Just for the sake of reference, for those of you who saw this early on, when I woke up this morning I noticed a MAJOR error in perspective that I just had to correct. I also noticed that the speech bubbles were confusing and so I decided to ape a technique from Jason Brubaker (I don’t think he minds) and introduce colored speech bubbles. It was such an effective method he employed, and I think it works well. And as this whole thing is just my comics experiment anyway, I have few qualms about making changes like this. I retconned the technique to the start of the chapter, by the way. So, you know. Oh, and here’s a handy banner if you feel like voting:
To everyone in the United States, strange as it is to say it for such a solemn day, Happy Memorial Day. Gosh, it seems odd to say “happy” on a day that commemorates all the soldiers and citizens who have fallen in the cause of the Revolution and the Republic. But in that typical and incongruous American way we have, we’re all celebrating by relaxing, going to the beach and eating hamburgers. Well, whatever.
Here’s the next page, though! It’s the first “official” appearance of the UNA Heavy Battlesuit, which is technically the GPzKpZ Ausf. H, designed in Germany, redesigned in the United States, manufactured in Mexico, and here worn by two Ukrainian exiles. I like the design a lot, and it has a rather more clunky look than the typical UNA suit, more like a deep-sea diving rig, which goes with it being a radiation-resistant design. The medic also has a portable “Jaws of Life” which I added at the last minute because it just seemed to tie his suit’s design together. The silhouetted vehicles in the background are Howler-PC’s, hover personnel carriers whose general idea is an homage to Ogre, but which are themselves a totally different design that has more in common with a low-flying helicopter than a genuine hovercraft. You’ll see more of them later.
So anyhow, met me say that a three-day weekend could not possibly have come at a better time for me, as I’ve gotten really burnt out the last few weeks and I really needed the time off. I’ll likely spend most of tomorrow doing nothing, though I hope to jump-start the next two-page spread: I already have a really groovy layout in mind.
And of course, as I frequently do, I have placed the full spread for these two pages at your disposal – it is a mere vote away over at topwebcomics.com! Or on my deviantart page, if you feel like seeing it but not voting for me. But I really wish you would, anyway, as silly as it may seem.
And on the subject of the long-vaunted merchandise: it’s here, and it looks really great! I am still not telling what it is, though, as I can’t make it available JUST yet. For one thing, I have some logistics to work out vis-a-vis how safely to deliver it to people, as that will in large measure determine what I have to set as the price. And also I happen to live in a state that has rather byzantine commerce laws, so I have to determine what exactly I need to do in order to be ALLOWED to sell them. But I promise I will make the price very reasonable, and delivery very prompt. And I do think that they’re pretty cool. So more on that soon, but soon is even sooner than it’s ever been before!
So until next week, folks, be well and keep on doing whatever it is you do!
Badass medic is a go.
I really liked his design as well. More in the end than even when I first had him in mind. It’s odd to say “badass medic,” but he really was supposed to be that. Glad I carried it off for you!
–M
So…when they find some lucky soul who has, until then, not died of radiation poisoning, what do they do with him?
Also, that medic would give me nightmares if he came to rescue me.
Massive morphine dose, last will and testament/ last wishes or requests, last rites. It was our instructions for anyone we ever found in that condition.
Yes, we in the military did have a plan for that sort of thing, and it didn’t matter what side you were on when we found you, after that kind of exposure you were NEVER considered a combatant or P.O.W. again. Not sensible to do so. Not humane either.
I’m just wondering why they’re searching in a high-rad area. Either the people are already doomed to die or they managed to hunker down somewhere protected from the fallout…in which case, how are they supposed to get them out? I would think a radiation resistant stretcher to get them to the transport might be prudent.
Otherwise, it’s a case of “Knock knock, open the fallout shelter door, it’s the UNA. Oops, oh well, guess you’re all dead now, we tracked the fallout in and there’s no way to get you out. Bummer.”
