Cherry Cherry Sweet Caroliiiiine
Because you just aren’t a cool guy unless you have documented proof that you’ve walked away from an explosion at some point. Unfortunately, Hollywood can’t seem to decide on what the safe distance to ignore an explosion from IS exactly…
About a year ago when I was working on Ugly Americans, I started plotting out a backstory for Commander I could draw in the downtime I assumed I was going to spend unemployed. In the end, I didn’t end up being unemployed at all and the story stayed shelf’d, but I want to find a way to sneak some of Commander’s bros in. So here’s introducing Cate (girl), Jet (bandana), and Ace (holding the camera).
In the meantime, I ended up on two podcasts this week! You can catch me over at Guys With Pencils talking about Manly guys and the animation industry and how to make it from a town of a thousand people in the Hudson Bay basin to Hollywood and all that. Aaand I cameo’d on The Harbinger talking about 3D movies and Batman and Genghis Khan and other fun things. (If anyone else wants me to talk at them on their podcast and can tolerate all of my incessant “like, um, y’know”s, feel free to drop me a line!)
And I was one of the animators on the Good Vibes episode airing this week! so check out MTV on Thursday if you want to see the sordid, unspeakable things that I draw or my bread and butter.
Discussion (144) ¬
Man this week’s punchline works really well.
Although the “walking away from an explosion” thing has really been tainted for me by Dreamwave…
I’m not even sure what Dreamwave is… do I want to know?
In short, Dreamwave was a comic company that did awesome Transformer comics but had poor (and, given the whole thing with freelancers being left holding the bag on some of the company’s debts, quite possibly fraudulent) accounting.
It wasn’t fraudulent. The guy just spent the money and didn’t bother putting it back. Those shiny Porsches had to have come from somewhere, you know.
He didn’t even have the decency to pay them a severance check. Last I checked, he is now roasting in Hong Kong doing… more Transformers.
That last paragraph is kind of overstating it – he did some drawings for Hasbro’s Hong Kong division, to use at a con, back in 2008…that is, so far as I can tell, his only official Transformers work since the dissolution of Dreamwave. He hasn’t done any new packaging portraits for Hasbro or Takara (though they still occasionally use ones he did when Dreamwave was still around), no official comics work, no TV or movie designs… (Though some of the artists originally credited as ‘assisting’ him (and therefore, the ones who probably did most of the work) are still getting work on official Transformers stuff.)
Aah yes, “Superstar” Pat Lee (No relation to Jim Lee or Stan Lee). Apparently he has done work for both DC and Marvel, though. Although, when I say “done”, I mean farmed it out to other artists who were unaware of his reputation and then stiffed them on the payment.
Damnit, with no email notification, I keep forgetting to check for replies. (Not a complaint, except maybe about myself).
I see that none of the others have explained how it’s relevant to the explody shot, so I’ll drop a link here.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dreamwave
It was 100% worth following you on Twitter, just so I could get notification that the new page was up. <3
I like how some of the things I muse about or complain about get turned into visual jokes on your site without you have ever hearing me. Like “don’t most people run from a bomb or jump to the ground to avoid the whole explosion part?” I guess jumping was 80’s,90’s and walking is 00’s and what ever the hell were gonna call this decade.
I heart Ugly Americans but I am uncertain of Good Vibes. I will watch this thursday though.
Aren’t we in the 2010’s now?
I think this decade we have force fields or something. We’re well into the 20th century so we have those right?
Ah… 21st century* xD
Iam late but the decade is probably best referred to as the twenty ten’s
Betting taking that picture did a number on his ears too.
Was the Commander born without that tooth?
I should hope the commander was born without *any* teeth, x2495iiii, for his mother’s sake. Perhaps it he lost it as a scappy and scrawny pre-teen.
Ah. Good point.
Origin story needed.
Actually, he was grown in a lab, so there’s no telling WHAT was in his mouth when he popped out of the tube XD
Good question as I thought he lost it when Sten went apeshit on him for something cookie-related.
I guess there never really was a time when he wasn’t a total badass. I know my nose wasn’t broken to hell when I was 13.
Mine was….but because I lost a softball in the sun, not because of a bar fight. That might subtract just a little from the coolness of it.
… I hit myself in the nose with a drum mallet.
I don’t know if I win this contest or lose.
When it comes to the contest of breaking noses, the only winning move is not to play.
I regret nothing on my nose breaking all in all totally worth it.
Indeed, a sacred rule among cool people. Even Dr. McNinja follows it.
He even uses it to surprise the guys who blew up his office. DSP also follows it.
It’s the action film’s take on “riding into the sunset” and “still shot of two guys high-fiving.”
