limit of what a practical main battle tank should mass. But the idea of a giant and nearly all-powerful tank is deeply appealing to me, as is the idea of a non-humanoid robot that tries to relate to humans, and vice versa. Hence, the Rumblers. And finally, there’s an interesting story behind the title. The real world 6-Commando was a British special forces unit in World War Two, one of the most distinguished fighting forces of the European war. Although equipped with tanks and hovercraft, and Mike, my 6-Commando has a similar mission: small, highly mobile, hard hitting guerrilla combat. They aren’t commandos per se, but they are this universe’s version of them.
There was also a mercenary unit in the Congolese Civil War called 5-Commando, which suggested the setting and political context of the story. But these are UNA member-state regulars in the comic, not mercenaries. Though the FSR calls all soldiers of the UNA “mercenaries” as a derogatory term, implying that Western soldiers only fight for the money, not because they are committed to the truth of their ideology.
Once again, though, thanks for the read and the comment! I’m glad you took the time to read, and hope you’ll join in regularly.
–M
And by the way, earning a living does take up a huge amount of tike, but that’s capitalism for you!
–M
“Captain DaCosta” is the black woman with the ponytail, right?
Yes, and you actually helped me enormously with that comment: she’s not black, per se, she’s an Atlantic Islander. Portuguese, as a matter if fact: Azorean.
–M
Thought I’d address a pet peeve of mine. The text on the window there says that patients may pose a threat due to radioactivity. That’s a little silly – if they’re so radioactive that approaching them poses a health hazard, they’re way beyond treatment (possibly beyond recognition as well).
I mean sure, when you’re processing victims covered head to toe in fallout, you should indeed be wearing your CBRN suit. But then you run them through decon, get all that radioactive dust off of them and they’re no longer dangerous.
If they’re on immunosuppressants, approaching them in a CBRN suit is a good idea. Same goes for biological contamination. But one way or the other, radioactivity is not an issue.
Well, if you’re exposed to radioactive material in acute doses your cells can absorb soluble minerals such as Cobalt-60 or Iodine-131 through respiration and dermal osmosis, and this can cause your cells to emit radiation from within, and which would not respond to typical decontamination procedures. So even after primary decon doctors should wear protective gear like lead vests and masks to protect their vitals. But the greater threat is to the patient through neutropenia, caused by a crash in the white blood cell count due to high radiation exposure. And also, frankly, the people of the 6-Commando world don’t really know a lot about what they’re doing when it comes to radiation, so a lot of it is meant to appear to be guesswork.
In general, however you’re right – note that the surgeons were only wearing masks and gloves when they operated on Maj. Bronniford. So mainly she’s being isolated for her protection, not theirs, because her immune system is crashing and she’s liable to succumb to septic shock if she’s exposed to any contaminants.
–M