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1st strip sent in to Wayne at Battlefront. I was on Parental license, my daughter Mariana had just been born, and used a dialup modem to access Flamesofwar.com once a week on "Update Thursday" when I noticed Jason´s comic feature. I woke up the next day with several ideas for a comic and sketched up one of them which I sent to Wayne. 15mmMen#1 got published like this. Still very sketchy in style, and with freehand text. Lots of people apparently didn´t get the joke at first, but I blame the text for being a little misleading on that.

2nd strip. Great improvements over #1, mainly because I had more time (and this time I knew it was being published) and had some pro-advice from my good friend Paneum (you know who you are :). Added features were: Increased dynamics on the perspectives; use of font instead of free-hand writing and a Title. Small details: Barely perceptible, a vodka bottle is dropped from the base on the last square. I had to invert the 1st square (to make the relative positioning of the figures coherent with the last two) and reduce the hand and base on the last square (It wasn´t perceptible that the base was being lifted off the ground).

3rd strip. First use of colouring in the background (to avoid being too white). This was originally drawn with much more cartoony figures, and I had to redraw them some times do avoid that look (hard not to be cartoony when the guys have mohawks :P) I quite like how the fire effect on the last square turned out. Crispy! :)

4th strip, version 1. I did 2 versions of this strip, a bit worried that the "Holy Cow!" comment on the 1st square could be too "non-PC". I sent the 2 versions to Battlefront and left it to their editorial opinion which one they would publish. Holy Cow turned out to be the selected version. The sanskritizing of the text came almost as an afterthought - but I was very pleased by it. The "Shopping list" magneted on the fridge is: 5x T26, 1x Jalkaväki Platoon and 2x Csaba Armoured Cars.

4th strip - alternative unpublished version. See the comments for the previous drawing. If that one didn´t get the Editorial "OK" from Battlefront, this one would have been published. Only difference: "Holy Cow!" became "Parashurama protect us!"

5th strip. 1st use of armor in 15mmMen :) A small detail in the 1st square gives up the real nature of the shrub - it´s leaving a trailing "Vrrrr..." sound. I quite like how the rust effects on the KV2 and the explosion on the last square (with the shaded AT5 letters) turned out. Another little curiosity: The Cyrillic expletive on the last square doesn´t actually translate into anything - It´s phonetic. It sound a little bit like: Sh-ee-t 1st use of (more or less) profanity on a 15mmMen. :)

6th strip - change of font to verdana bold to accomodate more text. Small details are: There are little unhappy smilies on the side of the M3A1 (hardly visible ate the resolution they were published at in flamesfowar.com). There´s a Suicide note affixed to the tree on the 2nd square, and a beach goer in green trunks sitting in the beach bellow, as a rock tumbling from above cause the "?" exclamation. The original idea for this comic had several differences: The tank was complaining about the coming of LW, and how the AT,FP,etc was so high - a light tank would have a tough time. The tank originally bounced of the scenery water and said "Hard to be dramatic in a gaming table". I think it works better in the published form, and my thanks go to PG for all the helpfull advices.

7th Strip - First time for 1500mmMen. Originally this variant was supposed to be called "178mmMen" - that being the average height of man. However, as wargamers surely know, 15mm isn´t exactly the size of a 15mm miniatures, and 1500mmMen just sounded better :) The model for the Strelk player was my good friend and fellow "FoWer" Manuel Pombeiro (AKA Firepigeon) - he used to field 100+ bases of infantry with his 1500pts. Strelk :O

8th strip - Another problem with using Magnetic Bases :) The hobby knife was originally a kitchen knife in the sketch phase - PG (Meninobesta), who always gets a preview of the weekly comic and throws in some helpful advice, said it would work out better as a hobby knife. It did :) 1st appearance of a Gun Team (it´s a Pak38) in a 15mmMen strip.

9th Strip - PG (Meninobesta) helped with the "Cockneysing" of the speech. 1st square drawing and castle on last square where done by hand and then scanned in and retouched. 1st appearance of the Brits in a 15mmMen strip :)

10th strip - first use of animals in 15mmMen (Disclaimer: no felines were hurt in the making of this comic). Was quite happy with the tree texture, aimed at making them look like model trees. I had some tries at doing them by hand, but they always ended up looking too "real" for the effect I was after. Settled for this wiry texture which gave the effect I was looking for quite effectively in about 5 minutes (as opposed to 1 hour lost in various tree sketches by hand... :P).

11th strip - thanks to PG (again) for some help with the final text. The Brummbar always looked to me like a teapot. Would be a nice novelty item to have at home too - anyone interested in a pottery project? :) I hand-drew all the Brummbar in an A4 size without any of the "teacup" add-ons, scanned it at maximum dpi and layered the add-ons on top. Looks good framed in any kitchen :)

12th strip - And on the 12th comic, disaster struck... I had it all done except the lettering when the drawing program just closed leaving no trace of my (unsaved!) work. Serves me right... Save of often, save quick (an old "Al Lowe" saying :)). And this in a Wednesday (the day I have to deliver the comic to BF). 1 am... :P I chain-smoked a couple of cigarettes wondering "why me???" And then I got stuck in it re-drawing the whole thing and saving very often. In case your wondering - Yes, that is Santa in a flamethrower toting sleigh. Yes, he is facing Cthulhu (my favorite squid!) and the last character is Vermillion Skull (not to confuse with Red Skull, I don´t want lawyers at my doorstep) ;)

13th strip. To welcome in 2007 I had been holding out for a script idea that big-gazza (thanks! :)) at the BF forums had sent. Turned out quite all right :). I´m leaning more and more towards a lighter coloring style, as the comic seems clearer this way.

14th strip: Another installment of 1500mmMen. This was an old sketch of mine, to do when I had the time (since it´s roughly 4x as long as most of my comics). Turned out quite alright. I really like the main "character" in this comic (I settled for this one after I tested a number of alternatives). Charles S. Roberts, referenced in the end of the comic, is the founder of Avallon Hill. He is often referenced as the "Father of boardgame wargaming" .

15th strip - Enter the Finns :) A quick joke on the fact that flamethrower teams on FoW disappear into thin air after being used. Quick & Dirty translation guide to the Finnish words used: Toveruus: Comrades/Brothers Suomi: Finland Paska!: Crap! In retrospect, im not too happy about the last frame. To mych work into shading to have the Finn turn out very "brownish" in color :P

16th strip: The "cat" theme creeps into the comic once again (maybe it´s because I have a couple of cats :)). Once again, PG (aka Meninobesta) gave heavy input in this one. Sometimes I forget to "Keep It Simple Stupid" and overelaborate some ideas. Before PG helped out, this one was going to end with some very dubious German "Hippies" that were "High" on the "Fumes". Turned out simpler and more effective this way. I´m quite happy with a number of effects on this one: The Pea Dot Camo, the skin shadinf (especially in the center close-up) and the cat litter in the last frame. Download the comic and look for the itsy bitsy German Phrases on the edge of the vignettes. They spell out a joke :)

17th Strip - Enter the zombies! I only need half an excuse to draw zombies, and only about a quarter of an excuse to draw Fallschirmjager Zombies :) For extra insight into the comic, insert the german phrases you see over the zombies into a text translator. :) I Love how the 1st square turned out (epecially skin tone, camo and mp40) , and I like the last square, but think that the zombie is maybe a bit "too clean"