Comic name: Bohica Blues
Creator: CF Grant
Genre: Historical Comedy & Slice of (Military) Life
Synopsis: An Army Reserve unit is mobilized to go to Iraq in 2004, and deals with the resultant insanity of war.
Comic link: http://www.bohicablues.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/bohicablues
Patreon/Donation: http://www.patreon.com/Coyote
Please leave your critiques in the comments below!
An Interview with CF Grant
1. When did you first come up with the idea for Bohica Blues?
CF: March of 2004, within a week of arriving at Camp Victory. It was obvious that things were going to be tense and we’d need a break, even if just for a bit, so I started hastily scrawling out cartoons on ballpoint pen and typing paper to put up in the Chow Hall. There were no real storylines or plot arcs (although some developed later) and even the characters were inconsistent from comic to comic. It was totally “gag-a-day” format with nothing stitching it together. And now most of those original comics are comprehensible only to people who were right there at the time. The original germ of the idea came decades ago, when I was first in the Army, at Fort Carson, Colorado. I briefly ran a comic in my unit called “Joe Rock”, with a character not too dissimilar from the one in the comic now. But they are not the same character. I redesigned him with a backstory and updated him to be the guy we see now in BOHICA Blues.
2. What was your most memorable experience in the military?
CF: Definitely the time in Iraq. Something like that is usually a defining moment, even if a person doesn’t experience traumatic events. I was pretty lucky; I saw combat in limited amounts but no real carnage or death; no one I knew closely was killed. But living under that constant, non-stop stress really puts you in a position to know yourself. War is a really freakish way to solve problems. It’s insane. A line from M*A*S*H sticks with me– to paraphrase, a character said “War isn’t Hell; only bad people go to Hell. But good people can end up in war.” Seriously, we need to put more effort into diplomacy.
3. What do you do when you need a break from your comic?
CF: Video games, hiking, scary movies, play with my dogs. I have a motorcycle I like to ride, but I’m a fair-weather rider. Once it gets below 40 F, I completely wimp out.
4. What does your workspace look like (feel free to attach a photo if you’d like)? If you can add anything to it, what would it be?
CF: I have a small desk, a 1950’s era teacher’s desk. It’s wood, flat, and sturdy. It is actually very crowded, with reference books, my Wacom tablet, a laptop, and art clutter. It is an ergonomic nightmare. If I could add anything to it, it would be a whole new desk and art table, and set this one aside for storage.
5. Lord of the Rings or Star Wars?
CF: Star Wars, but I still like LotR a lot. But there are just so many worlds to explore in Star Wars…
6. If you were writing a clever interview question for the next spotlight, what would it be? Feel free to answer this question for yourself if you’d like!
CF: What role did your art or comics play in your life as you were growing up? For me, it was my social gateway, the ice-breaker. I also learned that there are lot of people out there that want to exploit an artist’s talent for themselves, so I had to learn to keep barriers of some sort. Having a talent taught me to exercise discretion, I guess.
7. What’s your favorite time-sucking activity?
CF: After comics, I’d have to say reading. My biggest guilty pleasure is also video games, things like Sid Meier’s “Civilization” series, but I just don’t have time to get into those any more these days. I’d go on more hikes in the outdoors, too, if I had the time to indulge.
8. If money was no object and access was no object, would you want your comic to be made into a series or a movie, animated or live action, and would you want established actors or unknowns?
CF: A TV series. It is already set up to mirror, in a way, M*A*S*H. A series can allow for character growth, you can take time to establish deep relationships and backgrounds with the characters, watch them change and grow… There’s some great TV out there these days, stuff like Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Mad Men… I’d probably want unknowns or people with only moderate fame. I never like going to a movie or watching a show and constantly thinking, “Whoah, that’s Christian Bale,” or “Hey, look, it’s Anne Hathaway!” It distracts.
9. You’ve generously offered to share your knowledge and be a “Military Advisor” for Underdogs who have questions about the services. Are there any topics about the military or your experiences that you’re not comfortable talking about?
