Page 18 – For the Love of God!
UPDATE: 3.25.10
Color, and earlier than I bet many of you expected! I did not lie! Why would I lie?
I like this page a lot. It’s how I wish page 10 had worked out, as far as a necessarily talky bit of storyline. This is actually the first time we’ve seen everyone’s feet – the full-length of Haulley, Zaballa, et al, I think, really tied the page together. The Blue Telephone is a play on the famous Hotline in the White House, which supposedly connects Washington to the Kremlin – I don’t actually know if it exists, but it shows up in all the movies. Some tiny edits here and there (I went and misspelled Bronniford’s name!) and here we go!
The next page is already underway. And let me say that this has been a terriffic week for 6-Commando so far – the unique site hits are WAY up, with a good balance of new and returning readers, which gives me a great boost of confidence. And the chat on the sit has been great too – thanks to everyone who’s left comments – they’ve been very insightful and are great to see!
I’ll see you on Monday with the next installment – be good, folks!
Original Post: 3.22.10: Advertising works! This week has been the best yet for 6-Commando! Average daily hits have more than tripled, and on the lists, 6-Commando has cracked the top 100 on the Comic Blog Elite, and the top 400 on Top Web Comics. To all the new visitors, welcome! And to everyone who’s emailed, posted, “faved,” and all the rest, your support is exceptional, and very much appreciated. All are welcome! Vote early, vote often! Your support keeps me in the up-and-coming, and brings my goal of setting 6-Commando in print one step closer to realization! Special thanks, once again, to Jason Brubaker, Joost Haakman, and Ryan Hoffman (Ryan’s cameo has been extended by the demands of the plot, so use of his likeness for another page deserves special mention), all of whom have offered advice, encouragement, critique and general good-will that has really helped keep this project on the front-burner for me.
Alas, no color yet, but don’t be put off. Though from this update it may seem that we’re still on the two-week schedule, that is merely a vicious rumor started by my enemies! It ain’t so! In spite of many challenges, I managed to get this to within about 75% of completion! Normally, I’d have stayed up late to get the thing done, but I have a very busy week ahead of me at my studio (my actual studio – where I help design buildings), so I’m calling it a night and posting the inks as a provisional update until I finish with the coloring. However, that should be done by tomorrow or Tuesday, and I will post an asymmetrical update then, and then dive into the next page.
This is turning into a very busy year for me, in every sense. First and foremost, there’s the economy, which so well-known to all, I think, that it deserves to be written thus:
THE ECONOMY!
Yes, well, it’s getting better, at least in my little corner of the Earth. that being the case, I’m slated to work some very serious overtime to keep these projects on schedule, and with a number of them slated to break ground this summer, that means that time in the office is extending, and time outside contracting. This past week, I was five hours over my standard. Then there was a reception in New York City, where I went to see my old mentor from my Miami days (and where I milled around repeating myself, and no doubt sounded like a total pompous ass, so, you know, apologies to all the other attendees for my idiotic nonsense). That was another lost night this week. Although I did find out that several projects I helped design (and one that I was managing just before I moved away from Miami) are now modern ruins, due to the collapsed economy. A shame – they were beautiful designs. But then, there’s something sublime about having helped to build an actual ruin. Next time I go down there I’ll have to take a look.
But in any case, I’m rambling. To take it back to the comic, suffice it to say that in spite of all the pressure, I’m dragging it back on schedule, and so this week, with any luck, is going to contribute to the turning of things back to where they ought to be. If you’re linking here for the first time, I hope you’ll check back again mid-week, so you can see this page as it ought to be: in full color. And if not, your continued forebearance is much appreciated.
