I really like these cutaway scenes – they’re fun to draw. Take a long time, but still – they’ve kind of become a bit of a trademark. The big reveal, here – this goes all the way back to Page 4. That’s 204 pages back, for anyone keeping count. That… that’s something. I have to admit I never thought this comic would go on for five years and over two hundred pages. This is actually the second-to-last page of the chapter. But not to make you wait for the finale for a whole week, I’ll post the chapter closer on Wednesday. It’s meant to be read as a pair with this one but I don’t have any way to post it as such. Or do I? Hmm… maybe as a tease, I’ll see if people will vote to see the whole thing at once? I hope it won’t be a disappointment. But then, you stuck with me when I did the infamous “white page,” so maybe you won’t mind. Sneaky? Maybe. But who wants to wait until Wednesday, anyway?
On the point of how long this comic has gotten, though, I have to say that I hadn’t realized it until I was talking this week to the person who actually first advised me to do a webcomic. His advice, as I recall, was that I needed to stop toying around with all my different ideas, pick one, and follow it through. Well, I owe him one for that, because this has become a real accomplishment for me so far, and there’s still more to come. And I realized, also, that doing this comic exclusively online has afforded me a lot of freedom I would never have had otherwise. For one thing, I can end on an odd-numbered page. I can make chapters any length. I can actually produce the kind of comic I like to draw and find an audience, without compromising for someone else’s sales numbers. And none of that is to say that I don’t still want to print this someday, but I’m happy with what I’m doing now, and that alone has made this comic worthwhile for me.
And now, in all the full glamor of the modern cartoonist, I’m taking out the garbage, making my bed and then going to it. See you on Wednesday for the chapter finale, and some final thoughts on Chapter 5, and on the upcoming Chapter 6! All the best, folks!
Hmmm… I don’t get the page 4 reference. Unless this means MIKE was armed with nuclear missiles…?
😀 Maybe I’ve said too much already.
Is that Lithium Deuteride in the barrels?
It is indeed. Very much so.
Nice touch/detail.
Looks like Mike was loaded with at least one nuke.
I remember back when you first revealed Yankee-Hotel-Bravo, autonomous vehicles were already equipped with nukes. Rucker however specifically mentioned Mike-1-Echo was never supposed to be equipped with atom weapons, and when Mike fired them during that chase, they were conventional.
I’m usually not this persistent.
😀 I believe it was that they COULD be equipped with Atomics, but that Mike was not carrying them.
And that the missiles mike was carrying look a lot like those. And the FSR may or may not have had some intel on this operation being carried out here. Perhaps the FSR is even pursuing a similar research project… The russian officer saying something like “you’re after our missiles” some time ago may have also been a reference to this. Putting two and two together and coming up with nukes, they instigated a much larger response than was expected and boom.
Oooh. Caught the page 4 reference. Wow, never expected a little background detail to mean so much. Bravo!
😀 I’ve been waiting for 204 pages to tie that one off!
Its the Atomic Cocaine Charlie Sheen ordered
It’s great. It’s Atomic Cocaine. It gets you really high.
Look out Charlie Sheen is coming
Charlie Sheen, Ben Vereen, change to the size of a lima bean.
And if you get THAT one, boy, you win the prize!
Page four reference? Well, the only thing remotely similar to this page here, are the missiles in both pages…really curious what you wanna reveal to us.
Also, very well done work on the secret facility here. Looks like the Suds went in full-scale production of their H-bombs here. It actually reminds me a bit of pics I saw from a documentary some time ago of the secret Israeli nuclear programm. ^^
I actually did base it on a combination of a power planet and a Nike Missile silo.
That’s about as shocked and subdued as I have ever seen Zaballa and Rucker…can’t wait for next week’s page!
😀 Only have to wait ’til Wednesday.
“Are you familiar with the term thermonuclear?”
“Thermonukular. Nukular”.
^^ 😀
Good one Brain, Narf (what prize was won?)
Oh, crap. 🙁