When I see this, I think of my dad, because he always told me to write the date on my comics, as shown in some of my other illustrations. This illustration, though, was probably done before I could even understand what a “date” was. Either way, it would’ve been nice to know when this was made.
I’m guessing it’s about 1975–76, due to the lack of detail in the vehicles. But it is good evidence of my childhood fascination with machinery, aircraft, and especially military aircraft and the wanton destruction they’re capable of. I’m also quite certain this is before I saw Star Wars, which made a huge impact on the subject matter of my illustrations for a long, long time.
I picked up on the whole numbering/comic sequence thing from my dad, who had a whole collection of comic strips he’d done in the Philippines in his younger days. He was a huge comic book fan and that definitely carried over to me—not in the sense of comic collecting but definitely in the sense of comic-making.
The first scene is pretty domestic. A helicopter lowers a hook and picks up a large container. This was definitely inspired by the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, which I’d seen in books and owned a small die-cast replica of. It’s ability to lift a huge metal box and have it fit squarely in its belly totally fascinated me, and although it’s not necessarily illustrated in this comic, I know the Sky Crane was definitely behind it.
Now onto the comic below it, which exposes the “BOY boy” side of me—yes, the one who dug whistling bombing raids from loud, menacing prop-driven droning bombers which buzzed like gigantic killer bees in the sky, raining death and destruction onto its helpless victims below—in this case, a small military sea craft whose deck is adorned with two turrets. Let’s take a closer look.
And look—right behind the boat, a spectacle of innocent natural beauty amongst the chaos. A dolphin arcs gracefully out of the water. Aww.
But what’s this? A nuclear sub also lurks beneath the surface. What is it doing there? On whose side is it?
In the second panel the mystery deepens. The boat explodes, its hull split in half with a capital BAM, but which ship inflicted the damage?
Did the bombs indeed hit their designated target, or did the sub take a clear shot at point blank range? Or, was the sub in support of the seafaring vessel and did it fire in defense of its ally after it got bombed? Is it a surface-to-air (SAM) missile, headed for the passing bomber? Perhaps we’ll never know.
