It’s not feasible for a Captain to turn every mission into Saving Private Ryan
So basically, four years ago when I started drawing this comic was around the time I’d started working as a professional animator, I started the website during the midseason break on the first season of Ugly Americans. Usually animators can count on being unemployed several months a year between big projects, so I started plotting out a MGDMT graphic novel to work on in my downtime that would explain a lot of Commander’s backstory. Fast forward four years and I have not actually ever had to deal with unemployment, so I’m kind of trying to abridge that story and inject it into the comic during regular updates or else you’ll never get a chance to see any of this backstory.
Anyway that’s a long-winded way of saying “I’m sorry this update is so terribly wordy”.
Holy crap this is great, don’t be silly and stop apologizing, write more.
This. The writing is what got me hooked on Manly, keep up the awesome work.
We come for the machismo, we stay for the plots. And laser fish. And plots containing laser fish and TIALS.
Fourthded. No complaints.
Loquaciousness is rad, keep that shit up!
Thank you for the backstory Coel, always good to see the mindset of the creator. However, it’s been a very long time. You have provided us immense entertainment, have taken a bite out of both stereotypes of how modern man should carry himself, and given yourself quite the resume. If you retired from the comic now we will all have been profited from it. (Not that I want you to retire. I love the comic since I discovered it in the beginning.)
You owe no one an apology, and we all owe you a great deal of thanks for everything you’ve given us.
Yes.
I’m with Jeff, this is fantastic. Keep it up.
Truly a blessed life, when employment is overabundant.
also, just just noticed there’s a commander down here to the right of the comment box, and that is awesome.
“Square holes for square pegs” pretty much sums up the MGDMT Agency’s mission… Rock Lobster B-52’s been assigned to/chosen a post-military job where his skills are -perfectly- used.
And it’s a proven fact that taking charge in a crisis leads to some pretty nifty promotions – Angel has just shown that once again.
It took a while to figure out why Angel’s line sounded weird to me, but eventually I realized I’ve never heard that expression before. I’ve heard of putting square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes, squeezing round pegs in square holes and hammering square pegs in round holes and beveling square pegs to fit in round holes (like an unwatched cheetah), but I’ve never heard of making your holes fit your pegs. What an enlightened future where the idea of making the world fit the people in it instead of the other way around is commonplace enough to result in such altered metaphors.
PS. Why is it no one ever talks about the triangular pegs? :(
We make a point not to talk about those assholes when they’re around.
Look man! You circles and squares get your own special 3-D names! You get called cylinders and cubes! But us? We’re just “triangular prisms!” Why can’t we get our own unique one-word name?!
Pyramids
Pyramids and triangular prisms aren’t the same shape, but I see where you’re coming from.
Triangles are unique among the geometric shapes because it is impossible to create a no-point looped (a.k.a., circular or oval) 3D object out of them. In other words, if you want to make a 3D object based on triangles, all of the component 2D shapes must be either triangular or some other shape which has definitive points and sides. If you attempt to create a triangular 3D object with a no-point looped component, you get a cone, which has none of the distinguishing characteristics of a triangle, though it is similar.
Other 3D objects can have a no-point looped component while still maintaining the basic characteristics of their 2D base, such as a cylinder which is based on a rectangle.
I have no idea if this is actually relevant to your question, but it seems like a smart piece of technibabble to me, so here you go.
I was kinda wondering why Rock Lobster was ‘ordered’ to wear his motor cross attire while Angel still rocks the BDU’s, I guess the last panel answers that question. (Can you even get blood stains out of navy whites? )
If their uniforms are based on whatever looks cool and sells maybe people just like her best in an actual uniform?
To me, it looks like Angel had the opportunity to find out on that day…Or the nearest “laundry day” afterwards. Being a Navy vet myself, I’d have to say “No, you can’t. Replace the uniform.”
If you do it before the first wash attempt dilute hydrogen peroxide is brilliant at getting blood out of fabric. Hopefully she has a bulk supplier.
Dish soap works really well, too. With a bit of scrubbing, it works magic.
The back story is nice, but that’s a side of the commander that I really didn’t need to see. specifically the inside.
Well, sometimes it’s not a particularly good thing to see what a man is REALLY made of…
I see what you did there, you two… XD
Someone spills their guts to you, lays their heart bare to you, and you snub him? You’re awful.
And i concur, if Brushtails killed with missing intestines, i will say, “Somebody hates his guts.”.
…Lame pun, i know. I’m sorry.
So what I’m wondering, is did those injuries occur on the millipede planet?
Nah. Otherwise his guts would have been replaced by a helping of wriggling arthropods. You can thank me for the image later.