Hope the UNA invested heavily in civil defense. Not just Dr. Strangelove-esque “protect the elites,” there were (expensive) plans to give almost every citizen a way out (think converting mines into county-sized fallout shelters and massive interconnected bunkers beneath cities (with tunnels that reached outside the blast zone), as well as the Mobile Continuity Force (“The Weeks After,” check the final pages of the July 1984 USNI Proceedings, James Sollers. Think massive amphibious transport vessels cruising the Antarctic wastes with relief supplies and, ahem, mixed crews.). Be interested to see which route you took with that. I know in the real world the Soviets had some elaborate plans, just don’t know if they were as elaborate as http://www.survivalring.org/shelters/civil-defense-shelter/ some of the US musings.
If they are to find some @safe@ shelters with survivors they are supposed to:
1) Clear a passage so a mobide decantamination vehicle may procede to the shelter.
2) Establish communication with survivors (possibly with a radio or remains of telephone line) and start cooperating by:
– Finding out how many survivors are there
– Their health conditions (if they have same injuries it is better that decantamination party has needed equipment and specialists)
– Their supplies (so that decantamination party may bring some urgently needed supplies i.e. drinkable water. Plus if survivors have planty of some supplies it may be wise to evacuate them as well, and so carco capacity is needed)
3) Help decantamination team establish a “clear” passage to shelter entrance, with tubes probably.
It is possible to get people out of shelters without irradiating them.
Dude, love the introduction here. I have goosebumps.
😀
Thanks, man! If ever this were made into a movie, that bit would be playing as the “Universal Studios” logo ran at the head of the trailer.
And then I’d take my million and retire to a farm in upstate New York. I have modest dreams.
–M
Now that’s a heavy rescue squad! W00T!!
🙂
I’d want a dude in nine-foot-tall super-powered armor to come rescuing ME, I can tell you. I’d be scared to death of him, but hey, if he got me home, I’d be fine with it.
–M
LOL… I would not be able to resist saying “Come with me if you want to live!” LMAO 😀
HEH, I think that would be pretty much a given 🙂
Also…the Soviets, I mean Federales, nuked a city but left military forces, including transports and powered armor, untouched? They managed to immediately proceed with rescue operations? Christ on a crutch, how dispersed/hardened was the UNA military?
Actually, I seem to recall you informing all of us that the…ah, hell with it, the Soviets were targeting military installations. So…where is this? Was the UNA just able to disperse the Howlers at the last minute (due to rough field takeoff ability) or…what? I’m kinda confused. Have several days passed already?
Right/ Several days passed. You see – no smokes in the sky, means all firers that were burnoing already went out. And that would not happen quickly…
As fro “targeting” military objects… a lot of things might have gone wrong in the firefight… For one – do you have any guarantee that a nuke shot down would not eventually blow up?
Besides I do not see a city here… an doutdoors road. Probably with a startegic object i.e. bridge somewhere nearby.
Geez, page three! Let a guy tell a story! 😉
I promise, I have not done anything capriciously or without forethought. Well, okay, I DID redesign some things halfway through chapter two, but seriously. It will all make sense eventually. Unless it doesn’t. But I think it will.
–M
Wow! This is a GREAT looking page! The colors the lines the composition! It’s just top notch! I’m also happy to see you trying the colored speech bubbles. I think I’m going to keep using it in my future work because it just helps clarify who’s talking so well. Great stuff!
The colored speech bubbles is a really great innovation. Yes, I know it’s been done in a modified form before you and I did it, but I really think it’s reaching for a different kind of use here. And actually, in fairness, the semi-transparent word balloons I’m using I got from Joost Haakman’s Semmie the Forest Gnome – I’m not sure yet if it’ll work for me, but I did like the glassy, multilayered look it gave his comic so I took a crack at it here.
And tahnk you very much for the compliment – this page and the last are my most declarative and confident so far, and I’m really happy with how they turned out as a spread (another piece of your advice I’ve been following to good effect!)
–M
It just occurred to me…why are they both talking? The commander radios in an update, over the radio, and the major radios back a query. The medic then answers for his commander without any prompting. This seems unusual by the standards of normal military conversation, and extremely strange for a radio conversation. Have they just had a conference call open for the past twenty minutes or so?
