UPDATE! 6.7.10:

I was not happy with Colonel Haulley’s eyes in the original page, and it bugged me all day.  So I came home and changed them around, and now I like them much better.  His eyes above all others have caused me no end of grief.  They always go all big and almondy when I want them to be natural and masculine.  I wonder why that happens.

Anyway, that’s all I have to add.  ExCEPT… there’s a new incentive on the vote site!  Yes, after leaving that old blueprint up for eight weeks it was DEFINTIELY time for a change.  From here on out, I hope to give you a new sneak peek or other little bit of extra stuff every week, just to keep the thing from getting stale.  I’ve even considered making each week a panel from next week’s page, just to keep everyone on the edge of their seats!  As for THIS week… well, vote and see!  And draw your own conclusions about what might become of that little bit of 6-Commando goodness!

Thanks again for all the reads, folks, and all the encouragement!  Onward and upward!

[Original Post: 6.6.10] An eventful week, way out here, but most of those events had little or nothing to do with comics.  I did manage to squeeze in this page around the edges, and I’m pretty pleased with it.  All four main protagonists on one page – you know it’s getting good now!  And Major Bronniford has a lethal left hook!  I think it brings up a major issue, though, that I’ve been meaning to touch on in the “blog” portion of this comic.

The main critique I’ve had of this comic so far (disregarding the fact that the vast majority of the things people have had to say have been really upbeat and supportive!) is that the story moves too slowly.  I think this is more a measure of the fact that the long-form comic and the web comic are like tow waveforms with different frequencies, and that they don’t always match up.  What works online is not always what works in print, and vice versa.  This current scene is an example.  Seems like they’ve been fighting forever, sometimes.  But were you sitting and reading this in book form, I think it would pace out just right.

The fact of the matter is, this comic is designed for print.  And much as I might wish I could go faster, a page a week is my current limit.  So gaining and keeping consistent readership is always going to be a challenge.  The story is also an experiment for me – one about technique and process, and as a result I’m still feeling my way through the whole thing.  So in the end, yes, this does pace rather liberally for an online comic, I’ll admit.  But if you go to the start and flip page to page at a go, I think the pacing works pretty well.

All this is by way of rambling around to the fact that ultimately, while I call this an Online Graphic Novel, it is drawn with print in mind, and when I have to make the call between what works in print and what works online, I go with the paper over the screen.  Thus, I have to consider things like which pages face which other pages, when a scene changes, and where to terminate a chapter for maximum effect.  And so showing a single page a week is knd of an injustice to that.  But in the end, I think it’ll all work.  I hope it will, anyhow.

By the way, special thanks to everyone who posted last week with ideas for Cool 6-Commando Stuff – all ideas have been noted in my log.  And one or two are actually in production as we speak, but will remain top secret until they are actually in my big hairy hands, and I can officially start sending them places.  There’s also the matter of the official side of things – before I can begin distributing things for money, I have to be licensed to do so in my state of record, which is not ncessarily my state of residence (damn, this Federal system is cool, huh?).  But that is all just part of the preliminary goodness.  I’ve also received information from the New York Comic Con about alternate space for exhibiting, which may or may not turn out to be a second fiasco, but I have to read it all and figure it out, and will keep you posted.

So onward and upward!  Keep reading, keep voting, and all the best for another busy week!