Those are the things I remember more from older movies: riding into the sunset; capturing two guys high-fiving in a sudden still shot; and walking away from a massive explosion looking all bad-ass.
Nowadays, it’s more like, “Leap to black on a sudden revelation and end your movie on a cliffhanger.”
This makes me smile way too hard.
Er, does that mean these guys are “cool” too?
http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/f/fd/Dreamwave.jpg
Worry not. Funana and his pals are way too far away from that explosion for it to be even remotely cool. Also, one of them is smoking in an oxygen-increased environment, so it’s obviously staged/fake. Usually, something like that would light your arm and face on fire.
Ooh, the commander’s bros! I wouldn’t mind seeing more of ’em.
I’m always fond of the “moment after the Kodak Moment” pictures. :D This one doesn’t disappoint.
So I’m assuming his hair today is a transplant? Or is future hair care just so good that a man can have a mane like that after being exploded?
Future medical care is so good that they apparently even gave him back his body hair. Now that is professionalism.
“The hair club for men now includes hair for you abs, chest, legs, back, butt, neck, face, and and feet. You can take my word for it because I’m not just the president I’m also a client” – Dr. Henry McCoy aka Beast
I keep hitting the + on my keyboard while moused over your post but it does nothing!
Tim, what are you talking about? what would hitting plus do?
What kind of work did you do on Ugly Americans? I love that show.
Design, animation, character layout, and boards on the first season.
If you had anything to do with the episode “Kill Mark Kill” I will love you forever. That’s pretty cool how you had outside work with a fairly popular show. I never really thought about what web comic authors did for a living.
ahahah, well, I laid out a bunch of scenes with Lincoln and Leonard in the theatre, the scene where the little Leonard with the drug problem is trying to kill himself and Grimes flushes his pills, and animated the scene with twenty little Leonards smashing each other in Callie’s bathroom.
Will you being doing more work on that show?
Oh man.. oh man the punchline. I know you can’t colour EVERY strip and this will probably kill you but this would be SOO AWESOME in colour
i just love how they didn’t even planned who was going to take the picture before setting the bomb
I always wondered why that doesn’t happen in movies. Shock waves are powerful, damnit!
Also: I keep meaning to watch that show. If you’re doing the animation, I’ll make sure to tune in.
This one brought a big grin to my face.
And there you have it, DIY tattoo removal.
Lemme guess, the black-haired guy is Ace, and the reason why he is the only one with black hair in a family of blondes is… because he’s adopted O.o?
Also, didn’t Cpt. Badass chip his tooth in some earlier issue …or was that a ceramic prosthesis?
When he said “bros”, he most likely meant best friends. You know. “Bros before hos” kinda thing.
And besides, one of those “bros” is female. Unless she’s actually like Poison…
If that girl is like Poison, it would be better. If she’s also related to Cpt. Badass then “shit just get real”.
They’re all time traveling tube born space marines they’re all related and unrelated at the same time.
Now that we’ve learned about his siblings, I suddenly want to discover about his parents…
Well I just got out of the Navy but my best friend just got back from Afghanistan, he was a Marine and his job was…to find things and not make them blow up…and then blow them up in a safe location…so he could tell you all about explosions….fun stories he has…and yes he’s been blown up 7 times…he’s ok though
All limbs intact and still in possession of his hearing? If so, then what kind of explosions were they? And if not, um… Sorry for being insensitive.
Think of Hurt Locker if you’ve seen it… I assume
Been there, done that… http://4wd.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d36xy0k
That looks… bad. x_x
That does look bad. Coel did a drawing that took work. Very simple and easy photoshop doesn’t take work.
Mess with photoshop, explore and learn stuff. You’ll be surprised and happy on how much you can do with photoshop. And don’t upload on devainART. That site is full of kiddies who love to steal stuff that obviously ain’t theirs. It’s allowed on DA too.
Was kinda hoping the link in the description was to this song instead. XD The ending fits together with the comic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5R78nfJ2Bw
@ Neferius & SpaceJawa: pretty sure Commander means “bro” in the friend sense rather than relative sense, bros. 8P …I could be wrong, though.
Thanks for a much-needed laugh in the middle of a crappy day at work :)
hey wait you worked on ugly americans? i love that show great work, if you dont mind me asking what did you do in the show?
gotta love how it doesn’t even need to be said. They are all thinking it.
Bahahahaha… I think I would’ve preferred to be the camera holder, too. >__>;
Hahaha This is brilliant!
Coelasquid is probably too busy playing skyrim to colour it lol. I know I would be.
