So after I went and got all self-satisfied for being ahead for the week with the pages, God struck me down for my hubris by catching me out in a freezing rainstorm, so now I have some kind of incipient chest cold. And I have been advised by my physician to be very careful about that since I had pneumonia two years ago, and that’s the kind of thing where a relapse is likely to be very bad. So I am, largely against my will, taking it easy for a couple of days in the hopes that this will pass me over rather quickly. Still, though. What a bummer, man. And my neighbors downstairs must be keeping their apartment at like 90 Fahrenheit, because it is way too hot in my studio. Honestly, it was like 60 degrees outside today and they had the heat pumping like they were prisoners on the Ice Planet. Gad!
But enough of my nonsense – here’s a page! Yes! I’m finally getting a few steps ahead on this project, to the point where I’m actually able to complete two to three pages a week. Not when I’m SICK, mind you, but under normal conditions. I still plan to update once a week for the foreseeable future, since after I complete this chapter I have to finish all the editing for the next one, a task for which I have set the not-wholly-arbitrary deadline of April 30, 2012. At any rate, this week is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, a holiday people in the US are apt to get pretty crunchy about, but nevertheless, I wish you all a very good one, whatever nation you are in. I’ve had a very good year all things considered, and I have a lot to be grateful for – and all of you reading my comic every week is a big part of it. So, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
All the best.
Yep, it has officially hit the fan!
It? You mean Mike’s protein-wetware data gel? 😉
…yes.
–M
Now he’s going all HAL 9000 on them.
Ha! Keep your space helmet on and stay away from the Emergency Airlock!
–M
“Wha, Mike, why are you… OH SHI-”
*This phone line is now out of service, please try again later*
There was an episode of Star Trek way back when (TNG, it was, now I recall) where one of the minor characters hooked himself up to the ship’s computer, and the computer started speaking with his voice. When I saw that at age whatever-I-was-back-then, I found that incredibly creepy. This was an attempt to evoke something similar.
–M
Ooh, now that’s creepy. Very nice job on his facial expressions!
😀
I was looking at my older pages, like from early in Chapter 2 etc., and i really have gone a long way off where the style originally was. There’s a LOT more subtlety in the faces now. This is my first attempt at a really fully-realised comic and so I guess that some drift was bound to happen in the artwork, but if I could have done it all over I’d really have planned it all out MUCH more carefully from the very start. Fact is, I never expected so much response from people – I expected this to be pretty much just me.
Shows how much I know.
–M
You have a sapient A.I. for a multi-ton war machine, and it seems…annoyed. If Mike decide to/can upload ‘himself’ into a new chassis, you may be in for a new world of hurt.
I don’t think he can move chassis without having a phsyical “transplant”, given the nature of his brain bucket, although it IS highly plausible for him to hack a wifi network and then extend that to giving himself a “remote” of a smaller chassis (such as a humvee or a tank-of-the-line)
A remotly controllen “Chassis” may not be the wise idea… It has a lot of limitation of use outside the base. And within the base he would need no tank or humvee.
Getting in control of door locks and aironditioning systems would be a lot more… effective. Especially if he can secure his connection point from being physsically removed.
What makes me wonder is, why did MIKE deside he’s being lied to. Did his search for Zabola’s file happen to unlock some more data on “the Projaect”?
And why would he contact Rucker first? Is he planning a mutiny or a runaway?
Mike ran a “vocal stress analysis” on Col. Haulley (as seen here => http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/?p=765) which probably uncovered Haulley lying to Mike or trying to stall him.
No why would a Rumbler need a vocal stress analyiser?
regarging a remote chassis – the hazard-armor suits would make a good remote platform, especially a Medic armor, which has better manipulators than a combat armor, and they have a fully independent locomotion system, because they are sufficiently cumbersome that they would have to use fully-enhanced motion of the operator, so if Mike has undrstanding of walking-patterns, he could easily coopt one if it has the proper electronics package to tap into
Mike is certainly following his own agenda, just like everyone else. I wish I could comment on all these posts but (a) I’m a but under the weather; and (b) I fear I’ll end up divulging something by accident. So at the moment, let me just answer with a resounding “MAYBE!” 😉
–M
I really enjoy how you are able to make each spread a miniature story with it’s own cliffhanger. You have a real talent for generating interest in each page. As I mentioned to you once before: You have a real page-turner here. Hope you feel better…
Thanks for the good wishes, man. It’s teetering on the edge at the moment but with a few days’ rest I’m sure I’ll recover. And I’m glad you like the layouts – some day soon I hope I’ll be able to post two pages a week instead of just one, since I know what a drag it is waiting so long between updates. But I try to keep everyone into it as much as I can!
–M
Oh $#!^ !! This is bad – so very bad!
Oh, Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Your art is top notch – thanks a lot for sharing your comic with us!
Glad you like it!
–M
Ooh, this is clever. We can’t tell if Mike just killed ’em or cut communications.
Or maybe he did BOTH. 😉
–M
Nah, Mike just swung his gun into thier heads and knocked them out.
“Colonel, something’s wrong! Mike never liked baseball before!”
GO MIKE! GO MIKE! RESCUE THE GIRL AGAIN!
😀
Everyone likes Mike.
–M
Well at least his main cannon is out of commission…
His laser, too. Small favors – but he did drag himself through a radioactive wasteland after several atomic blasts, so…
–M
I really like what you have done with Mike it is nice to see Mike with what is almost a human intelligance or maybe he has a human intelligance O.o. Either way I really look forward to the next page.
Also I hope Sarah survives she is my favourite character out of the whole comic, plus she is one hard girl to go through all she has.
I’m glad you like them all! I like all my characters, too – Sarah is one of my favorites as well. As to what happens to them, well… have to wait and see. But I’m gad you find them engaging and I hope you keep reading!
–M
Cue the colonel asking for his brown pants.
Or, as a great man once said, “Gotcha!” 🙂