6-Commando

UPDATE! 4.4.10

I didn’t get back until very late tonight, but it being the holiday and all, I beg a few hours’ indulgence from you all.  There will be a post tomorrow (Monday) evening, say, 9-ish, I think, and though it’s not a page from the comic, it will be something cool, I promise!  So until then keep enjoying the colors above, and tune in just a few hours later and you’ll have good stuff to ogle while I drag this comic back on schedule!

Be back soon!

Oh, and by the way, for the poster-who-shall-remain-nameless, misrepresenting yourself on people’s blogs is a great way to get permanently banned.  You other readers might have seen the post for a few hours (at first I saw no reason not to approve it), but I dumped it when I saw it copied and pasted onto nearly all the other comics I read.  What a bummer, dude.  If you want to found your own web-comic list, cool.  But spamming creators with “join this list” comments?  Not cool.  I might have joined up if you hadn’t pretended so poorly to not be the site’s creator, or if you found some non-spam-oriented way of going about asking.  Now, not.  Maybe I’m missing out on publicity or some junk, but it’s the principle of the thing.  Don’t waste people’s time with that crap – either ask directly or don’t ask at all.  This “you should list here so I can fave you!” crap is for the birds.

At any rate, that concludes my railing for the evening.  See you in a couple hours!

UPDATE! 4.1.10

Okay, well, I got the colors done.  And right now, I’m really tired, so I have very little to add, other than that the colors please me, and I hope you like the page, too!  Tomorrow I head out to visit family for Easter, and I still haven’t decided what’s to come on Monday.  I don’t think it’ll be a full page, but it’ll be something good, I hope!  So tune in Monday, and until then, enjoy the holiday!

Original Post – 3.29.10:  Still not exactly back on schedule, but we’re getting closer.  Somehow or other, I’m managing to hold all this together!  The building industry is definitely getting back on its feet, and there’s a LOT to do in the studio where I work.  But anyway, here’s the inkwork for the next page.  And technically, since I still do plan to have colors done mid-week again, we WILL be on a one-week schedule, just offset from the normal Monday-to-Monday timeframe.  Oh, well, welcome to the real world.  Until I can make as much on comics as I do on architecture, which will be never, I’ll take what I can get!

In this page, the action starts up again, and we see just how dangerous Mike really is.  I had a comment early on that there was this gigantic tank that was behaving with a great deal of restraint, given the amount of weaponry he was carrying.  Missiles, lasers, heavy cannons… well, he’s in the thick of it now, so this one cluster missile he’s just fired is another taste of what he’s capable of.  It’s an odd thing for me to draw scenes like this.  I’m good at them, but as I abhor violence, I try to keep it to a minimum, which is, of course, hard to do with a military-themed comic book.  I’m just a man of contradictions, I guess.  But in truth, I’m told, this is kind of how modern conflict really is most of the time: short bursts of activity and long stretches of movement and maneuvering.

Artistically, this comic is still developing as I draw it, and that’s not the best thing for a graphic novel, as such – normally, it’d be something where you’d want to see a consistent style throughout.  For example, I realized yesterday that the design of the truck has changed slightly since I first drew it, as my idea of its movement and dimensions matured.  In this sequence it’s looking really quite convincing, I have to say, with all the little broken bits accumulating as it takes damage.  And Mike-One-Echo in silhouette is particularly threatening, and counterpoints the rest of the action better than I’d thought.  A good page overall – I’m pleased with it, even though the inconsistencies in the drawings are still mounting.  But then, even the great master of cartoons Hergé was notorious for editing and re-editing his own work, sometimes redrawing entire books after a span of years, never quite satisfied with his old work as his style continually developed and changed over time.  And for me, as I keep reiterating, this is really an experiment in bringing an idea to completion, and as we hurtle towards the end of Chapter 1, I feel that I’m fulfilling that main goal pretty well.  So, I’m confident.

“Bozhe moy” by the way is “Oh my God!” in Russian.  I thought it was a nicely ironic thing for a supposedly atheistic communist to say, particularly at the start of Holy Week.  And on that point, I have to say I don’t yet know how I’m going to handle next week’s update, as I’ll be out of town for Easter.  I don’t know how many readers are christians, but Easter is a really big deal for us, and especially for Catholics – in many ways bigger than Christmas.  So I’ll be treating the whole thing with reverence and going to see my family for the holiday.  I’ll update somehow, but what form that will take is as yet undetermined.  When I post the colors midweek I’ll make my decision.

Speaking of readership, by the way, the past two weeks have been terriffic for this site, as new readership has gone way up.  More than one and a half thousand people read this comic since March 15, and it’s currently climbing the rankings on the sites.  I’m really excited about the new readership, and I welcome everyone who’s tuning in to check this site out!  And it may interest you all to know that the third highest readership for this comic (after the U.S. and Canada, which was expected) is tied with the Netherlands and Germany, which I found fascinating (not Britain?  I named 6-Commando after one of your army units!)  So Groetjes and Guten Tag to you, and I hope everyone from all nations and interests keeps reading every week!

So until the midweek color update, I wish you all the best.  Check back soon – there’s more to come before Friday!