Yes.
🙂
–M
See anything yet?
No, just burned out cars.
How about now?
Burned trees.
Anything? Any animals?
Yeah, but they’re all on fire. And dead.
How about now?
No, noth-…wait, I see a geiger counter. Somebody’s holding a…no, wait, that’s my own arm. Damn this suit.
Well, can you at least describe what you see?
I see some sensors and a view screen and some metal walls and a four point harness-
No, outside the suit.
Well, I see some dead trees and some cars, basically the same thing as for the last 20 minutes.
So nothing new?
HOW ABOUT THIS, I’LL CALL YOU, JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!
And that’s why I winnow it down to the gems, for your entertainment. You’ll note that I don’t depict anyone going to the bathroom, either. I stick to the critical moments.
Although there are times when going to the bathroom involves a critical moment, to be honest… perhaps TOO honest…
–M
LMAO… that sounds like a flightline radio converstation for maintenance! I swear to God it does….OMGLMAO!!!!
I’ve had so many like that with a bird on departure status, canany of you relate to that also?
My take is this was not a all-out Alpha-strike style nuclear exchange but a more limited (if you can use such terms with nuclear weapons…) attack. Going back a few pages (the one showing Earth from space) makes me believe not the whole planet was levelled. There are no explosions in South America – CONASUR has nuclear capability and would be a target in such a event just to keep them from retaliating (in real life the MAD-doctrine included strikes at China as well by both sides, even though China wouldn’t be a player in a possible NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict).
Anyway, the scenario keeps getting more and more intriguing and I’m always looking forward to the next update!
GPzKpZ stand for exactly what? 🙂
It’s a portmanteau for “Grosse Panzerkampfanzug,” or “Large Armored Fighting Suit.” It was the first powered armor design, made by the German firm EurAlloy GmbH in the 1970’s. It was brought to the United States when the German republic fell and has since been refined and repurposed as a special-environment design, because of its heavy layered armor, which is much more radiation and temperature-resistant than the lighter and more maneuverable plating used on the “Regulator,” the typical suit used by Captain Santelli et al.
–M
Awesome page man! This side of the spread is even better then the left side. And the spread as a whole is just awesome as well.
Nice to see you use the collored balloons and semi transparancy, Nicely collored comics like this can bennefit greatly from something different than plain white, black outlined wordballoons.
Keep ‘m coming!
Thanks, Joost! I really feel like I’m getting this chapter, which is DEFINITELY going to be an extended one, off to a very good start. I used to dread drawing all those details because I was afraid of getting them wrong. But now I’ve really begun to see it as an opportunity to get this story onto a stronger track and get a grip on my development with my artwork. It’s hard being in my business right now, and probably always will be, because the economy is so precarious and money is so scarce. But being able to work on this every week gives me a strong center to do everything else, and I actually had a moment today where I realized that everything could go down the tubes, but I’d still have my mind and my hands, and I could still do this, no matter what. One can always find a way.
I know that’s off the track and probably waxing more philosophical than people would prefer, but your comment made me think of that for some reason. That was something I lost somewhere and getting back to that is helping a lot, that this is something I can always come back to, even if I’m scratching in charcoal on a wall.
–M
Yeah I know. If you’re an artist then no matter what tool you use, you’re always an artist!
About developing ones artwork I feel it is like you first have to complete some artistic circle before you can start learning new things on the next circle. But when you eventually start on that new circle the possibilities seem endless.
By the way I hope everything goes all right with your work and the company you work for. Since you mentioned the bad economy en all.
Medical exo-armor. I assume those jaws of life can also pull out splinters.
Oh my goodness, yes. It also slices, dices, and makes Julienne fries!
–M
Just asking but when is Joost’s cameo going to happen? I might be completely oblivious and missed it but when is it going to happen? Dont worry though, if it reveals too much of the plot you dont have to tell me.
It occurs in this chapter. I have not forgotten!
–M