CF: The military right now is going through a crisis with sexual assault. That makes conversations uncomfortable! In fact, I’m a VA (Victim Advocate) in the SHARP program (Sexual Harassment Awareness and Rape Prevention). Basically, I have a certain level of confidentiality in case someone comes to me and says they’ve been assaulted. I pretty much drop everything and become a case worker. It can be hard to talk about that kind of stuff, but it needs to be confronted. And the military is just a facet of our larger society, so really we’re seeing things play out here because people bring their attitudes with them. Since I’ve been trained to see this stuff, I can’t unsee it. It’s all over. It’s bewildering sometimes. And I can’t help but wonder if any of the young women I might have once talked to about a military career might have ended up with those problems. It really bugs me.
Really, any time we fail ourselves and our people, it bugs me.
10. What’s next for Bohica Blues?
CF: I have another year of material, easily, and will do that. Afterwards, I may continue it or I may have the characters rotate home to continue adventures there, focusing on their regular lives. IT depends on if I get feedback. For example, the comic strip “Beetle Bailey” was supposed to be about a guy that goes away to college, but the author had him get drafted for the Korean War. THe audience preferred the Army life stories over the college stories, so Beetle stayed in the Army. I have ideas about the futures of each character, and some could probably support comics of their own afterwards.
I intend to focus on some issues facing veterans and the military in general. I have Sergeant Purdue who lost a leg, so I can explore amputee issues if I want… I have stories where female soldiers get treated with befuddlement about their competency by “old school” leadership, a Native American character to explore those issues if I want, Military Working Dogs… I want to look at other veteran issues as well, if this goes on. But overall I want to make the military appear as the real society it is, with some stretching of the canvas for humor, and show what everyday life is like for people who live it. Not as a swaggering Michael Bay flex-fest, but regular people with regular concerns put in highly unusual and insane situations.
Bohica Blues Fan Art!
Neil Kapit never ceases to impress. Check out his powerful fan art for Bohica Blues! If you haven’t read Neil’s comic, Ruby Nation, yet, what are you waiting for?!
makingcomics.com
Very interesting interview! And very valuable. People often approach war either romantically or with gross larger than life exaggeration. Contributions like yours are invaluable in striking a balance.
I’m already a fan of this comic. I like the cartoony feel of it, I like the jokes and I like the safe feeling it gives me as a reader that this all stems from real experiences, and so through your work one can get a feel for them.
Thank you, Tantz Aerine! I realized once I committed to do this, “now I have to find a way to make war funny” and wondered if I’d opened up a whole ‘nother can of worms for myself… but it has turned out fairly well, I think.
And taking away the overly-romanticized fluff that has built up around this kind of subject is important. Not just to make war less “glamorous” but also to remind folks that there are real people sent over there to do this, not just faceless archetypes…
I’m checking out the comic and really enjoying it so far. Military and comedy are both quite removed from my usual interests, yet Bohica Blues managed to strike something in me. I can relate to these people, if not on a “man this guy is totally me” level, then on a “I KNOW people like that/ I’ve totally seen this happen around me” level.
The site, though…
-How come there’s no easily accessible Archive? You need one, like, right now!
-I find the navigation a little inconvenient. It’s too far from where my cursor and eyes are by the time I finish reading a page. I wish I could at least click on the comic page to get to the next one.
-What’s up with some of the pages randomly changing the site layout with blue buttons?
Going back to read some more now…
I am having all kinds of tech problems, and it doesn’t help that I am not a “tech guy”. The “archive” is basically the chapters menu, unfortunately, and the navigation bars have never worked well. The last couple comics don’t show up as “next” options, for instance.
I’m asking around for help but I may have to break down and pay a high school student to come in and do it all…
BB is great, and as the others have said above, it’s the humanity of your stories and humor that keeps readers coming back. The sample page with the airlifted dog is a perfect example. I was raised by peace loving hippies and I love your comic.
About a month ago, at work, as we were preparing some marketing materials for I/ITSEC, a military conference, one of my co-workers was suggesting cringe-worthy stereotypical Hollywood type military catchphrases. I used your comic as an example to shut that down. Then, another co-worker, who’s also an Iraq vet, starting reading your whole archive. It made her pretty weepy, but in a good way. I think.
