Season 2 Starts In… TWO Weeks!
It’s getting really hard to find teasers that don’t give too much away, and after a certain point I have to show sketchwork instead of the actual page parts. But rest assured that things continue to progress!
This weekend I was traveling, though. Went to a wedding for two very good friends of mine from years back. They’re from Iran, as a matter of fact, followers of Baha’i and therefore a persecuted minority in that country. The groom’s father was kidnapped thirty years ago during the Islamic Revolution, and has never been heard from since; his uncle and several of his cousins and friends are currently prisoners of conscience in Iran. The bride’s parents were both prohibited from traveling to the United States for the wedding by the Iranian government. Both of them are practically persona non grata in their homeland. It was rather shocking, actually – religious liberty is the first and most essential of the protected rights of United States citizens, and one we’re most inclined to take for granted. The vast majority of the rest of the world doesn’t have that luxury, and I hadn’t truly understood the genuine extent of religious persecution in Iran or its effect upon my friends. And yet, the celebration was one of the happiest (and most raucous) events I’ve ever attended. And although I know they still love Iran and hope to return there someday, my personal hope is that they’ll be able to make a good and happy life in the United States, because we need good people like them here now more than ever. God bless both of you!
So, we’re still moving forward, here. October gets ever closer. Soon, folks, soon!
Is the sketch showing people taking refuge in Moscow petropoliten (subway)? The biggest bemb shelter in the world. 🙂
Oh I wish I could show you the actuall stuff that IS there to make it still working shelter even from a nuke bombings. Like air compressors at every entrance (exept for stations that are surfaced) that blow the dust away, as you enter the station.
Or heavy doors, ready to lock sattion entrances in 2 minutes after alert is sounded…
And those are just visible ones… Anyone can notice them… and godknow how much other stuff is operating in depth of it… Really a marver of architecture. And it is still running with little maintenance it is receaving after Soviet Union is gone…
Also I am glad for your friend. It is always good to see good people marrying each other. I hope their family will be a happy and long-running.
And for freedom of Faith… We are still enjoing it in Russia… An echo from Soviet times. Because Soviet propaganda told that any religion is a nonsence. So all religions were the same. But (as with everything else actually) Soviets taught not to hurt the ones that are diffirent, but to pity them.
Unfortunatelly that is fading already. So currently we have quite a few struggles on national, religious, or other social matters. And I just hope we are not running into another civil war here… though there are more amd more talks about it lately… 🙁
Good guess, but it’s a street scene. The costumes gave away the locale, however. I would of course love to see Russia some day. I was recently talking about it with a friend of mine who traveled through St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow in the late 1990s. It’s a very beautiful and highly cultured country, and one that is frequently portrayed very incorrectly in the Western media.
As for religious liberty, it’s a very touchy subject in the USA, since it’s part of our constitution that the government is prohibited from either compelling people to practice a religion, or from interfering with or discouraging them from doing so freely. Every member of the Union has a constitution that has the same or a very similar guarantee. We are a predominantly Protestant Christian country, however, and that gets into our political sphere very easily. But that is of a whole other order of magnitude from the direct enforcement or religious laws by means of state terror, as is happening in many places. In the USA we regard our founders as having been very wise in seeing the dangers posed to human freedom by forcing religion on people, or preventing them from living according to their conscience. The current spate of global violence is a very strong reminder of it.
–M
Do you ever struggle with the desire to put modern day events into your historical fiction? Might we see something like an Arab Spring in the 6-Commando universe?
That’s a good question. In large measure, the “rules” of the 6-Commando universe make it function according to its own logic, and so current events aren’t such an issue to me. Frankly, even with an atomic war, I find our world in most ways far more depressing than theirs, mainly because we’ve come to the brink of a peaceful and cultured future and stepped back from it, while they’ve simply never had the option.
–M
Furthermore, their war is relative to difference of life (communist V capitalists).
While nowadays, all these wars are solely based on religion difference, and on an oil race.
Oh, wow, that preview looks so intense. October can’t come soon enough!
Ha! For me, it’s coming TOO soon! Everyone who knows is taking this chance to put demands on my time, so it’s all I can do to snatch a few hours in the studio.
–M
Could you please state your workflow?
And if this is an illustrator autotrace, what settings do you use?
Thanks in advance.
Although I now sketch digitally using a Cintiq tablet, my process is surprisingly traditional. I do a rough sketch and layout, which I then refine with a second round of sketching to tighten up the lines. Then I ink with smooth, single strokes and add color. Finally, I letter (by hand) and add word balloons.
I don’t use autotrace, or Illustrator at all, really. I make liberal use of source photos from books and my own personal collection, but only during the sketch phase.
–M
I see. Surprisingly traditional.
It’s always great to hear about an artist’s workflow. Thanks for this.
Sorry for being a stranger lately, I’m very busy at work.
Like the previews so far. I take it we’ll see a shift from the focus on the 6 Commando in Africa to Russia or maybe some other places. I always wondered how devastating the nuclear WWII was. I guess I’ll get my answers now.
“An atomic war gives rise to a new form of life – one that could save mankind, or end what’s left of civilization”.
Intriguing.
Heh heh heh… well, I mean, I had to write SOMEthing.
–M
Hm… THAT reminds me of Metro 2033 book, that was a bestseller a few years ago in Russia.
((The 2033 is nice… the sequel 2034 is way worse and a ton of fansequels are plain cheap trash though…))
There alse rose a new lifeform, while humanity wah taking shelter from radiation beneath the surface…
Let’s just say, thing did not go well…
Looking good. Looking good.
Thanks, man! I’m plugging away! But jeez, what do I do to myself? If it isn’t jungles, it’s crowd scenes. I’m a glutton for punishment.
–M
lol! Yeah I understand! Urban environments with different perspectives is my punishment.
Can’t wait for the next post
I really love this skletch Mathieu!