Well, here we are. Does this answer questions or raise more of them? Oy vey!
I’m going to be as brief as I can this week, because I really worked through a lot of annoying roadblocks to draw this page. I don’t want to lay it all on you guys, because you’re all just the greatest as far as I’m concerned, but I don’t know – lots of work to do this week stressed me way the heck out. And a couple of friends made some unexpected commitments for me and on my behalf, which, although I know it was done with kind intentions, really just exhausted me and ended up pushing my buttons at this particular point in time. As a result, I was behind schedule and in a really terrible mood when I sat down to draw this page, and so it became a huge struggle from start to finish. I’m not entirely sure I like it but I can’t stop now. But it goes to show you – upbeatness is key to a successful art project. It may still be a struggle, but if you can’t go at it with a positive attitude, it’s just drudgery.
What I do like, though, is Dr. Haakman, who has a matter-of-fact, take-charge attitude in this scene that I really do like. Even though he was ready to euthanize Sarah a few chapters ago, he still seems to me like the kind of doctor you’d want to have on your side when things started going down.
By the way, I’ve moved over to a new computer. Boy was it pricey, but it is so incredibly fast that I’m amazed how wonderfully it’s working. My old system was pretty darned fast – built pretty much entirely to run Photoshop. But this one… MAN. at least ten times faster. Computer technology blows my mind.
Anyway, until next week, I’ll be trying to improve my attitude. All the best, folks.
The Colonel has gone nuclear. That’s what “it is”.
Seems like DaCosta will be locked in Isolation with the others. I wonder what comes up once MIKE taps into her mind and memories?
Assuming he hasn’t already. OOOOOOOOOO! 😀
Plot twist, he becomes a monster.
No, not really, when are the chinese going to intervere?
They already are – China is part of the FSR.
Radiation, the gift that keeps on giving…
Indeed so. And yet,ma close friend of mine is an expert on radioactive medicine. Still, it’s best not to place radioactives next to vital organs in your abdominal cavity, if you can possibly avoid it.
all command staff of all forces at that base have radation poisoning I feel someone will say that later on in the story
Not really what you want, radiation in your sealed atomic bunker.
When it comes to radiation, how much and what type is extremely important; a small amount of Alpha, Beta, or Gamma radiation wont really affect humans since our bodies have inbuilt defenses, due to our environment constantly exposing us to very small amounts of radiation, both from our Sun, and from the Earth itself.
Alpha rays are the weakest of all radiations, they don’t carry very far, and can barely penetrate our skin, their only truly dangerous if you manage to swallow a strong Alpha emitting isotope in some form, whereupon it irradiates you from the inside out; a certain death sentence unless you can flush or eject them out of the body quickly, and a nasty way to go out.
Gamma rays on the other hand, are the scary stuff most people are thinking of when they think of radiation, Gamma is far and away the strongest of the three radiations, it will go right through your body and barely slow down, and can only be effectively shielded against using Lead or a lot of very dense material such as concrete and many meters of hard packed earth.
Hmm….not exactly.
The thing about gamma radiation “going right through your body and barely slowing down” is also why it’s the least directly harmful type. Gamma doesn’t interact anywhere near as much with living tissue as beta and alpha do, and most of the energy simply passes through you without doing anything. The problem with gamma is that it can’t be completely blocked, just mitigated.
Alpha, on the other hand, is extremely likely to interact with whatever it hits and deliver its energy, making it very, very nasty, but also unlikely to penetrate very far since, again, it’ll likely find something to interact with and dump its energy before long.
Beta is somewhere in the middle, having a rather troublesome level of tissue penetration along with a relatively high chance of delivering its “payload”, which is also why it’s heavily used in radiation therapy.
OK. It’s late, I’m tired and not sure of this but… as far as I know there is a difference between Alpha RAYS and Alpha particles. Alpha rays ARE weak and can be stopped with a piece of paper. Alpha particles on the other hand are Helium nuclei, big and heavy as far as nuclear particles go and can cause significant biological damage. I’m to tired to look this up on Wikipedia right now, so, I’ll just ask if there is anyone who posts here who is more knowledgeable about this than me and can clarify this.