I’d love to leave more comments for you on the site, but the login is a roadblock. It never remembers who I am and I can never remember what my login was. If you have the option to change it to non-logged users you’ll probably get a lot more input (with the down side of managing spam).
Feel free to ping me if you need any help with HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
Wow, glad your co-worker was able to find something to connect to..! Part of my hope for this project is that people who may have trouble articulating things they experienced would feel okay with putting a family member in front of a monitor and just letting them read BB. Maybe spark a conversation that would have gone unsaid otherwise, even a simple question like “what was it with those ‘poop trucks’?”
I may take you up on your offer to help. Mostly I need someone who can hack a path through WordPress issues and making sure my plugins aren’t working at cross-purposes. I’d like to make the place all pretty-like but for now, “function” is paramount.
I changed the login features (finally plugged in Akismet) so you shouldn’t have problems leaving feedback. I’ve been in a sort of cold war with someone in Chita, Russia, who is trying to leave “trackbacks” in my site. I’d be looking at over 600+ “trackbacks” if it weren’t for my WordFence settings. Seriously, people out there need more positive hobbies.
I didn’t think that this would be the sort of webcomic I’d enjoy as the subject matter is pretty far outside my usual interests/comfort zone, but I was really pleasantly surprised!
Sometimes I think that people tend to have really extreme opinions about the military (either: outraged about killing innocent people or: everything the army does is the best and how dare anyone say anything negative), but BB does a really good job of having a more balanced narrative and almost relaxed feel, which makes for good reading in my opinion.
Even though I’m not particularly interested in the military, I found the characters relatable and compelling and enjoyed it almost as if it was a regular ‘slice of life’ comic. I also enjoyed the satirical jabs at those in charge, which kind of reminded me of a lot WW2 satire (since I’ve seen a lot of that), but cool to see it with a modern twist (because I haven’t seen a lot of that although it probably exists?).
I didn’t really laugh out loud (although, honestly, that’s quite rare for me). I guess if that is the aim, for my tastes, I would go a bit more out there… I think that more expressive faces/characters might help with that? But then again, I’m probably not the target audience (and I’m a Brit, so you can always blame my sense of humour ;)).
I think your art has really improved since the beginning, too. If there was anything particular to work on, I think it would be faces/expressions. For things I think you’re doing well art-wise: I find the panels easily readable, I think the colour adds to the appeal of the pages and I think you’ve been quite attentive to what buildings/camouflage etc actually looks like, which sets the scene. Another small crit is that everyone seems to have the same (quite orange to me?) skin tone. Anyway, over all I think the art is good 🙂
I agree with everyone’s points about the website – the random change with the blue buttons and the radically different sized page was the biggest throw-off for me, I also agree that an archive would be very useful for your readers and that logging into comments is a pain. Also, as I’m being fussy, I don’t think that the text link navigation on the righthand bar is the easiest to navigate thing, and I like there to be an obvious sign somewhere on the main page saying ‘This comic updates Xdays and Ydays’ (if you have a regular update schedule).
Anyway, good look with the comic! My overall feeling is that it’s really human, and I will definitely try and keep up with it and see where it goes :).
Thank you! I appreciate the readership and the good feedback!
I agree, the larger-then-life portrayals of soldiers (over-inflating either the good or the bad) does more harm than good, in my opinion. It certainly means that the actual people get lost in the rhetorical shuffle. Hopefully, BOHICA Blues bridges some of the gap.
Also, glad you feel the art has improved. I think recently I had a bit of a breakthrough– a lot of it is just getting more comfortable with Photoshop and being willing to experiment more. I tend to reach a plateau, get comfortable with it, and get to the point where I can do things relatively quickly and easily, and I find myself with free time to experiment. So I’m trying to do more with faces and shading, for example.
Interesting note on the skin tone. I don’t know if it is the tones I’ve chosen or just monitor placement, but my wife stood behind me one night and commented on the unusually light skin tones, which looked fine to me. I adjusted my laptop’s monitor to her line of sight and she said the effect disappeared. Human flesh tones always seem to be “touchy”, and on my work computer they have a slightly yellowish tint as well, like everyone has jaundice. But at my laptop’s PhotoShop screen it looks normal… This is my first ever foray into computer art so I’m learning as I go.
