Author: Maximilian

  • Military Entrance Processing Station

    Military Entrance Processing Station

    The experience of joining the military in any branch is as unique as it is fraught with strange sights and sounds. The “Duck Walk” you are forced to do in your underwear at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) is among the most ubiquitous and ridiculous.

    MEPS is essentially a medical office, usually near an airport, full of weirdo doctors that are presumably there because they enjoy examining the buttholes of 18-24 year old enlistees. To be fair, that’s probably a pretty sweet gig for a doctor compared to most (geriatric gynecology, anyone?) but it makes for a strange sendoff for the people joining.

    During your visit at MEPS, you’ll be stripped down to your underwear, slam your knees on the cold, hard ground, duck walk with no idea if you’re doing it right, and bend over in front of an 85 year old and spread your cheeks. The butthole examining is, apparently, essential to military service in the United States. Our national security depends on the clean buttholes of our nation’s finest young men and women.

    On an admin note: prints are back! Scroll down below (on any comic) to place an order directly here for an autographed print of your favorite comic. As well, please take a look at the Terminal Lance Patreon and consider subscribing for behind-the-scenes looks, and also so we can keep this place ad-free.

  • TERMINAL LANCE Patreon

    TERMINAL LANCE Patreon

    A while back, I officially launched the Terminal Lance Underground, our official Patreon page designed to give fans a bit extra behind the scenes.

    Despite all of the success of the comic over the years, Terminal Lance remains an indie comic with no affiliation to the Marine Corps or any other entity. It is 100% owned and operated by the Marine veteran that created it (me). TL has made money via a variety of ways over the years (advertising, newspaper publication, books, other things) but the core is always the comic strip posted online like it has been since 2010.

    The Patreon has become a really fun place to post real insider extra material, drawing process, and other exclusive looks at upcoming projects.

    If you’re a fan of Terminal Lance and want to get a glimpse at exclusive behind-the-scenes content and a few extra bonus perks, consider supporting the comic and joining the TL Underground.

  • Prints Are Back

    Prints Are Back

    After receiving a lot of requests from fans to order autographed prints of their favorite comics, prints are now available to order right here on TL.

    These prints are created from the original high-resolution source files and autographed by yours truly, made to order and packed in a comic sleeve with backing board.

    Ordering is easy: just find your favorite comic (head over to Comics and search if you need to) and scroll down until you see this button below the blog post.

    This button takes the exact comic you’re looking at and puts it into the order, so make sure you’re on the one you want. They make great collectors items or maybe just a fun office decoration. With over 1000 TL comics out there, it’s easy to find something perfect for just about anyone.

  • The Guest of Honor

    The Guest of Honor

    Last week I had the great honor of being invited by the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps as the Guest of Honor for this year’s Sunset Parade. While I was in DC, I got to visit the Pentagon, give a talk at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, and clean up cigarette butts in the parking lot with a bunch of other Lance Corporals.

    SgtMaj of the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Ruiz, with TL Creator Max

    It was a very busy trip with a lot of activity squeezed into the 1 day I was in Pentagon City. It started with a trip to the Pentagon in the morning to officially meet with SgtMaj Ruiz and General Smith (the Marine Corps Commandant). This was officially my first time at the Pentagon, and I was happy to see it not only contains a Panda Express, but a Starbucks and a Popeye’s Chicken as well.

    After meeting the SgtMaj in his office, I had a short meet and greet with General Smith at his office, which was foreboding and down a long, red hallway lined with portraits of past Commandants. General Smith as super chill and gave me a challenge coin, but I don’t carry challenge coins, so I gave him a TL condom. This interaction was as awkward as you can imagine in a dead silent room of Marine Corps officers.

    As the Guest of Honor at the parade, we had a reception beforehand where the SgtMaj of the Marine Corps introduced me as the “Lance Corporal of the Marine Corps,” which I guess makes it official.

    To be blunt: even though I’ve been doing this for as many years as I have, and I have seen firsthand the love and warmth that fans have given me over the years, even I wasn’t quite prepared for the level of welcome I received in DC. To have the acting Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps say in his remarks that I’ve done as much or more for the Marine Corps as any General or otherwise took me aback.

    The entire trip for me felt like a real full-circle moment for myself and my Marine Corps journey with both my enlistment and Terminal Lance and beyond. Believe it or not, I actually hit my 20 year enlistment mark on May 21st, just a couple of weeks before the trip. In an alternate universe, I could have been standing at that exact spot listening to someone give me retirement remarks on that exact day.

    But things were different for me. My work with Terminal Lance over the years has allowed me to see and do and experience so many things I would have never expected as a young Lance Corporal drawing comics in Hawaii back in 2010.

    Huge thank you to the Sergeant Major’s staff at the Pentagon for taking care of me, driving me around, keeping me on schedule, and just overall being a great bunch.

  • Drawing for Marines At the NMMC

    Drawing for Marines At the NMMC

    You may have seen on our social media that I was invited to be the Guest of Honor at the Sunset Parade in DC later this month. When they approached me with the idea, I told them I’d love to make it to the museum and give a talk.

    Join me on June 16, 2026 for an hour talk on all things Max, Terminal Lance, The White Donkey, animation, art, and everything else! I’ll even be doing some live drawing demos. It should be a fun time!

