UPDATE/NOTICE:
Hey, folks, this is Mr. Average. It looks as though we’re having a repeat of last year’s hurricane situation. It’s forecast to pass about three hundred miles south of me here in New England, but I’ve lived through a LOT of hurricanes in my time (including Katrina, Wilma, Charlie, and Irene, all of which were pretty crucial), and so although I’m not panicking, I can say from experience that we’re very likely to lose power, transport, internet, and so on up here. I also live near the coast, and there’s a storm surge predicted. I will not in all likelihood be ordered out since I’m supposedly on high ground.
But all this is by way of saying that I’m hunkering down for a big storm here, and so if updates are sporadic, or fail to happen, I place responsibility squarely at the feet of mother nature. Hopefully I’ll get the next page up tonight (I’ve battened down the hatches, so there’s not much ELSE for me to do but draw while I wait), but I just wanted to issue a “heads up.”
Ah! Yes, I’m back in business after a very eventful week, one which included a very extensive visit to the New York Comic Convention and some very long days in the proverbial “studio” (the REAL studio, where I design buildings), topped off by a very wet and miserable day on a jobsite on Friday. Let me tell you, you don’t know mud until you’re up to your shins in it in the middle of a torrential downpour. But the show must go on!
So! The New York Comic Convention! This year I think I was far more able to enjoy it on its own merits, since I wasn’t making a huge attempt to do a bunch of promoting, which, let me tell you all from some years’ experience, is a fool’s errand. To all you would-be webcomics creators out there, take my advice: you simply do not get new readers from walking around a convention floor. However, you DO get the chance to meet new and interesting people in the trade, and that is why I keep going to NYCC.
The out-and-out leading highlight this year was a little shindig at Denny Fincke’s Artist’s Alley table, where a good crowd of fandom, including long-time 6-Commando booster and cartoonist/writer Christopher Wrann, gathered to talk shop and meet our small but adoring public. Also awesome was meeting and chatting with Jordan Kotzebue, creator of the comic Hominids, and a truly fine human being, belying the web cartoonists’ reputation for snarky standoffishness, and S.M. Vidaurri, whose new book Iron, or The War After is one of the most gorgeous traditionally-watercolored books you could ever want to see. I also got to speak with the Joe Staton, the current illustrator of Dick Tracy, which has long been my favorite comic ever-EVER, since the days of Chester Gould. And of course, as I mentioned last week, I had the privilege of hosting Jason Brubaker, who came out to the East Coast to go to the convention. Showing him around New York City was a lot of fun, mainly because I rarely have the chance to see the city from the standpoint of just enjoying it for its own sake. It’s where I work and (to an extent) where I live, and so it’s easy to become jaded about it. But New York is a really amazing city in its own right, and it was a really great chance to just kind of take it in on its own terms for a change, without having to rush from one place to another.
So then, I had a long work week, during which I realized that between NYCC and such I’ve basically blown my four-week lead down to one week, so I guess it’s back to panicking about my comic every weekend. But that’s the way I likes it.
At any rate, we’re back up to normal here at the Central Committee. Thanks to EVERYONE who’s been commenting – last week was a GREAT one for discussion! For now, I’m off to bed – with another big week ahead of me, how could I do otherwise?
See you next week!
Nice to see how things goes outside the bunker, I’ve always found interesting to see things from different point of view, even from the “bad guys” point of view.
Also, the russian officer with glasses is not very familiar with english speaking : “You should have evacuated with THE THE third wave”
Anyway, thanks for your work that help me begin every week with a smile, monday morning is a lot better with 6-commando 😉
I don’t really think we should label the FSR or their characters as the “bad guys”. The story so far is far from the black-and-white-sheme yet and it remains to be seen what the >real< story is.
I think the conflict between two waring super-blocks is only the setting for a far more complex plot.
A running theme I’m exploring is the “fog of war,” which is to say, the inability we all tend to have to see things from our enemies’ point of view. It’s one of the biggest barriers to be overcome in international relations, but also in relations between people, and can even occur in situations where we find ourselves trying to do good to others, often without considering whether they want us to or not.
Anyway, good catch on the superfluous “the.” You axed me, so I do’d it.
–M
I know there is a clture of total war, with the UNA beleiving that if a job is worth doing, its worth doing with massive over use of force, but… If that ZSU in the background is protecting an evacuation zone, that suggests the FSR expect them to be bombing and strafing the civilans, which in turn suggests that they at least beleive that the UNA take the stance “Its only a Warcrime if you lose the war” and “When the enemy slaughters civilians its an atrocity, but when we slaughter civilians its ‘ Tragic, but unavoidable collateral damage”
*cough cough notUNAinpreviouspage cough*
😉
–M
After atomics have been used I take it noone really give a damn about military and non-military targets anymore.
