Poor Tom can’t see the forest for the trees. And let me tell you from experience, as someone who once dated a sassy redhead smartass, “She’s Poison” is about as close to the truth as you can get in this situation, no matter how you slice it! Ah, this crazy little thing called love, or whatever you’d call what Tom’s doing all this for. Is it love? Or guilt, maybe? Comradely affection? Loyalty? I guess like anything it’s a complicated amalgam of motivations and not any one of them. But this week being Valentine’s Day, I thought an act of selfless devotion on the part of Major Rucker seemed appropriate, whatever it is behind it, and even if he is subjecting himself to severe ionizing radiation, which is probably just pouring out of poor Sarah at this point. One of the really awful things about nuclear weapons, especially atomic weapons, which have a lot of fissile material in them, is that they can emit a big flash of neutron radiation, which, if it doesn’t kill you outright, can actually make you radioactive: neutron activiation, or neutron flash, causes material in your body to become isotopic, a condition which will then propagate with time making you emit more radiation as time goes on – you literally become poisonous. What a thing. For all their horribleness in themselves, at least hydrogen bombs don’t produce this effect as broadly as atomics. But at this point it’s not a distinction anyone is likely to make.
Anyhow, this page is basically the climax of the whole chapter, and is one I’ve been simply DYING to draw since page whatever-it-was that started this chapter off. And the red room on this page led me to give it the unofficial title “All Right, Hal, I’ll Go In Through The Emergency Airlock.” And actually, I was really pleased to discover that, when I laid out my perspective lines after doing a rough sketch of this page, I discovered to my surprise that I had sketched in almost perfect two-point perspective without even meaning to, and without any grid or guidelines at all! All those years of draftsmanship have paid off!
So now, as to the rest of it. Contest participation was up 400%! That means, four people actually played. I thought I was making it SO easy! I’m giving away free stuff here, guys. FREE STUFF. Nobody wants it? Did you miss part of it? Well, whatever the case, in case some people just forgot to email the entry, I’ll keep it open this week. For the four of you who DID play, I declare you winners all, and shall deploy to you FREE STUFF! Pins, stickers and free sketch cards will shortly wing their way to wherever you desire them to be sent. And for everyone else, if you’re afraid you missed the boat last week I’m giving you another chance to play by extending the contest THIS week, as well, just to be sure. So vote over on topwebcomics.com once a day every day this week and you’ll see the images a second time. See if that gets anyone to come forward and claim FREE STUFF. Did I mention it’s FREE?!
This is the only time you’ll see a capitalist like me trying so hard to give away things for nothing, so soak it up, folks!
On the other hand, last week was officially the BEST WEEK EVER for new readers, so you guys have obviously been spreading the word! Almost a thousand unique viewers on Monday alone, with nearly 3,600 unique viewers for the week, and over 13,000 total views overall! Now, that’s not like they get over at Google, but for me, it’s pretty damn good! If each one of those readers (assuming they really were individual people, mind you) if each one of them donated $5, I could print this baby in nothing flat, and in a nice hardcover version! So it gives me a little bit of confidence, I’ll admit. I’m no Jason Brubaker or Dan Lieske or Steve Ogden, or all the other self-pub superstars I follow, but it’s really nice to know that I’ve got you guys on board reading and chatting about my work, because it really keeps me going. They say you should do it just for yourself, but let me tell you, that’s total nonsense of the highest order: comics are entertainment, and comic artists want people looking at and talking about their work. So you guys basically gave me a fantastic week last week, and for that I thank you!
And by the way, speaking of Steve Ogden, if you haven’t read his comic Moon Town, now is a great time to start, because in a different but kindred way, he and I are kind of doing the same thing. That is, we both have comics when started out one way, but have reached a point where they need a major graphic overhaul. Me, I’m doing it for print. Steve, on the other hand, has taken the gutsy move of going back to square one and rebooting the whole story from scratch. That takes serious artistic cojones, I can tell you. Since he’s only just started the reboot I don’t want to say ANYTHING about what went before, lest it ruin his plans, but let me just point you to his work with an assurance on my part that it’s some of the best stuff going in online comics these days. So check it out!
Also, 6-Commando has been making the rounds on some Alternate History websites lately, I’ve been seeing. The links aren’t immediately at hand but let me say, I’m totally open to it, because Alternate History is where it’s at, and I’m glad for the attention and the readership from a fanbase that appreciates my favorite genre of fiction!
So there it is. Play the game again, win free stuff, thanks for reading, alternate history rocks out loud, and I’m going to bed. Whew! What a great week.
All the best, folks!
Eh, he’ll be alright. Being exposed to radiation doesn’t make something or someone radioactive. Can’t say the same for her, though.
Caught me in the midst of an edit – it actually CAN cause you to become radioactive if it has a high level of neutron radiation in it. She won’t make HIM radioactive, though. She’ll just poison him.
–M
Technically yes; being exposed to radiation causes one to be very slightly radioactivated yourself. BUT: If even touching her would pose any risk to the mayor, she would long have died. This is pretty much a plot device. 🙂
Well, yes and no. People with high densities of radiation poisoning can linger for some time. But a few minutes’ exposure wouldn’t kill Major Rucker. Still, he is being very foolhardy, and things being what they are the Doctor is probably justified in using a little hyperbole in the heat of the moment.
And yes, it is a plot device.