These tech issues are something I’m going to have to bite the bullet on and hire someone to clean it out. I admit that WordPress has brought me to defeat! I’ll add an update schedule, too… I hadn’t thought of that. But yes, it updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I have a few British readers, and I love the humor. I think BB as a whole has a dry humor that should go well with a global audience… Or maybe I’m fooling myself? We’ll see.
Thank you for the feedback!!
One of my favorite comics that I found through the Underdogs and one of my regular reads. I look forward to the explanations as much as the comics, they’re really interesting and informative. I’m glad you got spotlighted!
Thank you, and I’m glad you like the commentary that goes with them! To think I almost axed it as “redundant”… I easily have another year’s worth of materiel for Iraq alone, and after that, who knows– I can follow their adventures back home, or send them to Afghanistan, or… who knows where…
So, I was dissecting this comic on a FB chat, and we thought it would be better if we make that into actual, useful feedback.
So let me say this: as a non-US citizen, there is little lost love between me an the American armed forces.
And that is why I check Bohica Blues regularly: the comic makes me care about the characters and their plights.
It’s been said that a military-setting comic should make a political stance, which is lacking in BB, but I believe the comic is better for it. We want to see this people.
I loved the episode where they save the dog: I believe this episode displays the humor characteristic of the comic and creates the amount of empathy that makes us care about these guys.
Good work Coyote!
Thank you so much for those good and honest words. I understand a lot of people overseas, even among “traditional allies”, that the US military has an image problem. In some ways this is an image problem we made ourselves, and in other ways it is because our political leaders, all across the spectrum, try to turn every problem into a “send the troops” type of problem. In my opinion, we are frequently mis-used.
Others have pointed out the lack of political commentary but I think there is political commentary, just that it is very subtle. And most of the times, we didn’t discuss the politics of why we were there, it was “the elephant in the room”. A lot of the choices they make, the things they DON’T do, or the attitudes they project or suppress, are there. I intend in the future for the unit to develop closer ties to Hakim, the DVD salesman that took an Al-Quaeda job so he could feed his kids, for example.
But yes, I don’t want this to just end up as a voice on one side or the other, but a fairly honest look at what really happened to the ordinary people.
As always, I like to start with the site. The navigation on this one is a bit of a mess. When the first nav bar is on the top of the page and the other (which looks radically different from the top for some reason) way down at the bottom, I find have a habit of clicking the page to move to the next instead of scrolling. Here, doing so just loads the image, meaning I have to click back and navigate the right way. If you can make it possible to navigate by clicking the page, that would be awesome. And the other thing, as always, is archives. Why do only the chapters load? Is that just a limitation of the site? I know someone else said that was the case, and if that’s so, I’ll let it slide, but as soon as you can get page-by-page archives, do it. Aside from that, I can’t say the site has much in the visual department. It’s cluttered with links and text that don’t seem to have any sort of meaningful organization. It’s not that I can’t understand where they lead, the links are just kind of…there. If you ever plan to redesign the site, maybe consider giving the links and sidebar a more unified theme.
As long as we’re on the topic of visuals, I’m gonna have to admit the art really doesn’t do much for me. The character designs, while recognizable, aren’t especially memorable and the colors are bland and flat. I know the setting isn’t known for its vivid colors, but some shading and highlights might be in order. The building designs, which showing decent perspective, are pretty dull too. I like how the machines are drawn, but everything else is kind of boring.
Still, in a story like this, it’s clear to me that the writing is the main focus, so I can understand the art not having top priority. So here’s what I could suggest for the art, if you want it to enhance the writing: work on more fluid poses (an exaggerated or dynamic pose can sell a punchline more than a stiff pose), work on your facial expression so the emotions really stand out, and try using color to express mood, rather than using the same hues on every page. This last one might seem odd, but hear me out. If a scene takes place at night, you can give it a hint of blue and grey. It it’s a dawn, a bit of rose and gold. At sunset, orange. During full daylight, a full range of colors. Indoors at night, monochrome. Lit by a screen, let the screen’s color dominate the scene (green screen, green hues). Ambiance can really enhance the feeling you’re going for, especially in some of your more introspective, soft moments. Since this is slice of life, you really want to express mood and color can help a lot with that, even if you decide you don’t want to do a lot of shading and highlighting.
