Given the lengths to which I’m going to redo all the artwork for 6-Commando, I thought it might be interesting to see where it all started.  This, aside from some sketches, was the first 6-Commando drawing I ever did.  It’s actually at the bottom of the page, as well, in with all my publishing disclaimers.  Originally Mike was a lot smaller, more like a very heavy conventional tank.  I have no idea how his turret was supposed to traverse with those two sensor masts at the back, and the Sentinel tanks have a much more conventional look, now.  Speaking of which, if you want to Vote To See What Mr. Average Drew This Week, you’re welcome to do so!

This was a very busy and exhausting week for me.  I did a lot of travelling, had meetings with contractors, subcontractors and clients, wrote enough boilerplate to fill a binder – a BIG binder.  I also had the pleasure of seeing one of my oldest, closest friends get his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, and win an honors award for his work in the field, AND have several of his professors tell him he was the most sophisticated and well-rounded psychologist they’ve ever known.  It was extraordinarily well-deserved, and I was thrilled to be able to be there.  It was also, of course, Mothers’ Day in the United States, so I went to see my ma.

Also, on my travels, I happened to have the opportunity to see, first hand, an M60 “Patton” Main Battle Tank at an American Legion post as I was passing through Pennsylvania.  They had it on the lawn.  So I thought what the hell and just went over and took a ton of pictures.  Though I have a very large library of reference photos, it’s rare that I have the opportunity to get such detailed and close-up ones as I did this week; it was really fascinating to be able to approach a subject that closely.

So all in all, an excellent but very worthwhile on all fronts.  And now, I rest.  And don’t forget, next week the guest story begins!  I’m looking forward to it, myself!

All the best! And don’t forget to give the fabulous contributors below some love!

I was going to post one of my silly little minicomics, but on Friday, quite out of the blue, I received this amazing gift by email, and I could not resist sharing it with all of you.  The artist is Shailendra Singh, who in addition to being an urban planner (sound familiar?) is the author and illustrator of a book called Sacrifice, currently up for one of the last-ever Xeric Grants; let me tell you, it’s a shoo-in.  The guy is a total, and I mean TOTAL superstar, and this piece literally blew me away.  I was just getting back from a meeting with a contractor and was sitting down to write a report, and this knocked me right out of my seat.  I had to pace around my apartment for about ten minutes to calm down enough to write back coherently.  Total awesomeness.

Samples from Shailendra’s book, by the way, can be found at his website, which you can reach by clicking the icon to the left.  And he joins the ranks of a shockingly large group of really awesome artists who have gathered to help cover my posterior on this while I pause to edit this baby for print.  I owe Shailendra and everyone else a HUGE debt for this, and his beautiful piece here gives me an awesome segue to begin the really fun part: Plugging Other People’s Work!

If you’re a frequent reader of 6-Commando, you’ll know that I always do my best to cultivate relationships with artists who intimidate me with their amazing skills in writing and drawing, and the following folks are, to me, the cream of the crop in the webcomics and graphic art world at the moment.  They are all working on guest art for 6-Commando’s Season 1 Hiatus, in the form of, (Drumroll please!) a complete guest story arc, which will begin posting here in two weeks! These amazing folks have gone out of their way to help me out, and I hope each of you will return the favor with the thanks, praise, and attention that their own work so richly deserves!  These artists include:

Chris Wrann, Author, Prisoner of War; Author and Illustrator, Aquarium Drinking.  Chris Wrann is the ringleader in all of this, and wrote the script for the guest piece you’re all (hopefully) going to be reading this summer!  He’s also published short stories and writes and draws the weekly comic Aquarium Drinking, a dark comedy about a group of friends and the many ways they find to ruin their own and each others’ lives.  He’s one of the few people in the comics world I’ve been able to talk to personally (we met at WebcomicsCon last fall) and his constant encouragement, as well as his willingness to go out on a limb to write a story for 6-Commando, leaves me greatly indebted to him!