Didn’t get Skyrim, waiting for Skyward Sword next week (even though apparently there’s no Ganondorf and they keep pimping out that horrible… bishie-Dragonball looking bad guy >:c )
I didn’t get it either. I’m too busy playing Batman AC and getting Saints Row the Third tomorrow.
TOO MUCH TO DO SO LITTLE TIME ARGEGEEGEG.
I did get it, and I must say, whenever you find the time and spare change you should do so yourself.
Nothing like an RPG where you can get to know people in a bar by trading repeated blows to the face.
Yeah! Who the hell is that guy, anyway? Vaati again?
Bring back Ganondorf. :(
Anyway. This comment doesn’t really have much substance. Just offering solidarity.
Ugh, I’m actually really close to buying a Wii JUST to play Skyward Sword. I don’t want another console sitting around I’ll barely play, but I have such a legacy with the Zelda games…
No Ganondorf?
What
What
I mean it’s not like he’s the badguy in every game…but still.
Aw so no skyrim comics? Oh well. You would probably like skyrim. It’s full of Nordic nords doing nordic things.
It’s Breton or bust.
Ha, how many of those men lose tattoos? Though begs the question if he’s got a wicked burn scar where the tattoo used to be…and if you can see a picture in it.
He’s from the future, they have very advanced skin-grafting techniques.
Yeah they will totally have mastered that stuff: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1353070/Star-Trek-skin-gun-heals-severe-burns-days.html
That’s what I figure. If we’ve come this far already, just imagine what it’ll be like in the nondescript spacefuture.
Ball bearings.
In the spacefuture, everything runs on ball bearings.
Shame they didn’t have that back in the day, and does this mean that the Captain has no scars?
Pretty manly either way.
You can see the the Virgin Dorothy Julia in his burn scar.
i guess jared’s version of walking away from an explosion is his bubble floaty thingy….
Would Mr. Fish also be walking away?
AND his method of tatoo removal (very effective!) is andrewsarchus…
I know what I want to do next weekend. :D
i start my week every week reading this comic before i go to work. it makes me cry inside when its not up in the morning :( at least its up now though :D
May we get to know which name goes on which of the Commander’s bros? (well unless some cool change in gender/names happens in the future I can guess which on is Cate but no idea who’s Jet and who’s Ace? (also wow those are pretty badass names lol))
oh man, you did ugly americans? i just finished watching that on Netflix. pretty amusing.
I worked on it, but I was just one of many cogs in the machine :P
Totally worth it! that is just plain awesome
And the commander is already missing a tooth!
Cate reminds me of Martel from FMA. XD But awww, I love Young!Commander!
There is nothing I don’t love about this page. Nothing.
What if he missed the shot? The explosion would definitely distract me enough to delay the shot personally, lol.
I’m thinkin’ only a spacemarine from the spacefuture would have the reflexes to snap the camera between “explosion erupts” and “buddies are blown away.” That is a bonus I had not considered.
Is that bro female? A female bro? A fro?
It should be painfully obvious that with all 4 in uniform and a bomb going off that he isn’t referring to his biological family, he is referring to his unit in the service. He is the commander after all. He didn’t get his rank for playing ping pong in high school. In modern American English the gender specificity is increasingly optional.
At no point in my statement did I imply that I thought he was referring to his brothers. You’re looking for the comments further up.
I was just making a pun.
Do they even have a high school for time traveling tube born space marines?
They set the bomb.
>:D
That would be a Bra, or brosiphine, or Girl.
Maybe that is his “biological” family, if you take that comment about being synthesized from American soil and steak seriously…
cool guys don’t look at explosions .. they blow shit up and then walk away.
who’s got time to look at explosions? theres cool guy errands they’ve got to run.
no really, my “miscellaneous” quests in skyrim literally scrolls down past the bottom of the monitor. i had already learned 3 “shouts” just from exploring before i just killed that first dragon at the burned keep today. now i can actually use them. wooo! also came across my first true bug .. that guy who wants you to steal his horse “frost” had a clone of himself halfway stuck in the ground next to himself. they were both interactable too .. i should at least take a screenie .. louise or something. theres just so much crap to do i’m getting lost in it all and just exploring. just found archery and sniped my first giant and a mammoth too. BIG fun trying to run for cover in rocks where they can’t climb to get you, then guerilla warfare time! ha.
In the “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” panel, that grin of the Commander’s reminds me somehow of Jared…
Oh gawd.
IS JARED HIS FATHER? OR SOMEHOW CONNECTED WITH THE COMMANDER’S LINEAGE!?
It would me me so happy if it was…
How else do you think Jared would fight with pokemon like he does, or were do you think he would try to give POWER ARMOR to Mr. Fish?