OK. Back from Wiki-ville. I was wrong. They are the same thing. The alpha particles CAN be stopped by paper. It is when they are ingested that they become very dangerous. …Why he would be emitting them though remains a mystery to me.
(Ok Will, repeat this phrase to yourself – It’s just a comic book. It’s just a comic book :-P)
Yes, Alpha radiation is the least dangerous atomic byproduct, but having it coming out of a person is a sign of a severe problem, and any infiltration of radioactive materials in a sealed environment is a really bad thing – it’s a sign of fallout or other radioactive leakage. And once it’s in the environment of a bunker it’ll tend to recirculate and spread as the particles break up and are drawn through ventilation systems, attach to people’s clothing. Etc.
KIDS! Emitting alpha particles sounds like a cool idea, but it can lead to serious issues!
So don’t try this at home. Remember, Colonel Haulley is a trained professional.
Join the Multinational Peacemakers: Travel to Exciting Places… And Irradiate Them!
Emitting Alpha-Radiation does not seem exactly healthy…
So MIKE is interacting with his brain with some radiation/electromagnetic waves? Kind of Brain-WiFi?
You might very well think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment! 😀
‘ll take that as a Yes ^^
There pretty mocu Has to be a wireless link between H. amd M., but only this panel, where we see Haulley’s body, makes that clear.
Brain Wifi is about right, I think.
Brains produce an EM field which can be detected by instruments we already possess.
It’s a short step from detection to manipulation, really, when you’re a super smart AI.
Inconcievable for something as sophisticated as the M1E seems to be NOT to be able to handle somethingt that’s basically just a matter of instrument sensitivity and processing power.
As for radiation, since the unit is not in contact with the subject (although we don’t know the proximity) sooner or later someone might notice a correlation with emissions from the tank and possibly these particle emissions from the colonel’s body, or possibly the colonel’s brain waves themselves and Maybe detect a pattern between the two.
I think this is subtle enough that you need to be actively looking for it in order to find it though,
and I don’t see where anyone in a position to make such a discovery is doing anything more at this point than scratching their heads and saying “WTF is happening?”
Intersting, though, that alpha particles can be stopped by paper. After viewing the strip, the first thing that popped into my head was “Yeah, doc. Give her shit over the radiation. Like your surgical mask is going to do anything”…
Turns out it Would. This is why I like to Read the comments before Writing one.
This is some really tasty food for thought. I have to say I enjoy the discussion as much as the comic itself.
😀
Glad you dug it. It’s always such a balancing act, how much to make explicit. I’m glad I have people willing to read the comic with a critical and imaginative eye!
Why is radiation in this comic contagious? Like it’s some sort of disease?
Not radiation, per se, but radioactive contaminants, which are, in a sense, a contagion. That is to say, they’re damaging, easily spread around in a closed environment, difficult to control, and with a tendency to proliferate.
Dammit Haulley! I’ve told you not to play with Polonium! Now look what you’ve done, you’ve gone and made yourself radioactive!
Of course, maybe it’s not entirely his fault, after all, “friends don’t let friends emit alpha radiation”…
I’m reminded of a line from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, spoken by that famed representative of the most moral and peaceful species of the universe in contempt of 20th century humanity:
“They IRRADIATED their OWN PLANET?!”
Gratuitous ” DAMN, she sure looks good in that uniform and boots !”
Oh, and yeah, radiation bad.
😀
Captain DaCosta is a real favorite of mine, too.
And hes attaining Critical mass in 10….9….8….7….
What could be worse being a particle emitter or just being stuck in that state after reliving a pretty bloody bad damn day in your life thats a hard one to call whose got a coin to flip so we can make a choice or perhaps a burning shrubbery with all the answers?
Lousy day for the Colonel, no doubt about it.
fucking french people
Um… I beg your pardon?
the doctor is french right?