Emily Weber, Author and Illustrator, May The Rain Come. I found Emily’s work on deviantArt.com, and was immediately enthralled by it – her style and storytelling put amazing depth and feeling into her story, far more than most people might expect from one with animal characters.  Her work is only on deviantArt at the moment as far as she’s told me, anyway (I’ve been telling her to get a website and start putting this beauty in print!), but I urge you to give it more than one look – it’s really quite amazing.

Andres “Drezz” Rodriguez, Author and Illustrator, El Cuervo. Drezz gives new meaning to “high contrast.”  His online graphic novel El Cuervo, which is drawn in sharp black and white, is an engrossing crime drama which draws heavily upon classic cinema and film noir, and his artwork is clean and high-style, and clearly quite unique.  El Cuervo is worth more than a quick look – it’s packed with nuance and detail in the art and story alike, and you’ll need more than one reading to take it all in.

Anthony Bourne, Author and Illustrator, Gen-Eg and The Smashed Infants. Tony’s illustrations take comic art in directions I’ve rarely thought possible.  He manages to make the “cartoony” and the “serious” styles meet in a way that I’ve never really seen before.  I can only really aspire to the kind of mastery his work shows, and I place him on a level with the likes of Spiegelman, without a doubt.  I actually met him briefly at NYCC last year, in my Mortal Guise, and the guy is a class act, into the bargain!

Denny Fincke, Animator, Graphic Artist; Author and Illustrator, Twit-Troo of the Moon.  Yet another class act, and another connection I made through NYCC (see a pattern developing here?  O yes!)  Denny is one of those people whose work millions have seen, even if they don’t know it.  An artist for TV shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Venture Brothers, Denny has also turned his pen to webcomics, with Twit Troo of the Moon, a fantastic adventure satire that I love, and I know you will, too!

Aviv Itzcovitz, Designer, Graphic Artist, Author and Illustrator, Stupid Snake, and others.  Aviv is one of the handful of these fine artists I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to in person, if only via the internet.  Based in Israel, Aviv illustrates an ongoing epic comic titled Stupid Snake.  Massive in its scope, hauntingly beautiful and engrossing, a work of pure graphic mastery entirely without words, two volumes of Stupid Snake are already available in print, and I cannot possibly recommend them highly enough!

Jason Brubaker, Animator, Graphic Artist; Author and Illustrator, reMIND. Jason and I “met” through the Flight Forums and started corresponding on all manner of comic-related things on a pretty regular basis.  I occasionally pitch in to help edit his comics-related site makingcomics.com, and his work is by now well known throughout the indie comics scene – and rightfully so!  Jason’s first graphic novel reMIND made a huge splash last year, and he’s now posting new pages weekly as the second part moves towards print.

James Hohenstein, Author and Illustrator, Stymie. James’ comic Stymie is one of the most unique blends of genres I’ve yet seen.  Other people have taken on the task of doing Noir-style stories with animal characters, but for my money, few have managed to execute it as successfully as James has.  His intimate understanding of the visual and storytelling conventions of the film noir, combined with his heavy, moody, cross-hatching style, have made Stymie one of the most striking comics of its kind I have yet seen.

James Francis, 3D and Graphic Artist; Author and Illustrator, Outsider. James is one of the first people I talked to when I went to set up my website for 6-Commando, and it was his early advice that really helped me get off the ground.  If you read his online comic Outsider, a slick, epic, golden age space opera, you’ll see quite clearly that I owe a great deal of my inspiration to his sharp linework and cel-shaded coloring style.  And his comic has hot blue warrior women in outer space, so what’s NOT to like?

Joost Haakman, Graphic Artist; Author and Illustrator, Semmie the Forest Gnome. Joost, by this point, needs no introduction.  Hell, he’s a character in the story now, for goodness’ sake!  Joost and I connected through the Flight Forums a long time back, and he and we’ve kept in contact ever since.  His book Semmie the Forest Gnome is a personal favorite of mine, and he’s even done some very lovely pieces of guest art here in the past, as well!  His book is now available in print (in hardcover, no less!) and I personally recommend it to everyone!

