Pages like this require an enormous outlay of effort to complete on schedule, and I was violently ill for about half of this week, and therefore incapacitated. So the fact I got this done is pretty surprising to me, I have to admit.
So is this what you were expecting?
Did you think that dream sequence stuff in Chapter 2 was going nowhere and made no sense?
Some of you did, admit it. I fact, I’ve gotten some emails from time to time that say as much! I’m paraphrasing of course, but they have gone something like this: “That dream sequence stuff was nice but it doesn’t mean anything – I’d rather you just put in more tank battles.” Tank battles, would it? Doesn’t mean anything, are you? Well, who’s laughing now?
Anyway. Here we are at the end of another week. And I’m tired. So I’ll be brief.
First – open note to those whose send-to infos I had not received: I have received them, but did so when I was sick, and so I haven’t yet had time to respond to you all or send out your stuff. It’s still coming, I have not forgotten. My fragile humanity got in the way. That’s also why I was remiss in answering posts towards the end of last week, so trust me, it’s not ’cause I don’t love ya!
Second, I have posted the next two page spread as a voting incentive on topwebcomics.com, complete with some visual corrections and little extra bits of detailing I left out of the originals. So click the big banner here to go take a look!
And lastly, to any artists out there who may (wink wink, hint hint, nudge nudge) have been considering drawing art or a guest comic for 6-Commando, the time is coming when that would be deeply appreciated. In fact, there’s a secret project in the works as we speak that you might get in on if you’re a webcomic artist and are interested – more on that story as it develops. But if you just want to draw something, or otherwise contribute, it will help me fill some space at the end of Chapter 3 and keep the site a bit lively while I try to take some time and get this baby ready to print. It may be an insurmountable task in the end, but I’m going to take a whack at it, and your contribution of art will give me time and space to do that. So contact me by email if you have something in mind, or just draw it and send it in, and you’ll be helping me out in a major way!
And so now that I’ve made my appeal, I’m heading off to bed. Thanks, everyone – we’ll be back next week!
…I should have worn a helmet, this page just blew my mind!
😀
–M
do y’think? nooooo…. mike isn’t using those shrooms again, is he?….
Hmm… Can you give drugs to an organic computer? Maybe… Only he has no cells, only a lot of organic molecules in a big block of cloudy blue jell-o. But still an interesting idea…
But no, Mike is not hopped up. Though he might be high on life. Ah hah ha. Ahh.
…I’ll get me coat…
–M
AWESOME!
Glad you think so! This was a bit of a cartooning risk here, putting the comic in a different, genre-straddling position vis a vis its subject matter. I do hope it’s paying off!
–M
I was Not expecting the Holodeck… or is this Elysium? (Rewatch Gladiator to get that one)
Oh, Star Trek, you brilliant bastid… You make it so hard to do new sci five nowadays.
But seriously, if this happened to me, I’d wet myself. Then I’d freak out.
–M
Also, looking back… This looks awfully like Sarah’s dream, when the Russians found her and first brought her back for treatment.
Doesn’t it, though?
🙂
–M
Now the big question is: Is Milo there, too? And is there a link between Mike and Milo…
I’m a little worried that Russian is still lurking around.
“You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: MIKE’s brain.”
// Futurama “The Scary Door”
Oh man. Those were some of the best pits of the show. They should’ve been longer though…
Beautiful page but…
Okay now I’m completely lost…
Well… I hope not too badly.
–M
I was expecting a more machine-ey room.
And not an idyllic golden dreamscape? 😉
–M
My brain is melting a little bit. I don’t think I’ve been this confused in a good long while.
Stumped you, eh? Funny, a friend of mine asked me if this was my Stanley Kubrick moment. I said no; that’ll be the last ten pages. 😉
–M
Oh nuclear war, why can’t you just be simple?
Plotting colonels, crazy supertanks, dying girlfriends (Riiiiiight?), and possibly radiation induced hallucinations (Is that even possible? :O ).
Sanity is overrated!
If it’s a hallucination why is the Major the one having it???
He’s not the only one having it!
Sarah had the same earlier. Milo was there too (which suggests he is still alive and somewhere around). Mike is part of it as well. It remains to be seen to what extend and what the source of “The Land of the Living” is.
Maybe it’s all MIKE’s apotheosis causing this.
Or maybe Rucker finally lost it, but I’d seriously doubt it.
I can’t tell you how happy I am this is having the desired effect. I am going somewhere with this. Honest. Oh, and by the bye, the title of the page is from the Bible, Psalm 116: “Always shall I walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.”
–M
The prizes from the last contest have arrived today in the mail. Thank you! 😀
Excellent!
–M
That is the best tank wreckage that I’ve ever seen!
Thanks, Denny! I take that as the highest praise coming from you! It’s funny, but it always seems to be easier to draw wrecked things. Maybe because it’s already screwed up so you can’t do it wrong. Plus, living as we do in a time of constant warfare there’s plenty of reference material available: I based these tanks on dme photos I saw in the paper during the Libyan Civil War.
–M
Oh My!
Mike downloaded Sarah’s brain while she was inside him!
So she’ll still be around (sort of, depends on your philosophical views) though this might affect the nature of their relationship…
–F
I’m!!!