"Mano-a-mano" means "hand-to-hand," which is why Jacky is throwing down his swords. Right before this strip went live, I completely re-drew Hawk in the last panel. The original hand-drawn version…

Gila repeats his attack of cutting off someone's hand -- This time it's Ministry instead of Hawk. And while Gila has seemingly broken free of the mind control, Jacky... hasn't?

We'd always shown Gila as an antagonist, but deep underneath all of his paranoia, he's actually a good person. This was the beginning of evolving his character. The soles of…

Here are the first times we see Hawk's Jawbreaker Kick, and Croc's Bolt Blast Kick in action. Both moves return throughout the series.

This is the first time we've seen the Ninja King die. Of course, "Ninja King" is a rank, not a name.

Jacky's a bad guy now!?

Sure, let's throw in a dialogue reference to the old Captain America & The Avengers arcade game by Data East.

From here on out, most of the rest of the QUAGMIRE story was drawn by hand and scanned in, then colored in Photoshop. Previously, nearly all of Hawk & Croc…

What's happening to Jacky?

At the time, that last panel was the most efford I'd ever put into clothing folds and wrinkles.