Tazio Bettin, Comic Artist, Graphic Artist; Co-Author and Illustrator, Rufus, Bren Gattonero, and others.  Based in Padova, Italy, Tazio Bettin is an artist of a level of skill that even the slickest professionals have reason to envy.  I can’t really say anything about it but that you have to see it for yourself.  Really.  Linework, coloring, shading, the whole nine yards – the guy knows his business.  He’s currently working on one or two short comics, but believe me, he’s a talent to watch, and no mistake.

Peter Hon, Animator, Graphic Artist; Author and Illustrator, Malden. Peter Hon is an artist who understands the allure of the bizarre.  His comic Malden draws on his own everyday experiences and mixes them with an underground comix sensibility (and a hearty admixture of street art, anime, and dozens of other influences) to produce a twisted, seductive and unmistakably unique work of art.  I have no idea what’s going on in Malden, but it is so perfectly paced and masterfully drawn that I just can’t take my eyes off it.

Matt Fitzwater, Illustrator, Made In USA. I have been a HUGE fan of Matt Fitzwater’s work on Made In USA, right from the very start.  A war story of a kindred spirit to 6-Commando (I won’t say how – just read it!) Matt’s line and ink work, if you can believe it, is done entirely by hand!  Simply amazing.  I’ve mentioned his work on the blog before, and with good reason.  I do not lie when I say that I covet his level of artistic skill, and I am certain that you’ll all agree that Made In USA is a work of pure artistic brilliance.

Tiffany McLeod, Painter, Digital Artist; Author and Illustrator, Crystal Dream. Tiffany’s work draws heavily on Manga influences, but it is by no means that – she has turned her style into something totally unique.  Her use of light and shadow and her ability to convey enormous depths of emotion with incredible economy of linework belies her self-description as a “hobbyist.”  I could hardly believe it when I found out that Crystal Dream was her first full work – I only wish I’d been as capable when I started 6-Commando!

So that’s the team!  Are you as excited as I am to see this?!  You better believe it.  But does this mean I’m just putting my feet up?  No way!  As a matter of fact, I rode this week’s high, which shattered my previous highs for readership, and plowed the energy into one of the most difficult parts of the revision, first thing: rewriting the opening scene.  Not drastically, just… Sarah seemed so passive, and she got captured so easily, and… well, if you want to, you can check a little feature I’m calling Vote To See What Mr. Average Drew This Week!  I think you know how it works.

So.  Here we are then!  Hope you stuck through this enormously long post this week, and know that there’s a lot of good stuff left to see while 6-Commando is on hiatus!  Until next week, folks!

Well, there it is, folks, the finale of Season 1 of 6-Commando.  I have to say, I was really surprised and kind of pleased with how the Russian Kill-bots turned out.  I’ve been drawing them every which way for about a year now, and I think they finally came out right.  I had particular fun distressing the armor and the paint, to make them look battle-worn.  Ahh, yes, what a pleasure to finish out a successful first season with a page that was pure joy to draw, from start to finish.

And to everyone here, I have to say I owe you a HUGE debt of gratitude for watching this long.  This is a major milestone for me, getting to the end of the first book, and your feedback, encouragement, suggestions and critiques have really helped me develop an enormous amount.  I couldn’t be happier with where this story is going, or with how far it’s come in the last three years.

Now although the first “Season” as I’m calling it (admittedly, in a quixotically hopeful way) is over, it is not, as it were, done with.  And my project from now until the end of the summer is to go back to the start and digitally remaster the whole thing.  Which is, let me tell you, a rather titanic job.  But I’m determined to do it, and do it right.  Mike won’t let me do it any other way.

So while I’m doing that, do we go into reruns?  Not really, as a mater of fact.  First up, I have some extras for you that will start next week.  Yes!  Extras!  WhatEVER can they be?  Tune in next week to see.  And then, after that, there will come Guest Art.  O yes.  But I won’t wreck that for you just yet.  But is shall be awesome, mark my words.  Not to be missed.

And after that, if time still is not on my side, I’ll begin showing you bits of the “Special Edition” version of 6-Commando as I work to get it done.

And then, we’ll start Chapter 4.

So the weekly updates will be continuing – the site will not lag, I promise.  But for now, I will just sit back and enjoy a proper end to part 1 of my first graphic novel.

Ahh.

See you all next week, folks!

