6-Commando

I really like this page.  And not just because I got it out on the weekly schedule I have been working to get back to, but because I really think it hangs together just the way I wanted it to.  It’s also the start of a rather experimental layout design which will unfold over the next few weeks, and which I think will be cool.  It might also backfire on me.  But we’ll just have to wait and see.

So.  Major Bronniford’s lines here are based on an apocryphal story from World War II that I heard when I was a kid.  As it goes, an American pilot was downed by the Japanese just after the first atomic bomb fell on Japan.  His captors interrogated him and beat him, demanding to know about “the bomb.”  The airman knew nothing about the atom bomb, of course, but as an act of defiance, he told his interrogators “That was one of the small ones.  We have a thousand more that are twice the size!”  In this case, I thought it an appropriate thing for Sarah to say.  Not to mention the fact that she has managed to remain pretty good-looking, even though she’s had the crap beaten out of her.

The Federate tanks in the last panel, by the way, are based on the ISU-152, a late-war assault gun that the Russians used very successfully against German tanks and gun emplacements.  I have tried to give the FSR troops a slightly more rugged and primitive-looking technology than the United Nations – broken bits, bent and dented plates – to make them seem a little more like veterans, and a little more down-and-dirty than their enemies.  It’s a balance, though.  In most American films and literature from the Cold War, Russians are depicted as either bunglers or sociopaths, and the real Soviets were neither.  As John Le Carré wrote “If you make your enemy look stupid you lose your justification for taking them on.”  And so I wanted my “Soviets” (who the FSR is basically a stand-in for) to seem like a geunine threat, but without being over-the-top.  They’re soldiers, and they’re very good at what they do.  But they’re also rational and reasonable – they aren’t fanatics.  At least, not all of them.  And there are some UNA soldiers who are crazy in their own ways, too.

In any event, here we are.  Back on schedule for now.  Thanks to everyone who’s voted and to all of you who have kept following along!  The daily hits have settled into a neat groove for the time being, meaning that there’s a very good reader base out there – the advertising seems to have spiked my hits and then backed off, as expected, but there’s a solid base of readers following along now, so to all of you, thanks!  (Interesting side note: Germany is now the number two nation following 6-Commando – surpassing Canada this week!)

So anyhow, I’ll be back next week, and as previous weeks have shown, posting here is welcomed, even encouraged, and I try to answer every post, so go for it!  Keep on rolling, and don’t forget to vote, post, write reviews, and pass the link to friends!