Nuclear war and the mutual assured destruction policy was – in it’s very own essence – a calculated genocide of the opposing side’s civilian population. Noone really put it that way, but if you take into consideration that any western or eastern European town with a hospital was a strategic target for one or possibly several high yield warheads I fail to reason it otherwise.
And yeah, of course the evil enemy with a total disregard of human life (especially for his own people’s) knowingly placed military targets next or right into civilian population centres to protect them by human shields.
I think we hear that excuse at least every 5 years or so once our glorious leaders decide to humanitarian bomb another undesirable government into oblivion (Iraq I, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Afgahnistan, Iraq II, Lybia, the list goes on and on).
The nukes were targeted against military and industrial installations. Just because those installations were located in or near major population centers is pure coincidence and it would be barbaric to suggest otherwise.
…If only that were true.
Just about any population center is a “countervalue” target. That would be one of the most extreme forms of nuclear war, a strike against enemy citizens. Below that is a “counterforce” exchange, targeting what Kahn called “warmaking abilities;” this would still necessarily involve heavy collateral damage, and many millions of deaths. And actually it was considered a legitimate strategy to place military targets in urban areas, both as a sign of resolve, and as a way of deterring the enemy, since it would compel a high-escalation conflict they might not be willing to fight.
–M
Here’s where I jump in with the counterpoint.
This may shock you, but I think this is the first DEFCON reference in this comic ever, EVER. Which is pretty amazing, considering.
That just gave me an idea – we should have a 6-Command DEFCON game night sometime.
–M
Oooo, I would be down for that. I haven’t played Defcon in ages.
So, an FSR officer looking for his girl in the middle of a war? Now where have I seen that before? 😉
Hmmm… I do wonder…
😉
–M
Honestly you guys lost me there.
Alexei reminds me somewhat of Rucker. Both missing the bigger picture for their girls.
Anyone else noticed the (targeting?) laser cutting the nighttime sky in the top left corner?
Now… is this just winter snowfall or ashes from the nuclear fall-out? I don’t think it was ever mentioned what time of the year it was in the 6-Commando universe. Only the year of 1997.
We’ll see.
Characters are as always superb. Only thing which looks odd is the soldier running or jumpng of the T-tank in the 2nd mini-panel. Looks out of place, but maybe that’s just me. Nice work on the Shilka (which is actually my favourite piece of Soviet military engineering).
Anyone able to ID the rank of Alexei? Or what part of service he’s in? Militia? Police? Security Bureau?
I’m going to go with it being snow. It is packed up on the tire like a certain type of snow, there being several types. Wet snow doesn’t stick to the tires. Second, everyone is bundled up as if it were cold. I assume the military would have special uniforms to wear in case of fall out. I have one just for chemical warfare with carbon linings. No face filters for dust or fall out. On the other hand, there is no build up of material on the cars or people. nit picking is sooo much easier that do the actual work, huh? 🙂
I would assume Alexei is either the Militia or the FSR’s version of GRU.
The “laser”, I’m afraid, is the back half of a crashing plane’s flame trail. This whole scene looks much better at print resolution, and I actually had to cut a lot of detail to make it read cleanly online. The limits of the medium, I guess…
–M
To quote Red Dawn,
“Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they’re gonna fight. “
Oh, 80’s movies. Is there anything they CAN’T do?
–M
If this was a movie, the parody of the current chapter and the action so far would be done on YouTube with the Benny Hill theme dubbed over it.
I fully expect Mike to scream “WOLVERINES!!!!” at some point
You jest, but don’t put it past me!
–M
I’m kinda digging the medievac mil-14 analogue with the rear cargo doors, though it also reminds me of the mil-2/w-3 Sokol in some ways as well. Either way it gets an official Neat-O!
Also, the laser in the main panel (like Ulrich mentioned) designator or AA? Or do we wait and see?
Yeah, it’s basically a “Hip” helicopter with a cargo space modified to be more like a Chinook. But it’s pretty much a straight Soviet analogue. Reference material is so abundant it makes them very easy to draw.
–M
Mathieu – these pages are beautiful!
Thanks, Denny! They were fun to draw. I found myself making sound effects for everything as I drew it, like I was five years old again, which to me is a good sign that it’s an enjoyable drawing.
–M
What is that guy in panel two aiming his RPG at?
Something that’s at a proper angle so that from our perspective we can tell he’s carrying an RPG.
😀
–M
Did I miss something? Have we seen Alexei before or is this a new character?
Attacking qnd killing civilians started really in the Second World War. Notoriously so. It continues today. A nasty way is that the entire world is a potential Kill Zone. Whether with bombs, drones or commando/terrorist acts. No one can ignore it for long. Which is a good thing but it doesn’t seem to stop those who want to wage war.
Can’t wait for your next update 🙂