This week’s amazing contribution is the work of James Hohenstein, the author and artist of the crime drama Stymie. Noir-style stories using anthropomorphic characters have been tried in comics and animation before, but rarely with the kind of thorough understanding of actual film noir and its nuances that James brings to his work. Now, granted, being a huge fan of film noir, I may be biased, but for my money Stymie is one of the most genuinely sophisticated dramas in the world of webcomics at the moment. He has the ability to zero in on exactly the right mood and moment in his scenework and realize it in detail that seems so effortless while it’s simultaneously so beautifully constructed. Stymie is a real hidden treasure, and I strongly recommend that you all check it out.
As for me, this week I had a little time off around Independence Day. Unfortunately for the comic, but fortunately for me, this gave me some time to take care of some rather pressing tasks that I’ve been putting off, and also to find some time to visit friends and family I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. I also tackled a set of pages that I’ve been really hesitating about – pages that, in point of fact, nobody has ever seen before, except me. I was of half a mind not to show you the progress this week as a sales gimmick but then I thought what the hell, so you can go ahead and vote to see one of them up now. The whole spread is going to take another few days I think, but still, it’s fun to know that even what you’ve already read can have some surprises left in it.
I also spent some time going through still more paperwork and associated nonsense for my architectural licensing. If any of you are in licensed professions, you know just how irritating it is to try to work your way into a cartel that has a huge incentive to keep you out of it and throws up arbitrary barriers to your advancement. If you aren’t in a licensed profession, and you want to know what this is like, this ought to give you a fairly good idea:
I’ve also been doing some site work to tighten up some loose ends in the code here, and also doing some thinking and planning about what the next step in the 6-Commando project is going to be. I don’t want to get into this in enormous detail at the moment since I’d rather focus on the work at hand, but I am trying to think of how best to proceed at the end of the summer. But more on that later. For now, I’m off to bed, and all that. Have a good week, folks!
Hmmm using a butane torch to try and cut an access through MIKE’s hull…that’s like trying to cut down a redwood with a table knife.
He doesn’t know, apparently, that not only is Mike’s hull several feet thick, but it’s designed to withstand the heat of a fission bomb. A torch will get him nowhere.
–M
Actually, I’d say it was more like trying to cut down a redwood with a herring. Even if this guy didn’t know Mike’s technical specs, the doofus should have at least a little common sense.
At this point, if I were him, I’d be wondering why the Rumbler’s ‘Crew’ hadn’t done anything up to this point, since they do seem to be under the impression that a Rumbler is a crewed vehicle.
Excellent! Providing more fodder for the collateral damage machine. Yeah, like the UNA will care…
>>> New page (vote incentive): I like the helmet and light suit design. The only thing I don’t get is why a GEV would have a rotatable turret instead of moveable hardpoints. I guess a turret would frakk-up aerodynamics quite a bit. but I guess it’s the “because it looks cooler that way”-school of aerodynamics which is 100% okay with me.
Good luck on your license. Yours truly received his master craftsmen certificate in safety and security services two days ago. It’s been a long and tiresome road. I know how you feel. :/
1) Yes, the UNA is pretty belligerent. Chris did a good job writing that part of it, which I mainly leave in subtext. As for this page, this is really among the best Mike renderings I’ve yet seen – James really outdid himself!
2) The Howlers are an odd middle ground between an aircraft and a ground vehicle, so I drew them as a kind of a hybrid jet-tank. Which means, yeah, I figured if it looked cool, the engineers could find a way to make it work. The turret is actually useful, in that this thing can make fast, high-G maneuvers and vector thrust in all directions while holding a bead on their target with an electrically-powered turret. I’d think that would be a real advantage. In a dogfight with a Sukhoi fighter-bomber or a MiG, this thing would lose out big time, though – which is why the UNA still has conventional air forces.
–M
Seems like Howlers are the 6-Commando version of gunship helicopters?
Another great page! Is this the half way mark? I also loved the Fleisher Animation. They really new how to do it back then.
Didn’t they? I especially like the little backhanded jibe at Mickey Mouse. The satire was pretty sharp in these.
–M