So with all that out of the way, what do I think of the writing? Honestly, I think it’s pretty good. The soldiers act like real people and though the comic takes place during war, you neither glamorize nor exploit the violence of war. In fact, you focus very much on the behind-the-scenes parts of war, which is so rarely explored. And there’s one other thing you do that so few military comics do–you have the characters act their age. Yeah, these are young adults and they joke around and gripe and deal with drudgery and have normal young adult concerns and conversations. They aren’t just soldiers. They’re people who happen to be soldiers–and there’s a huge difference between the two. So kudos on that, making a large cast collectively very human and easy to sympathize with. It’s like Dilbert meets Beetle Bailey with a healthy dose of plain old reality. The art might not be interesting, but I appreciate the honesty and genuine nature of how you depict army life outside of battle.
You might see me around, you might not. Military slice of life isn’t something I read a whole lot of since, admittedly, I devour the violence-exploiting stuff like candy (don’t judge me!). But I’m not gonna write this comic off, either. It’s a good example of how to put together an ensemble cast you can collectively like and empathize with and you do an excellent job capturing the setting.
Thank you for the excellent feedback. I find this very useful, especially the suggestions for color hues that represent the time of day. Not only is this my first foray into digital art, it is also my first foray into color. It is proving to be a challenge.
The day-night color hues are an excellent idea, one I shall endeavor to include. You may see in the first episodes I tried to do some shading and highlights, but since I had no clue how to use PhotoShop and it took me hours to get simple things done, it was unsustainable. I was filling all these details in with meticulous line work, and it was driving me crazy. However, I have since learned to use the “lasso” tool and really use opacity settings, so you may notice that in the episodes since the big November “Fallujah” chapter I’ve been adding a lot more shading– especially around the faces. I intend to expand on this on the future.
More dynamic poses and expressions? Good call. I remember the Webcomic Police review that pointed out that the facial expressions were bland, and the “interestingly drawn” characters were the one or two one-shot “guest characters” that had highly exaggerated features. I have basic facial features for each character– like a particular nose that only Wendy Two-Feathers has, and I tried to show natural age progression on Sergeant June Ransom’s character from her 19-year-old appearance in the 1991 Gulf War to her appearance now… and Ricardo has a stronger chin than Joe Rock, and so on… but yes, I think I need to explore more.
As I’ve gotten used to working in digital and color media, I’ve gotten faster and more confident, and that gives me time to explore and be daring. The “airbrush” tool will probably be next. The backgrounds are a challenge, since not only is it bland by nature, but the Army as an organization actually invests resources into making things appear bland on purpose. The buildings are featureless blocks not only because to is cheap, but so an enemy can’t tell one building from another. But there are probably ways I can add more dynamics to the background. I’m also going to try to experiment with the “layers” function some and make faithful reproductions of Iraqi city and village streets, for example. And I hope to do a cartoon map of Camp Victory as I see it in the comic, so that may help establish a sense of “place”.
Your compliments on the characters are very welcomed– they are, IMO, the most important part. There will be more action, but it will probably stay “slice of life-ish” for the most part. If I ever get that science fiction action comic of mine going, though, there’ll be combat action aplenty.
Thanks again!
I sat down and did the binge-read on BOHICA Blues a little while back, and have kept up with it ever since. I find it funny AND informative, really giving us a peek behind the curtain as far as how life really was (with a healthy dose of humor, of course). I’ve even gone as far as plugging it a couple of times on Twitter, since I enjoy it.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I recommend it nonetheless. It’s got great characters, desert-dry humor, and a crisp, clean art style that is easy to follow.
Hey, “desert-dry humor”!? That is excellent! Mind if I use that?