Almost there, folks.  Next week is the Season Finale, so get ready!  After THAT, that’s when the fun REALLY starts!

As for me, well, I’m already up to my wrists in unedited artwork, and trying to figure out what to do with it all.  It’s a very large task, what I’m trying to do, and I admit I’ve had a lot of advice from a number of different quarters that I shouldn’t even bother and just leave it as it is.  But something in me is just not satisfied with that, and so with vast reluctance, after next week’s finale, I will be diving fully into the process of revising everything for print.  I’m repeating this more for my benefit than yours, I admit, because as with anything the process of revision is such an unpleasant one for an author that it takes a lot of psyching-up to get me into it.  And speaking of which:

Yes, another two-pager, this panoramic view, as it was meant to be!

So, with the first season coming to a close, the question is “But what about the weekly 6-Commando updates?”  Well, in the next two weeks I’ll describe in full detail what the plan there is, but I do intend to continue updating every week, with SOMETHING, at least.  There’s some really cool stuff coming on the front end, and after that, at the very least I’ll do something akin to a relaunch, perhaps – show off some of the revised artwork, to (hopefully) drum up some support for the print edition.

About the print edition, by the way, may not be ready by NYCC, I’m afraid.  I’ve assessed my time constraints and it simply might not be an attainable goal at this point when you chop sixty days off the end of it for a print turnaround.  I’m still going to bend every effort, though – I just want to put that in the mix on the front end, because with all this expended effort, I’m not going to rush things for the sake of a print date at this point.  However, as most readers don’t seem to be in the New York area anyway, I’m not terribly distressed about that.  Interestingly, this week marked the first time readership in Germany exceeded that in Canada!  How 6-Commando got so popular in Germany, I don’t know, but you folks were number two behind the United States this week, according to Google, with Canada, the UK, and Australia filling out the top five.

But I digress.  About printing.  I’m finishing a survey of my final options vis-à-vis the ultimate form that this will take.  The working title is “6-Commando, Season 1″ and I’m looking into a Kickstarter campaign as a means of gauging interest and figuring out what kind of quality I can afford to pack into this.  The Ogre campaign by Steve Jackson Games is the model I’m following, to wit: this book will be available no matter what; it simply remains to be seen how awesome I will be able to make it.  With no support, it will be print on demand, perfect-bound, with updated artwork and some modest commentary by me.  With support, I may be able to afford extras like process or offset printing, better binding, additional content such as essays and sketchbook material, or even hardcover.  I need to get a reasonable assessment on what levels of financial support at which I would be able to do these things, and I’m already working on an animatic Hollywood-style 6-Commando trailer (ha!) for advertising purposes.  So please keep your eyes on the page here and keep spreading the word about this comic to your friends.  And remember that whatever happens, even if the Kickstarter thing fizzles, this book is happening, and then more 6-Commando will follow, right here, as always.  This, I COMMAND!

Anyhow, that’s enough out of me for one week.  Tune in next time for the Season Finale!

Page one-hundred-ten… TWO left to go!  Is the suspense killing you?  IS it?  I hope so.  I do TRY to make it suspenseful, without overdoing it.

I was really glad to have another exterior scene to finish out the chapter – although I like the claustrophobic effect the interiors in Command Post Alpha have (and the irony of calling this massive Maginot Line-style subterranean base a “command post”) the exteriors are very evocative, as well, and a final shot like this is just what the doctor ordered.  Incidentally, the soundtrack for this closing scene, if I were directing a movie, would be “Harry to the Hospital” by Riyuichi Sakamoto, and it would probably have had one of those Sam Raimi fly-by-wire shots that runs along the telephone cable to get us up to the surface.  But, well… we can’t all be Frank Miller and turn our tendentious comic books into heavily-stylized movies, can we?  So for now, I’ll go with this.