The detail in this page is amazing, I just noticed Sara’s hair on the pillow and bed side.
😀
It’s my inner architect. Which is my outer architect most of the time, because that’s what I do for a living. But I had been dying to do a page like thus for some time and I was really pleased that it worked out cleanly like this.
–M
The mini-panel and Haakman’s expression really puts emphasis on the drama which is going on her. Well done!
Radioactive love. Rucker better just look and don’t touch…
Alice Cooper’s “Poison” comes to mind.
>> I want to love you but I better not touch (Don’t touch)
>> I want to hold you but my senses tell me to stop
>> I want to kiss you but I want it too much (Too much)
>> I want to taste you but your lips are venomous poison
>> Your poison running through my veins
>> Your poison, I don’t wanna break these chains
Ain’t that the way it is? Sooner or later it gets you!
–M
*Slaps hand over eyes* Major Rucker has just passed the line of ‘Crazy Obsessed’ and into ‘Crazy Stupid’. As I said last page, there is a clear line between being crazy and being a moron and there is a reason she’s in the sealed chamber with an airlock on it, worked in only by guys in hazmat suits.
And if he tries to physically carry her out of there, I think I may just smash my keyboard with my head.
Why’d you do it, Major?
Because a robot tank called me on the phone and… You know, never mind
–M
Even if touching her doesn’t give Rucker radiation poisonning himsef, exactly what does he expect to do for her? The sheer ammount of life support equipment hooked up to her is a fairly clear indication that she can’t be moved without killing her.
Whatever can he be up to?
😀
–M
If she is still alive after a few hours, then being in a room with her after she has been decontaminated (on the outside at least) is probably not going to be much of a danger. The exposure would probably be above peacetime safety regulations but really not that big a deal during a nuclear war.
Well it would probably mean isolating Rucker as well and dosing him up with diuretics and immune boosters, at a minimum. But yeah, even so, he ought not to be doing this. Really I was aiming to point up the uncertainty and panic that runs latent in any crisis, even among those who are supposedly calm and under control.
–M
Wow – amazing detail in that hospital room, Matthieu! Well done, and thanks for the plug on Moon Town! Keep up the great work on the comic!
Thanks, Steve! And anything I can do to help out a fellow artist, you know!
–M
“Moon Town” looks like the kind of graphic novel which agrees with me. Consider me a new reader. Will add it to my reading list.
I started so well, I really wanted to play-then I got sick and forgot . . .Regardless, 6-commando is a fantastic comic that i look forward to every monday. Thanks for all your effort. I’m going to try again this week, but I’m still wretchedly ill so forgive me if I forget.
Vive le mort vive le guerre, vive le legion etrangere!
Sorry to hear you’re under the weather. I hope you do get to ply anyhow, but it’s only a game. 🙂
–M
You know what this page brings to mind? The Sims 6-Commando. Make it happen.
As if the Sims weren’t already an exercise in existential terror, add in robot tanks, medical euthanasia, isolation chambers and atomic warfare. Just… Wow.
–M
I love the overhead, 3d way this page is drawn. It gives a great perspective of what is going on. This shows my geek side a lot, but instead of the sims, it reminds me of star trek bridge drawings you sometimes find.
Ok, geeky I know, but it does.
No shame in being geeky – because I know the ones you mean, where they show all the pipes and wires that go nowhere and do nothing. I actually love those.
–M
Woohoo I’ve won something! 😀
I figured more people would go for it. But at least you can boast a 400% increase!
Yeah when you look at percentages, it looks a lot grander, doesn’t it? It’s always like that. Unless they’re raising my taxes. Just an extra five percent! (Of everything you own). Don’t be so greedy!
But yes, after this week’s second chances I’ll contact everyone to give them free stuff!
–M
Ah, but if the number of contestants went from one to four, isn’t the increase only 300%, since (4-1)/1=3? I saved all the cards, but I have this funny little routine where I vote for 100+ comics in one go, and by the time I’m done, I’ve completely forgotten about things such as sending emails and such.
Though that’s not the whole story. I also figured that more people would participate, and that there would be at least ten people who deserved free stuff more than I do, or just wanted it more. And when I saw the first card again, I thought that the contest must have been such a success that you had decided to run it again, and that it was just a coincidence that both hands contained the same card. That’s how it works in my world of imagination, where everything is great, and then gets even better. 😉 (Which unfortunately makes it rather impossible for reality to ever catch up, so I try to not bother with it.)
Three hundred percent, huh? Curse you and your Vulcan logic!
But see now you have a chance to MAKE it 400%. I hope you’ll be playing this week!
–M
If I may ask, what is it about the alt history that really interests you?
Also Looking at the situation above I’m reminded of one of the Bolo stories where a sick human gets their mind merged with that of the Bolo. I’m kinda hoping that happens here even though the tech may not support it.
What I really like about alternative history as a genre is that it’s a creative way of exploring why we are the way we are, by allowing the author to screw with things that the reader might otherwise take for granted. I chose to set 6-Commando in an alternate history instead of a future for that reason, because it allowed me to tap into believable things from the recent past (nuclear paranoia and the cold war) but also rework things in such a way as to deal with more Sci Fi elements without needing so much exposition. But also, I like exploring how fragile modern history has been, and how things being the way they are was far from a foregone conclusion.
–M
Very cool and thank you for doing that. You have created an intriguing story that I love to read.