Sleep deprivation is one of those things that every Marine becomes intimately familiar with as early as the first few days of boot camp. All across the Corps, Marines are missing sleep for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they’re standing duty, or maybe on a night patrol training op. Perhaps they’re deployed and operating on the bare essentials to stay alive. Perhaps they’ve just been up all night binge drinking and playing Oblivion Remastered. Who knows.

Either way, Marines will adapt and overcome, rising to the occasion of any challenge, whether they’re rested or not.

This comic was a lot of fun to make, because I made it as part of a collaborative live demo workshop I did as the guest speaker of the Combat Art Symposium at the National Museum of the Marine Corps this past week. I walked through my process for finding a joke, beating out a punchline, and laying out the comic visually with the help of a room full of other really talented artists tossing out ideas and gags.

The Combat Art Symposium is a gathering of Combat Artists and other military artists across the spectrum of the military. I’ve been (loosely) affiliated with the Marine Corps Combat Art program ever since my 2009 deployment to Iraq, where I spent most of the trip photographing and sketching Marines across the country. It wasn’t until 2021 or so that I became an official Marine Corps “Combat Artist,” and it’s been really amazing getting to know the other artists in the community.

At the Symposium, we got a great behind-the-scenes look at the Marine Corps art collection and archives. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I was able to go.

I’ll post more about the trip for subscribers on the official TL Patreon page for a behind-the-scenes look.

According to multiple reports this week, things got bad on the USS Lincoln. Food was short, supplies were short, the Marines and Sailors aboard the vessel had not been off-ship in months. Things got so bad, it was reported that by the time rescue crews arrived, the Marines had consumed most of the seamen aboard the USS Lincoln.

Okay maybe that last part isn’t true, but things were bad! As of today, the USS Lincoln has just begun its journey back home after a 9 month deployment in support of the ongoing Iran war.

Of course, predictably, this situation immediately became a partisan issue (as with everything these days). The discourse surrounding the situation revolved mostly around whether or not you thought these servicemen and women should just “suck it up” and deal with the burden of being deployed.

I think this is a stupid point of view in 2026–especially as the United States Military remains the most heavily funded (by a factor of many) military on the planet. The idea that we could spend a $1 Trillion on our defense budget and somehow not be able to get a few resupplies to this ship is absurd and an abject failure of leadership at all levels.

If we’re going to be the empire that can project force all over the planet, then let’s be that. However, that means we also don’t get the luxury of excuses when we fall short of taking care of our service members.

The platoon Corpsman–AKA “Doc”–has one warning for you: don’t fall out of a hike. If you do, your ass quite literally belongs to him. The dreaded “Silver Bullet” is a device used to keep Marines in line for fear of their buttholes being violated by the Navy medic.

We know this is little more than a scare tactic because, let’s be realistic here, thermometers exist in a variety of forms that don’t involve being shoved up your ass. During the COVID pandemic we saw people getting their heads checked with infrared non-invasive forehead-reading thermometers every time you walked into a supermarket. We are supposed to believe that there’s literally not any better way to check a temperature?

Stay hydrated, Marines… or else.

In other news, I’ll be back in DC next month as the Guest Speaker for the Marine Corps Combat Art Symposium at the National Museum of the Marine Corps! I’ll be giving a talk and leading the cohort of fellow combat artists in workshops etc. I’m not sure how much is open to the public but I’ll pass on any info I get!

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.

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.

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.