Page 11 – Oh, You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me
For those who are interested, I have given my full report on the subject of the New York Comic Convention. You can read it on my blog over at viciousprint.com. Enjoy!
Well, I’m back from the New York Comic Convention, and with a new page, too! I’m still trying to make sense of the NYCC experience, but it’s going to take me a few days to process, I think, so for now, suffice it to say that it was very, very interesting.
Anyhow, here we are. And we return now to everyone’s favorite Armored Cavalry officer, Major Rucker, who is coping with one of the secondary problems of an atomic attack – an electromagnetic pulse. This causes electrostatic charge to build up in any conducting circuits, and so the Sentinel tanks which his unit operates are designed to be “EMP-resistant.” That means, of course, that they don’t suffer as much damage from EMP as they might otherwise. And so Rucker is stuck trying to fix his tank.
I thought it might be a funny little thing for him to be doing this with a multi-tool, so I gave him a leatherman. Nothing like going at a multimillion dollar armored fighting vehicle with a thirty-dollar pocket tool. Ah, well.
Anyhow, that’s really all I have for now. This week, I don’t want to inundate you with another set of “how I did it” drawings, which I’m sure have gotten boring for the time being, so I’ll just leave you with the banner, and ask that you please consider voting for 6-Commando over on topwebcomics.com. It’s silly and gimmicky, for sure, but it helps me gain visibility, which is good!
So until next week, be well folks!
Aww, poor Mikey! Is he gonna have a tummy ache from the mean EMP?
Any way, nice shading here.
Poor little Mikey took a direct hit from a nuclear weapon. I think the EMP is the last thing he needs to worry about.
Also, I thought that EMP was more a result of a high altitude airburst of several megatons. A kiloton weapon at ground level would transfer all of its relatively minor energy into heating the air rather than an EMP, iirc. EMPs are caused by very large explosions in the upper atmosphere, where there is little to nothing to absorb the radiation.
I actually looked into that, and any nuclear weapon, atomic or thermonuclear, will produce an electromagnetic pulse, both when the gamma burst from the explosion ionizes the atmosphere, and when the electron vacuum from the force of the explosion distorts the local geomagnetic field of the Earth. In this case, they’re dealing with a “Tactical” bomb and therefore a weaker pulse, and so their vehicles are still repairable. Were it a megaton or multimegaton weapon (which are only theoretical in this universe), it could be detonated at high altitude and have effects ranging over an entire continental area. In this case I envisioned it as more a side effect than a deliberate attack. And this having been a smaller yield, it would not have been so severe.
I have no doubt taken something of a liberty with the EMP, but I erred on the side of drama, as I often do. I thought it likely that the UNA, being gadget-prone, would end up having troubles with their technology when the “Big One” went off. Not like in “The Day After” when everyone’s cars won’t start – that was a bit much. But blown batteries and fuses, and some shorted wires – things that would get Rucker sticking his arms into the junction case of his Sentinel tank.
–M
I think Mike’s bigger concern is a headache than a tummy ache. His creamy middle may be synthetic protein gel, but it’s still basically electronics. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Glad to see you back around the page here, though!
–M
I’m curious to hear your thoughts of the con when you’ve processed it all.
Great looking frames, by the way!
Thanks, Jason! Like you, I’ve had huge issues with scheduling lately, but I managed to crank this one out, NYCC or no. The full report, by the way, is at http://www.viciousprint.com.
Thanks for the look!
–M
This page reminds me of the opening page from Hotel Metropolitan where you look inside the head of the robo-policeman. Really impressive how you are able to draw such convincing tubes and wires. I also like how Major Ruckers hands and arm reach into that tiny space and offcourse the use of a multitool, nice touch!
Great page!
Funny you mention it – I was trying to evoke that same feel, of going from the really big, outdoor scene to a tight, claustrophobic interior, and it was Hotel Metropolitan that gave me that idea. Nice catch! It took me a long tme to decide how to lay this page out, but in the end I think it worked out.
Thanks for the note!
–M
It’s not as if making things EMP resistant is very difficult… I mean, if you can protect anything electronic from an EMP by wrapping it in TIN FOIL, you can protect any amount of things just by putting a conductive layer over the outside.