Almost there!  Next week is Page 100!  So close.  But I won’t pontificate about it.  Not until next week.  But still, it’s exciting to have gotten so far…

Anyway, yes, let me say thanks for last week – really extensive and spirited discussion was had by all!  I encourage and endorse it, from everyone.  I know that I’m treading in some very controversial territory here, especially with this current scene (and believe me, it gets even more so in the coming chapters) but your willingness to discuss this all and yet keep such a respectful tone has been exceptionally gratifying to me.  So thank you, everyone, and please, keep it up!

Anyway, down to bid’nizz.  Foyst, I promised details on next week’s contest.  It’s fun and easy.  It’s called 6-Commando Poker, and I’ll give the whole skinny next week when the game starts, but the basic preview is this: all you have to do is vote for 6-Commando once a day for five days.  No esoteric trivia or special knowledge is needed, except a basic understanding of hands of poker, which you can find here. Each day, I’ll post a new “incentive image,” which will each be a playing card drawn in the 6-Commando style.  Remember the cards, and at the end of the five days, you’ll have five cards, and they’ll add up to a hand of poker.  Tell me what the cards were and the hand they made (Flush, Straight, Full House, or whatever) and it’ll give you the chance to win a prize – Stickers, 6-Commando pins, hand-drawn sketch cards, or even a cameo role in Chapter IV of 6-Commando!  I’ll get super-specific next week, of course, but there will be a LOT of these prizes going out so all you have to do is cast a vote at topwebcomics.com for five days and you’re almost certain to win some cool stuff.  And you can ask Ulrich – I make good on my offers, and do not abuse your personal info, ever EVER.  So here’s hoping you play!

Until then, I hope you’ll vote anyway, and I’ve put up this next two-page spread for your edification.  So have at it!

And finally, another comic I’ve been meaning to plug for some time.  VERY early in 6-Commando’s days, I got a great plug and support from David Pauwels and Nicholas Giacondino, the writer and artist, respectively, of what was then The Sisters Grimm, and is now Free Mars.  Trust me when I tell you that this is one of the coolest comics out there right now – the design is one of the most unique I’ve ever seen, and the story is like Guy Ritchie, Ridley Scott and Kim Stanley Robinson got mashed into a genetically-engineered super-science fiction freak, but one who knew and respected all the best rock music of the past forty years.  It’s a story of music and armed revolution where cyber meets punk, and I’m long overdue giving it the attention it deserves – though at this point their work is so well known that they hardly need me to say it.  Nevertheless, let me just give it my highest recommendation.  I should note, however, that it is a bit racier than you might expect at first, and by reason of adult situations, profanity, nudity and violence, it is by NO means suitable for work or those of a sensitive temperament. But still, as an adult capable of putting such things in proper perspective, I totally dig it and I can’t possibly do it justice here.  Go read it.  Now.  Go.

ANYway, there goes another week!  Until the next one rolls around, run the race, keep the faith, and I’ll ketch you later on down the trail!