Terminal Lance is an online web comic by Maximilian Uriarte that has been running for sixteen years – and this week, he homaged a well known comic, using it to make a pointed observation on the current situation in the Middle East.
Created when he was a Marine, Maximilian’s humour has transcended both the military and comics communities. I got the chance to meet him at Wondercon in San Francisco many years ago, and he is a very pleasant person, and his work has reached out gaining a widespread readership as it touches and reflects on life, and life in the Marines.
On the 24th March 2026, Maximilian posted a new comic strip and a blog post that uses a well known comic to help share the thoughtfulness that goes into a post, that reflects on the possibility of war, by a war veteran.
It’s an important and poignant voice to hear, right now, while many may have a clear view that war is horrendous and the world needs to be fighting starvation, poverty and defending our climate, it’s vital that we listen, and hear such voices, as it demonstrates a solidarity with humanity.
“We are here again,” Maximilian says. “Twenty-three years after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the entire Middle East has exploded into a fury of fire and missiles centred 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…”
Things are beyond the unexpected at the moment. So much has occured in such a short time, and the utilisation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen, hits a note that resonates. Visually capturing a sentiment and communicating it, in a way that harnesses human emotion, understanding and thought.
“As a veteran of the Iraq war, I can do nothing but hope and pray that cooler heads ultimately prevail,” Maximilian continues, “and the Marines and other service members being deployed to the region stay safe.”
Strategies, plans, morals, reason, feel like ideals and notions that are currently lost, elements that have been discarded in a vain glorious attempt to distract, a narcissistoc desire to control, and a greedy desire for luchre that beggars belief. Empathy was discarded long ago, humanity a term that means little, in a time where we know how important it is to cherish democracy, lawfulness and justice, it feels like there’s been an ongoing unchecked heave towards a darker place.
“I wish I could tell you more. But, like you, I also have no idea how this whole thing plays out.”
The full post deserves reading.
I should say that The White Donkey: Terminal Lance by Maximilian is one of the best war comics of the 21st Century. Indeed I shelve it next to Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun, Trenches and Goddamn This War! By Jacques Tardi, Maus by Art Spieglemans, the collected Blazing Combat, Last Day in Vietnam by Will Eisner, and a number of comics and collections by Joe Kubert, Doug Murray and Garth Ennis. The White Donkey is a superb book, an amazing piece of work, really nicely drawn but sharing an honest and heartfelt insight into the Iraq conflict, written and drawn by a marine who served there.
James Bacon
• Head to Terminal Lance at terminallance.com to read more of the strip | Support Terminal Lance on Patreon | Discord | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | X
Maximilian Uriarte has embraced the arts since a very young age, informing the core of all of his work, from writing to illustration and filmmaking. He is classically trained in real media and extensively adept in digital art mediums. His background in animation and combat photography make him a unique hybrid filmmaker, mixing visionary artistry with a powerfully visual approach to storytelling.
The White Donkey was Max’s first graphic novel, published by Little, Brown & Co. in 2016. A New York Times bestseller, it has won numerous awards for its heartfelt and honest depiction of the Iraq war experience.
• Maximilian Uriarte is online at maximilianuriarte.com | LinkTree | Instagram | Patreon | X
• The White Donkey: Terminal Lance by Maximilian Uriarte (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
A powerful, compulsively page-turning, vivid, and moving tribute to the experience of war and PTSD,The White Donkey tells the story of Abe, a young Marine recruit who experiences the ugly, pedestrian, and often meaningless side of military service in rural Iraq. He enlists in hopes of finding that missing something in his life but comes to find out that it’s not quite what he expected. Abe gets more than he bargained for when his journey takes him to the middle east in war-torn Iraq…
This is a story about a Marine, written and illustrated by a Marine, and is the first graphic novel about the war in Iraq from a veteran.
The White Donkey explores the experience of being a Marine, as well as the challenges that veterans face upon their return home, and its raw power will leave you in awe.
• Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli by Maximilian Uriarte (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Lapis Lazuli is a rich blue semi-precious gemstone found deep within the Saresang Mountains of Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province. For thousands of years, the people of Badakhshan have lived peacefully, seemingly untouched by time itself. However, in recent years, war has found its way into these remote villages, as the Taliban have sought the riches buried within the mountains of Badakhshan. This extremist group of Taliban fighters, known to the locals as the Horsemen, have recently taken control of the lucrative gemstone export market, focusing much of their energy on the sale of Lapis Lazuli.
At the behest of the fledgling Afghan government, United States Marines are sent to this treacherous and remote region to combat the Taliban and restore the gemstone trade to the people of the mountains. Led by Sergeant King-a stoic and commanding presence whose contained exterior hides a violent shadow-the Marines find themselves in an epic clash of kings for control of the Badakhshan Mountains.
Battle Born is about violence in all its forms – “civilised” and detached; close, brutal and extreme. But, most of all, it is also the story of human connection and human kindness.
- About the Author
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James Bacon (he/him) is an Irish fan, a train driver living in London. A Hugo Award-winning editor of the fanzine “Journey Planet”, he is a comic fan and enjoys comic art, war Comics, Star Wars, Irish aspects to comics and railways in comics or otherwise. He has been writing about comics for over thirty years.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, Digital Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics
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