By the way, I just had to add in a visual homage this week, in honor of the fantabulous news that my favorite boardgame of all time, Ogre, is being reprinted in a fabulous deluxe edition, to be released this November, rather around the same time I’m aiming to release the first volume of 6-Commando.  It’s also being partially supported by means of a Kickstarter campaign, to fund the addition of extra material and parts for the game, like I’m thinking about doing for 6-Commando, to see if a hardcover “director’s cut” is manageable.  So this is really a thrill to watch for those reasons, as well as to look forward to.  But beyond that, I have to say that game-playing, the way we did it when I was a kid, anyhow, is much misunderstood, I believe; it’s a far more valuable activity than many people think.  It teaches strategic thinking, problem-solving skills, communication skills, hones personal interaction and the ability to see things from others’ perspective, and most importantly, it encourages imagination and an active mind in a way that television does not.  I spent many happy hours with friends playing Ogre when I was younger, friends who I’m still very close with today, and though some people may not have known it at the time, especially me, it was this much-maligned “geeky” activity which developed in me a deep respect for the value of intellectual pursuits for both my work and my recreation.  This been my greatest asset in both my private life and my professional career, and this has allowed me to find my way to making a living doing what I love to do rather than dreading my work and living for the weekend.  So to me, it’s particularly gratifying to see this game returning at last.  It may seem like I’m getting overly sappy over a science fiction boardgame, but believe me, it represents a lot to me.

And Ogre, of course, on a more mundane note, DID introduce me to science fiction, and also to giant tanks like the eponymous Ogres, Laumer’s BOLOs, Welles’ Land Ironclads, and all the others, which have been such grist for the 6-Commando mill.  And I don’t know if Steve Jackson has ever seen this page, but he can rest assured that there’s going to be a copy of 6-Commando with his name on it for that.

Anyway, enough of my nonsense for this week.  I will, however, mention that the last two pages are the new voting incentive at topwebcomics.com, if you want to have a look at them.  Other than that I’ll just shut up and let you get back to your regularly scheduled silliness.  Until next week, be well, folks!

Happy Easter, everyone.  Not to be strident about it, but Easter is a big deal for me, and as I type this, I’m finishing this week’s page at my remote location, where I’ve enjoyed a very nice holiday with my family.

I’m also rather worn down at the moment, I’m afraid, so I can’t think of anything really sophisticated to say.  I’m sure I’ll come up with something later, but for right now, I’m just going to post and run.  All the best, folks!

Lieutenant Colonel Zaballa, please pick up the Gold Retrophone.  No, the GOLD Retrophone.

This is one of those “talking head” pages we all dread, but I did my best to make it interesting.  And although the segue is a bit of a cliché, I do hope you’ll forgive me – I couldn’t resist.  As for drawing this page, it actually went remarkably smoothly compared to last week, even when I found at the last minute that I had to put in more backgrounding to avoid that “lonely” look I so greatly fear in comics.  But anyway.

The end of the chapter is now a mere four pages away!  Can you stand it?  Can you STAND it?   I can’t.  I’m basically freaking out, because I’ve seen some of the guest art that’s coming up when this baby finishes, and it is so totally awesome that I basically had a whole freak-out session when I saw it.  And so although we’re going on an end-of-season hiatus for the spring and summer, let me just tell you that it is still going to be one hell of a lot of fun for you all.  I’m seriously.

In the meantime, I’ve gone ahead and posted the next two-page spread (last week and the week before) over on topwebcomics.com, and I have to say, for all the trials and tribulations of getting my act together on that, it’s one of my better spreads.  So pop on over, cast a vote, and see it in all its glory!

And other than that, I’m just going to take out the garbage and go to bed, like I always do.  And so I’ll just be seeing you all next week!  Be well, folks!

I almost didn’t make it, this week, but I persevered and worked like hell, and although there are some probably-invsible-to-everyone-but-me things going on with this page, I’m quite happy with the outcome.  The biggest thing, was that I worked from a far rougher sketch than I normally do when I inked the page – let this be a lesson to all aspiring cartoonists out there: if you’re used to working from a clean sketch, don’t cut corners!  I envy those artists who just always seem to get it right the first time.

Anyhow, I am beat, and it’s late, and so I’m cutting this short.  I’ll update later, I’m sure, just for the sake of doing so, but if I don’t, be well and have a good week everyone!