This is definitely your funniest comic in quite awhile. Love it!
HahahahahahahaAWESOME.
Great page as always, but that “Write Congress!” pop-up is annoying, considering I’m not even in America. I mean, the American Congress doing that is wrong, but I’m not going to stick my nose in another country’s business. (…Uh, no offense to Americans >.>)
It’ll be gone tomorrow, but for today I want to spread awareness about internet censorship. When people stop caring is when bad things happen.
all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.
i agree.
The pop-up might be annoying to non-americans, however it’s of vital importance to everyone that this not pass. Once one big country thinks this sort of censorship is ok, others might get the same backwards ideas.
Other countries WILL develop the same backwards ideas. Countries that don’t have to depend on the people, or a system, will have totalitarian reign over the internet. Not to mention corporations are going to be in control of the censorship (for the US).
i hate to be a doomsayer and all, but china has had internet censorship for QUITE awhile. this is actually not even a new thing. for a while there, a lot of US people were willing proxies to people in china just so they could get fair and unbiased news reports. it was/is really that bad there. god help us if that crap spreads here. and you know what else? this is a free website produced by coela, sure the popups a bit annoying, but he said one day, and from the amount of joy he’s given us thus far i can sure as shit live with that. plus i kinda admire him for standing up for something he believes in. more power to you brother.
Coelasquid is a female, broham.
yes, i know now, double e told me. thanks.
*she.
*sister.
coelas a girl? hmn. who knew. then again i like to think gender isn’t a deciding factor for me to like someones creative effort or judge them by.
sort of a “thanks, but who cares?” moment. not to sound rude.
How long ago his the commander lose his tooth? He looks much younger in the picture, but the tooth is already missing. Whats the deal?
Man like that would always be loosing a tooth/teeth. I know of one sergeant that kept loosing a tooth so often he finally stopped trying to have it replaced.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=137463073&page=1
Yup…this is how you do things like a boss.
And no, unlike the idiots in the forum, it isnt a compound, or bricks, or anything like that. Its an incendiary bomb placed in the middle of a stack of hay bales. Basically its just a very big, short-lived fireball. Incendiary bombs dont have much in the way of a concussive blast-wave the way high explosives do so, these guys were perfectly safe…especially with the body armor/kevlar on.
Seeing one of the Commander’s bros is black, I can assume that by Bros, he means the fellow men(and women) in the army? Unless the Commander did have a black half-brother or something like that…
To the Hairy-Chested Synthesized Real American Heroes(tm) of the Future, BROtherhood transcends mere race, or creed, or gender.
somehow i am sure that Coel has thrown that female char in somewhere before, that or the angle / expression combo just looks like another char
i would join in on a foto like that in a heartbeat! half a year of hospital visits is worth the foto of a lifetime!
Oddly, very close to some of the stories some officers and sergeants have told me of things they either did or saw the fall out of.
I love that he lost all of his hair except the 5 o’clock shadow.
In that fifth panel, Commander totally looks adorable and badass at the same time.
^^ You worked with ugly americans? Nice! Doesn’t surprise me, seems some of art style came from you. I know another artist that worked on Boondocks.
Hah, this is great. I wonder how his bros are now…
Is it me, or does Ace have potential future nemesis written all over him?
Maybe one day the relentless macho got too much and, after yet another viewing of On the Waterfront, he just snapped and went AWOL.
He’s out there now planning vengeance while watching Baz Luhrmann films with the space-commies.
Am I the only one who thinks Ace looks like (and probably sounds like) Fenris from Dragon Age 2?
I have heard of this concept, yes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHorHOu_DDQ
Unfortunately, large balls of flames aren’t naturally occurring, so I can’t really test it out.
Congrats on your latest awesomeness! I love that last frame.
Also, I don’t suppose you’ve got Cate’s phone number?
i love commander’s expression in the 5th panel, i would be the same way.
Well, walking away from an explosion is quite manly :)
Only surpassed by having a bigass undead dragon from behind…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck
Btw, big fan of this webcomic, hope to see more of it ^o^
This is pure genius!
Sorry to be the one to say this, but..uh..well, Sarah (Jonesy?) Isn’t shaded in the last panel ^^;;
I love your comic Q3Q It’s pretty much my favorite, I’m not trying to be picky or demanding ><; just thought you might like to know, Coelasquid <33333
I like how the cinic asian fellow reminds me of of Harold from Harold and Kumar.
I believe this needs to be posted here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqz5dbs5zmo
that photo was epic
When did commader lose that tooth anyway?
“Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explo-ARRRRRGH!”
Assuming you have a lead lined fridge, the safest distance from an explosion up too and including an atom bomb, is as close as possible