The rest of this chapter is quite a rush, I have to say – I thumbnailed it all in odd moments (coffee breaks, lunch hours, etc), and I really think it finally fell together. There had been a few scenes I wanted to do but had to edit away for the sake of the overall plot – speed and action are key from here to the end of Chapter 2, and a lot happens very fast, so slowing down the plot just to cram in a specific scene was a bad move. The characters are developing pretty well, also – in this page, we see Colonel Haulley having a little bit of a comeuppance: he gave Zaballa the Rude Letter on page 10, and now he has a little dressing-down of his own to deal with. Again, he finally seems to be coming into his own, artistically and as a character: he likes giving orders, but doesn’t take too well to being contradicted, even by a General. We’ll see how that affects him later…
Anyhow, for me, it’s time to sleep. But with any luck I’ll see you back here mid-week, so until then, be well, and keep on rollin’!
Love the expressions in Colonel Haulley face, especially in the last panel. He really goes from annoyed to angry to flabbergasted, I think it’s excellent!
Another thing, you could try experimenting with facial hair on a few more characters. Ryan’s character is a nice variation on the existing range.
Overall a great page! Looking forward to the colors!
The colors are almost done, Joost! Thanks for the kind comments, as always! And as for Haulley, making the range of emotion seem like a natural progression was hard, actually – harder than I thought. Going from one to the next naturally depended on making the circumstances believable, and I think I barely pulled it off – a major changeover had to happen in a very short span of time, storywise. I’m also pleased with the full-length panel: it’s the first time we’ve seen Colonel Haulley’s feet in the whole comic so far! Way overdue.
–M
I found your comic through a banner ad on top web comics, so advertising does really work!
I loved the Bolo series by Keith Laumer and 6-Command reminds me a little of that so I’m going to keep reading. Keep up the good work.
Hmmm… YES! B.O.L.O. ….. that’s exactly what was at the back of my mind clawing it’s way out. The artist is doing an excellent job bringing the machine to life in respect to say a Mark II or Mark III B.O.L.O. . Still human manned but semi-autonomous, I think that may come sooner than we all think.
Please keep up the execellent work, I would love to see where this goes…
Someone else who loves the Bolo books??!! holy crap!! Keith was really great, and I like the additions that David weber has added. totally awesome! And this is alot like the Mark III bolos!! Keep rockin it!!
Glad to have you reading, everyone!
I’ve been an enormous fan of the BOLO books, myself, as well as Steve Jackson’s Ogre and GEV boardgames, which took their cue from Laumer’s stories. Mike is about the size of a Mark III Bolo, or for Ogre fans, he’s about the size of an Ogre Mark II. Mike is fully autonomous – he carries no human crew, and has an onboard mainframe computer that houses his logic circuit. When I finally release a book version of this, I plan to include a full specification for the Echo-class Rumbler.
And by the way, if you want to see an earlier version of Mike-One-Echo and his comrades in arms, vote for 6-Commando on TopWebComics.com! You can vote more than once (but not more than once a day, per comic) and my goal is to crack the top 100, so every vote counts! Sorry to plug this mechanism so shamelessly, but ranking increases visibility, which increases readership, which in turn helps me get this book to print!
Thanks again for all the encouragement and comments, guys! Hope you’ll keep reading along!
–M
Emotion change realy seems natural and circumstances for change are belivable.
I can picture myself in Haulley’s shoes and it won’t be any different.
Yeah, I think it worked out in the end. He’s in a tight spot, and all the various pressures are getting to him. But it does help to know that it reads that way – it’s hard to tell sometimes, as I get so close to it.
–M
OMG! you read Bolo?
O_o So do I! I am especially a fan of the book BOLO!, and my favorite story is the very last one, Shiva. It really makes you think about the lengths people will go to ensure their safety.
The thing I like most about the BOLO’s is that they are all totally honorable, even to a fault. The other main inspiration was Steve Jackson’s “Ogres,” which are far more calculating and vicious. Mike is more towards the Bolo in temperament, but is more like an Ogre in his function in combat. And he’s far less sophisticated as a weapon, or an intelligence, than either of the two. And that, as you can see, is getting 6-Commando into trouble.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the story, though – hope you’ll keep reading!
–M