UPDATE! 08.11.10

Well, being as how it’s a slow week commentwise, and I happen to have a bit of a moment on my lunch break here, I thought I’d add something a little less terse to the mix here.  Despite a lot of really tiny things probably noticeable only to myself and some very sharp-eyed individuals, I think this page is up to the standard of the previous one.  Originally, the “dream sequence” (I hate the term but I can’t think of a better one at the moment) was going to be in full color, but it was way too much – it overwhelmed everything.  And when I started running short on time, I just basically turned it all to greys, and somehow it “clicked.”  I think the result was pretty good.

My mother, by the way, who reads this comic (thanks, Ma!) immediately understood what this scene was all about.  So I was really pleased that it was “readable.”  I also thought that making it so down-to-earth (the pickup truck, for example, and the wooden house and barn, and the electrical wires) counterpointed the high-tech military aspects of the story so far, showing that there’s a “real world” behind everything that’s going on, something that I really want to emphasize, despite the possibility of it turning off some readers who may be looking for non-stop tank action.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of that to come, but the characters are not superhuman or anything.  Like real soldiers, they’re just people, and they have lives and families and the burden of lifetimes of human ups and downs behind them, and I really like exploring that.  Not to mention having a female “action heroine” type character who’s really just mortal like everyone else, and is neither the vulnerable ice-queen nor the indestructible amazon, but rather, just a person.  I think it’s pretty rare in North American comics where a female character doesn’t fall into one category or the other.  Television and films, too.  Western archetypes die hard.

So, maybe this whole chapter will constitute a risk that won’t pay off readership-wise, but in the end I have this urge to just stick to my plans and let the whole thing play out.  Sarah is an important character who needs exploring.  But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about, nor will I be neglecting, Rucker, Mike, and all the rest.

And on that last point, I haven’t forgotten about my promise earlier this summer of cool 6-Commando stuff.  On the one hand, it feels presumptuous to be providing “fan junk” like that, since everyone does it and it seems like such a saturated angle that it kind of leaves me cold.  But promotion’s promotion, and so one has to look to one’s “business,” such as it is.  I am, as of now, planning to attend the New York Comic Con, albeit as a visitor and not as a vendor/exhibitor, since I have nothing to vend, and precious little to exhibit, and I simply need to get the lay of the land before I try to actually get in on it.  But the “6-Commando Crap” is still in the works, I promise – slower than intended, but still on the way.

Anyhow, there you go.  A little more insight than simply “Mathieu Sleep Now!”  So I hope that fills it out, and I’ll see you on Monday.  Be well!

Original Post: 08.09.10:  It almost killed me, but I did it.  Sixty-five hours in the office this week, including Saturday, and somehow I managed to draw and color a full page.  A year ago I’d never have been able to do this.  I guess that’s a good sign, that I can, now.

So there it is.  I’m totally beat and I have a third week of Extreme Architecture to get up to first thing in the morning, so I’ll spare you all the usual jabber.  If, later in the week, I have something insightful to add, I will, but for now, I’m down for the count.

Zzzzzzzzz.

–M