OH GOD THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!
words are good, i’m okay with words as long as you keep them coming, i hope you will be able to get this into print, thank you for making these.
This is so funny, and It’s such great new to hear you’ve never had to deal with unemployment in the past 4 years. Don’t ever apologise for doing what pays for the food.
Call me a weirdo, but I like wordy comics.
The way I read this is the expensive government property was himself.
Yeah, same here
Well, him and that nice upholstery on the bridge.
And his uniform. And Angel’s uniform.
At least in this timeline, Navy officers get to pay for their own uniforms.
Obviously? I mean, if I’m not suffering from a serious case of brainfart, wasn’t he manufactured by the government?
this kind of story the writing is what keeps me coming back in the first place so even if you need to take a little bit longer to do it right in your own eyes do so your fans we underand
It’s Roswell!
Did anyone else read Angel’s saying, “pay grade” as “gay parade”?
No? Just me? Darn it… But it was an interesting microsecond of wondering how a pride parade would result in almost wearing one’s guts for garters.
Imagine that somone bombed said pride parade.
I’ve enjoyed the stories and humor from the comic, learning how dedicated Lobster is just makes him cooler. I miss when action heroes used to be actually beefy instead of thin and depending on special effects (Well, Wolverine & Colossus are kind of a throwback to that).
I’m so glad I had already finished my coffee.
Wow, this this is messy XD
When you take a close look at the fundamental basics of biology & how life comes together eventually in a “trial & error* sort of way over the course of time, you may realize that life IS messy…And some deaths are too, as Cmdr. Lobster ALMOST shows us.
I’ve only just realised that Angel is female. Oops.
People don’t believe me when I tell them the female hair bun exists so people can tell when the soldier is female or not. But here we are.
This is true, but there are some women who just like having short hair in order to try and be macho. I see an awful lot of them in the UK Armed Forces and, to be frank, they scare the crap out of me.
I can see them keeping it short for sanitary reasons too. Short hair is less work, particularly with a military schedule.
and some women just like having short hair, period.
….why did the enmy rip out his guts but leave everything else unscathed?
Sharpnell, all it takes is one fast, relatively big slicing up the right part of stomachand spillage ocurs. Or it was a planet of gutrippers… or just the rule of cool and badassery(due to him being still awake)
Agree with everyone else who say “Don’t appologize for explaining backstory”
He even wanted to bring back the ship safely? Yeah, he makes a great squad leader, but, in the eyes of the paper-shufflers, makes a lousy Commander (except for everyone who serves under him)
this was verbose? wordy? long winded? pffft, not even.
Yeah, Coelasquid clearly hasn’t read a lot of web comics…
I have read a lot of webcomics and it’s part of why I try to keep under 30 words per panel, to keep them digestible and quick.
While this is admirable in most circumstances, as some comics go way too far in the other direction, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the people that bitch about WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS will do so if you use more than ten words per panel. Meaning, they’re ridiculous caricatures and/or trolls.
This was nothing, it was fine and dandy.
You can’t say macho harder than pissing on Orders, saving all your men, blowing up gov property and flying off in a space ship with your guts hanging out while repeatedly going “Did we save em all?!”
You missed the vital part. Fighting everyone with his will to stop them from helping him until HIS GODDAMN QUESTION IS ANSWERED DAMMIT!
Holy fuck. Can someone say Kickstarter? I for one would *adore* having a print bound copy of the Commander’s backstory. I understand publishing the comic would be somewhat tricky with all copywrite and characters, but if there’s ever some trickery where you’re between projects but not unemployed (I have no idea how animation work works and can thus make that rosy contradiction) Kickstarter could probably get you funded for a graphic novel damned quick! In the meantime, thanks for all the hard work and wonderful story you’re giving us now!
A kickstarter to make a graphic novel wouldn’t really work out well, right now time is more valuable and hard for me to accumulate than money. There’s not really a between-projects-not-unemployed middle ground, you’re either working on something or waiting at home for a new job.
Then what we need to do is have a Kickstarter campaign to get you enough cash that you never have to work again, so you can devote all your time for the rest of forever to only the projects YOU want to do!
I think she’s expressed in the past that she generally enjoys her work as an animator….
Also, and this may not be something she does intentionally, it allows her to reach a much larger audience with her work, even if they don’t actually recognize her work as hers….
That guy in the last panel looks positively fascinated by the guts laying on the floor. Either that or Angel’s spiffy boots.
You don’t have anything to apologize for! Manly Guys is and has always been fantastic, and your other work is great too!
Wait, how does the future military industrial complex not love a commander who blows up lots of expensive equipment? That’s the calibre of officer they need to keep order books full, employment up and help fight the space commies.