Thanks for following BB and I’m glad you like it!
Of course you can use it!
I’d actually be happy if you did.
As the daughter of an Iraq and Afghan vet, this really hits a soft spot for me, it sounds EXACTLY like a lot of stuff my mom talks about. You’ve captured the humor of the situation beautifully.
Could I make a suggestion? It’d be nice if, when the comic was clicked on, you went to the next comic instead of seeing a closeup. I think a lot of webcomic readers have been trained that way by most sites and have a funny little moment of bewilderment when it doesn’t work.
All in all though, great!
Cheers
Dratsie
Hey, thank you! Helping to give insight to what the veterans went through –even the mundane stuff– is a big part of what I’m trying to accomplish with BOHICA Blues. I’m glad you like it. If your mom has any funny stories (or pictures of daily street life in Iraq) I’d be glad to check them out. I didn’t take as many pictures of ordinary life as I should have, and some extra humor-generating potential material would be good fodder.
The experiences of female veterans would be especially helpful for writing characters like Ransom, Glass, Okuda and Two-Feathers. If you think this could be a good idea, send me a private message at my account here at Webcomic Underdogs.
That “click to advance” is a good idea. I’ll add that to the list of things I want to change as I shop around for a website design person who can help me out.
I’ve just finished binge-reading the first part, and I must say, this is becoming one of my favorites. A lot of my favorite comics have a fantastical theme, and it’s really refreshing to see one so grounded in reality.
Which doesn’t make it unfunny. Quite the opposite. Your characters feel very real. They’re regular people caught in a crazy situation, and you’ve minded that for a lot of good humor and characterization.
I haven’t gotten very far into Iraq yet, but I’m already wishing these characters were more fleshed out. The chaplain seems to have the most backstory right now. I like all of them-but I want to know more about them! You hinted at longer stories, or even story arcs within the whole story. I’d love to see that.
Your art has gotten better and better (as you know). I love the way you do backgrounds, with the figures outlined in different tones. I’d like to see a little more work on perspective, but that will come in time.
And I echo everyone else’s suggestions on the navigation buttons. I’d like to see just one set, right underneath the comic. Less clutter, and a simpler way to read more of this great comic.
Thanks Charlie!
Yes, I have more backstory for pretty much all the characters, although the Chaplain is the one we’ve seen the most of early on. You’ll see Joe Rock’s home town and Sergeant June Ransom’s experience in the 1991 Gulf War eventually, and more is to come.
It takes awhile; I tend to follow mini-arcs of 2-5 comics that deal with a topic before moving on, and there’s a lot to cover. We had a lot of events happen over there, so there’s a crowded buffet of ideas that will be presented. Some character backstories will be harder than others– some details may be hard to bring up without resorting to an expository style.
But we’ll see the Chaplain again, the command staff (Fassbender & Hoddson), the mechanics– I’ll even have more Star Wars jokes eventually.
I’m glad you like the comic!!
I liked it so much I added a link to it!
Coyote is a valuable source of military info as a person and as a cartoonist, whether you’re doing research for a military-related project or simply curious about a particular aspect of military life. It’s great to have a slice-of-life cartoon like this that gives us a daily glimpse into a career that many of us don’t have the stones to sign up for.
Thank you, and glad to help!
As soon as I have time, I plan to put up some how-tos and guides on drawing camouflage, firing stances, and explaining uniform patches & logos. Mostly I just have to juggle time & build up a good buffer… A lot of webcomickers out there do military themes or at least fighting with firearms, so I’m hoping to help folks get things like poses, stances, and other stuff nailed down.
I wanted to tell you, I gave this comic to my vetran mom and she burst out laughing repeatedly. She hasn’t laughed in a while, so I wanted to say thank you for your work. I found it funny, but she found it really cathartic. Thanks.
Wow, I just saw this reply! Thank you, and this is really meaningful to me. When I launched this, I told myself that if it can be meaningful to just one fellow veteran out there, it will be worth all the effort. Let your mom know I appreciate her readership and if she has any funny stories (or insights for female veterans I might be able to use for my characters) I’d love to hear them.