OOO!  Profanity!  Hope you aren’t scandalized.  But I do call this PG-13, so…

Anyhow, this week is your first glimpse of CONASUR military hardware, which I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know is every bit as effective as that possessed by the UNA and FSR, and is actually in some respects superior.  They also have camouflage, which I can tell right now is going to get to be a total pain to draw later, but it looked so good I couldn’t help it.

And speaking of things that are a pain to draw, let me tell you that chain-link fence, though it makes for fantastic set pieces, is a ROYAL hassle to draw, especially in perspective – it’s one of the things that I’ve never been able to make into a convincing pattern, and therefore simply find myself drawing raw every time I have to use it.  Or want to use it, like here.  It livens up an otherwise “lonely” scene.

ANNNNyway, this week was super-spectacular for me, because I got some really positive responses to my request for guest artwork for the post-Chapter 3 lull, and every one of them was from an artist who is so intimidatingly excellent that I can hardly contain my excitement.  To all of you, my heartfelt thanks, and know that I’ll be contacting you very soon.  And to everyone else, this hiatus is going to promise some work from some of the hottest artists and writers I’ve ever met.  It is going to be really cool.  And so hopefully it will cushion the blow of 6-Commando’s “summer vacation.”

But we aren’t there yet, so don’t get to panicking right away.  In the meantime, there’s this week’s page, and now I better get some sleep.  I’m sure there was something else I wanted to tell you, but I can’t remember it now, so…

Have a good week everyone.  See you next time!

UPDATE: By the way, someone sent me an email this morning telling me 6-Commando was nominated (among over a hundred others) for something called ComicMix March Madness, and asking if I knew what that was.  I didn’t, and never heard of ComicMix before now, but, well, It looks interesting and I’m glad someone put my comic up for something!  So, basically, you go there and vote for all the comics you like and it turns into some kind of competition.  The deadline for the first round of voting is… okay, looks like about four hours from now, so we missed the boat on this one, but you can still squeeze one in if you like.  I only mention it because it happened to come up in my inbox this morning, and I never knew what it was before.  I’ll watch it though, and see what happens.  Interesting that someone put this comic in the bin, though, isn’t it?

Yeah, so, when I think about this page in isolation, it even confuses me a little bit.  But this scene has been part of the story for so long, and is so much a part of the greater flow of things now, that I’m setting my teeth and running with it.  I know you all probably weren’t really expecting a military comic to get abstract and experimental quite to this extent, but, well, I’m glad you’re sticking with it, anyway!

And the chapter isn’t over yet!  You probably noticed I’ve long since gone over my semi-typical 32-page mark for this chapter – it being the end of the first book, it needs a bit of a coda to tie the chapter up, so stay tuned!  After that, though… well, we’ll deal with that when we get there.  But suffice it to say that, though the “season” will be over for 6-Commando, the site will by no means be going down, and some really cool things are coming up for the interim to keep you all interested.  I’m really really excited about some of them, too, but it’s too early to announce it all for certain.  Just know that, at the far side, I’ll have a book for you, and I’m already laboring as hard as I can to make it the best book I can!

And as I’m sure you can tell from the icon here, the next two-page spread is the new voting incentive on topwebcomics.com (or at least, it will be very shortly).  Like last week, it has lots of little tweaks and changes I made, corrections to the pages.  Make your own comparisons and maybe you’ll see what I mean when I say the book needs editing before it goes to print!  ANd last week, 6-Commando went from #165 to #109 in a single day.  Still, I pursue these meaningless ranks.  I guess I’ve fallen into the trap.  But visibility is good, you know!

Oh, also, to everyone whose prizes from 6-Commando Poker were still not sent, I put the last of them in the mail first thing Saturday morning, so look for them soon!

And of course, finally, any artists out there interested in doing a little 6-Commando guest work during the upcoming hiatus, by all means contact me!  And to those who already have done so, I’m super-duper thrilled right out of my brain – the support is deeply appreciated and almost overwhelming to me, the number of people who have told me they’ll chip in!  I’m blown away.

Well, anyhow, we in the United States went on Daylight Savings Time today, where we lose an hour of sleep, so I’m all out of whack.  So I’ll just call it, here, and get to bed.  So, until next week, be well, and thanks for all the support, everyone!