Also, he better have throttled some
onething to death with those intestines.Said damaged property was not exploded equipment, as you can see.
I think HE was the damaged property *HINT HINT*
Seemed fairly obvious to me. When you join the military, YOU are property of the government. At least he survived AND they did a really good job patching him up!
Makes a bit of sense when you think about it. The military puts a large amount of money into soldiers (not as much as some equipment, but money is money after all), and if those soldiers don’t take care of themselves, it’s that same military that has to patch them up/bury them. On top of that, I’ve never known one military that had more money than they knew what to do with. Thus, this particular soldier that they spent quite a bit of money on (I imagine that nose was a mother to get right in action figure modelling) is an asset they’d be loathe to lose.
Make the backstory and long winded and wordy as it needs to be. I think we all want to see more of the Commander’s backstory, however long that might take.
So… Was Rock Lobster the guy that stabbed himself and threw his intestines at the cops?
Backstory ? Lots of text ?
I’m cool with this!
Just never drop your tongue-in-the-cheek humour.
Yep. It’s the humor & the iconic stereotypes that keep me (I won’t speak for anyone without their prior approval) coming back for more of Cmdr. Badass & company…Besides, if some people might worry that you might run afoul of copyright lawyers for your work here, you’ve got the “Fair usage” clause concerning parodies as defense. Me? I don’t give so much as even a single squat about people who make their living by stomping on other peoples’ fun & enjoyment.
TL;DR–A specific compliment for Coelasquid to keep it up & don’t let detractors get her down.
He sure has a lot of intestines for such a disproportionately small abdomen. Not a criticism, just sayin’.
Well, the human body does have anywhere from 20-40 feet of intestines crammed into it. So it’s probably a pretty accurate depiction.
Why would the captain fly the ship? Isn’t that somebody-more-qualified/more-expendable-when-bulkheads-start-exploding’s job?
Oh, right, because spacefuture.
Hey this might be his last chance.
Well, I didn’t see any Redshirts standing around. Angel’s the only one who’s shirt is rapidly *turning* red, though…
Ok, I don’t speak english, so I have to ask to be fully sure. She says he wrecked up some very expensive government property.
Is she implying HIM to be the expensive property? As in ‘he got hurt to save them’?
That’s how I understood the joke. In the US military they refer to recruits as property. Get caught cutting yourself shaving in the morning , “WHAT DID YOU DO SOLDIER? DID YOU JUST DAMAGE GOVERNMENT PROPERTY?”.
Yup, gotta dehumanize the crap out of people.
Yes, that was the joke.
(In case my last reply was too dense, doesn’t translate well I bet)
If you can translate the garbled Commander Badass speech, he says the ship they’re on will have to be scrapped for parts. That ship probably barely made it out of there, which would probably be the real reason for demoting him.
It isn’t that he got expensive materiel damaged–it was that it was unnecessarily and excessively damaged. That was likely the excuse given–he has a track record of fighting them on things like “not wanting laser cannons grafted to his chest”, and apparently used the court system to do this.
Any military is pretty much the same in a number of regards: risking your life and equipment to save a soldier’s life will get you commendations. However, fighting their ability to order you, and worse winning, will piss off your superiors something fierce, and they will absolutely take any opportunity to get some form of petty revenge on you.
In Rock’s case, they found the perfect opportunity to take him from command and put him in a position where he can’t cause too many PR issues and still be able to give them good publicity when they want it. The loss of pay grade is a bit surprising, usually they’d do something along the lines of a lateral demotion–you’ve got the same rate, but you lose the position. Commands are rather prestigious to even have, and losing one is not good, and being denied further ones are also not good for one’s career. In all likelihood, this basically permanently sidetracked his career to certain crappy details (or perceived to be crappy), which would potentially explain why he has to wrangle excessively macho men in the past.
I’m speaking as a former paratrooper here.
Secret Easter egg; he’s saying “they’re gonna chop me up fer parts”
Hah! That is *excellent*. I failed to parse it that way when I read it.
I see. Fits very well with how they’ve treated him thus far–as materiel rather than as a soldier.
Why do I get the feeling I should be remembering a reference to Commander having to hold his own guts in as he was doing something before?
I wonder if this means the Commander Badass action figure is a collector’s item now.
…Perhaps…But he’s going to have to “collect” his guts off the floor before he can model for the figure…
I think your cartoon is just nifty. Well done. Can’t wait to hear more about the Commander.