    If you’re in DC, RSVP here:

    https://www.usmcmuseum.com/maximilian-uriarte.html

  • Secrets of Valor

    Secrets of Valor

    If you’ve ever talked to someone trying to “steal valor,” or otherwise lying or embellishing about their military service, they almost always follow a particular pattern:

    1. They were “Special Forces.”
      • Mind you, these “Special Forces” are always vague and non-specific. Were they Navy SEALs? Delta Force? Who knows! Can’t be too specific or someone might look into it.
    2. They can’t talk about it… Because, you know, special forces and top secret missions and stuff.
      • Conveniently, their service was so special and so secret, they won’t show up on any kind of list or database, should one want to check.

    Have you ever met a Marine? A real Marine doesn’t shut the fuck up about being a Marine and doing Marine stuff. A real Marine (or other service member) has stories. Tons of them. Even about the secret stuff! The objective may have been secret, but let me tell you about how I tripped in a ditch filled with 4 feet of shit-water because I could only see in a 20 degree cone in front of me with night vision, or how Stephens shit his pants on the ride back, etc.

    Real Special Forces don’t keep it a secret. Sure, they might not tell you all the details you don’t need to know, but I’ve met plenty of SEALs, Delta Force, and others, and not a single one of them wouldn’t tell you exactly what they were and who they are. Hell they probably even have a podcast and a new book coming out for you to learn more about it.

    Never believe anyone if they tell you their service was too secret to talk about, because they are surely full of shit. I have to assume there are in-fact real operators out there in complete secrecy, but you wouldn’t know it, would you?

  • May the 4th Be With You

    May the 4th Be With You

    Star Wars is a classic tale of good guys fighting bad guys to save the galaxy for all. The factions are clear and the stakes are straightforward enough that the films can appeal to nearly everyone.

    I’m too young to have watched Star Wars on its original release, but I was a kid when the Special Editions were re-released in theaters, and with every release I found myself spending multiple days in a row at the cheap theater in my small town soaking it up.

    For myself and every young fan that gets into the series, we find ourselves admiring the heroism and grit of guys like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Who doesn’t want to be a hero?

    That drive to protect and serve leads many young men and women to enlisting in the Marine Corps and other branches. However, it turns out that the nature of the military means you’re much less likely to be a maverick once-in-a-generation talent, and generally guaranteed to be the completely average Storm Trooper just trying to get through another day under the desert sun(s). Not fighting the Empire, but working for it because of the pay and bennies.

    May the 4th be with you, Marines. No one needs it more.

  • Private First Class

    Private First Class

    Presented without context.

  • Generational War

    Generational War

    We are here again. Twenty-three years after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the entire Middle East has exploded into a fury of fire and missiles centered on Iran and Israel. We as a nation find ourselves yet again staring down the barrel of sending our nation’s finest to fight a war in the region.

    However, this time feels markedly different. I was a high school freshman when 9/11 happened in 2001, and the collective injury endured by the United States of America brought us together as a country, and we engaged in a lengthy national dialog surrounding the military action that ensued in Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether any of that was legitimate or ultimately justified is another matter, but we at least felt a part of the national conversation.

    The war in Iran broke out overnight with the President of the United States posting a video on Truth Social at 1am, with no real indication of planning or even an attempt to sell it to the American people. The stakes have been unbelievably high, as the war quickly spilled out into neighboring countries and immediately caused chaos in global markets with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Even today, the overarching objective seems elusive, confused and shifting.

    As a veteran of the Iraq war, I can do nothing but hope and pray that cooler heads ultimately prevail, and the Marines and other service members being deployed to the region stay safe. There is no doubt in my mind that the US military is professional and capable of handling anything thrown their way, but it requires strong strategic leadership to navigate the rough waters.

    I wish I could tell you more. But, like you, I also have no idea how this whole thing plays out.

  • The New TL

    The New TL

    Welcome to Terminal Lance 5.0

    With many projects in the works, 2026 is bringing with it a new era of Terminal Lance. With it, I decided to build a new website to showcase the comic and act as a home base of sorts.

    Like many brands in the modern age, TL is spread out across many different platforms. Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, BlueSky, Discord… It goes on. However, the core of TL is right here, just as it has been for the last 16 years.

    The core idea of TL 5.0 is focus on the core of Terminal Lance: the comic. All the way up until 2022, TL always had the latest comic featured on the front page with easy navigation to move between entries. This changed with the previous site redesign in the interest of expanding the TL brand into new avenues. This was great in theory, but the site really lost something in the process.

    The nature of web browsing has fundamentally changed over the years, and websites gave way to social media in a serious way. Traffic on this site reduced significantly as traffic on social media picked up, so my focus was taken away from the site.

    As part of the redesign, I also updated the archive! Every old 3-panel black and white TL classic comic has been updated for modern displays with over double the resolution. This was a monotonous task that needed to be done by hand, but it was much overdue.

    While I was going through each and every one of the over 400 comics that needed to be updated, it brought back a sea of memories from the journey that this comic has taken me on. Many of the comics have, frankly, not aged very well. Many of the jokes are dated, but what bothers me more as an artist is just the execution of the drawings. TL went through many eras over the years, but we definitely didn’t start with the polished, professional look the comic has today.

    Feel free to look around, enjoy your stay, and look forward to more TL.