My guess is that Commander is the expensive government property
Yep. Even in OUR world, once you join the military you are considered to be “government property.” The central bank (Federal Reserve) places a Financial Bond on a person for legal purposes & legal defense when they put their signature on the Contract of Employment. In essence, it’s the “purchase price” for that person’s term of service. Although technically, the person is “renting” themselves out for an agreed period of time, rather than “selling out.”
One of the side effects of this “people become property mentality” is that if the person takes some Liberty time during active duty, visits a beach & winds up getting a bad enough sunburn that hampers their ability to work, then they can literally be charged with “Damage to Government Property.”
Yes, I was told this when I was in the Navy.
I’m glad we’re getting some backstory. it seems like a good time for a longer story arc, I feel like the last long term story was the Pretty Man curse. I like how well this comic can go from a series of one off days/moments/experiences to telling a narrative.
I know this will sound redundant but…
And this is why Commander Badass is Commander Badass.
Love this strip. Everything about it. So, nice work.
When I said I wanted more of the Commander with his shirt off, this is not what I meant.
Plus, that really is no way to treat a fine, fine piece of expensive Government property…
I have no problems with this as it helps flesh things out and finding out things that made the Commander the guy we all read about and admire in a GAR fashion.
Wait…I’m confused. I thought the Commander was a Space Marine? Angel’s uniform looks to be Navy. How’d she get what I’m assuming is a Marine command? (Or how’d he get a Navy command?) Or does the nondescript space future not really care about separate branches?
Spacefuture uniforms, man. Whatever looks coolest. :P
He is not a Space Marine. He is an officer of the Navy TIALS.
In the real world, the Marines are a sub-branch of the Navy. However, under the properly-issued orders, Marines can be “detached & reassigned” for temporary duty under other Branches or even by themselves for specific operations.
I must say, not having to worry about unemployment for 4 years in a business where that’s typically a common thing is a pretty awesome problem to have.
Just keep doing what you’re doing, we’ll keep reading.
Kinda seems like the commander should have a few more visible scars. But then maybe future space doctors are better at covering that kind of thing up..
Or it hasn’t happened yet, but it’s known that it will. Hooray time travel!
By the way, the future looks like a computer desktop.
Do we get to meet/see any space commies in this arc?
I really appreciate that you’re trying to limit the wordiness. Too many people– creators and fans– don’t seem to realize that this is mainly a visual medium. Long conversations are par for the course, but when the speech bubbles take up almost as much space as the art, it’s time to re-think the format. You seem to have a good sense of visual balance; thank you for using it.
And thus another facet of the Commander’s true manliness is revealed. Putting your life on the line to save people you’re responsible for. . . it doesn’t get much more admirable than that.
Yep, you gotta hand it to Rock; He certainly has a lotta guts…
And he’s not afraid to show some guts in front of command for the sake of his men . . .
Wordy? You call this wordy? You should go check out the last year or so of Too Much Information’s pages. (Disclaimer: I love TMI, it just gets so wordy sometimes that I have to take breaks reading a single page.)
Coelasquid, this rocks! So, was Rock born with a broken nose or we get to see how that happened, too?
Looks to me like his nose has been broken *multiple* times…So that begs the question: How many different episodes of “nose-breaking” will be required to show it?
I’ve broken my nose four times and it mostly looks normal, just a bit wider at the top.
So I’m guessing like.. 10 times for Rock? Maybe more? Who knows, he’s amazing.
Hey Coalesquid, I don’t know if it is just firefox or what, but I’ve been on three different computers accessing your site through the manlyguys.com url and it says it is a reported attack for viruses. I’ve messaged them saying it isn’t, but you should get it checked out nontheless. Love your work and would hate to see people turned away because of that
Thank you for the love and work you put into the comic.
unemployment? how hard do I need to throw my money at you to keep the flow of comics going? on a scale of ow to god of war please
Hey, Coelasquid! I love this arc, and I’m glad you’ve found time (somehow) to do this. I love your comic, and I hope you can keep it up for a long time.
Wow. Even more love for Commander here. <3
I don’t mind the words. And I think Angel is super cute! I keep grinning every time you draw her face close up. Woo woo!
Why does Chrome block this site for potential malware?
resolved issue from a week ago.
Meh, who cares if you get a bit verbose? I come for the characters and stay for the plot!
Am I reading that one bit correctly? Is he really saying they’re going to “chop [him] up fer parts”? O_o
No problem whatsoever! Yeah, you got a lot of words in, but you still managed to put in a punchline. Most comics just go full exposition, and ignore the purpose of the comic. You’ve always got a funny at the end.
Have I mentioned before that you’re amazing? Cause you’re amazing. Kthxbye.
Looking at the last panel: I don’t know why Angel is dressed in a Love Boat cosplay and I don’t need to know.