Terminal Lance

Terminal Lance is a comic strip and website created in 2010 by Maximilian Uriarte that satirizes United States Marine Corps life. Uriarte publishes the strip in the Marine Corps Times newspaper and on his own website, TerminalLance.com. The name is a slang term for a Marine who finishes an enlistment (i.e. terminates) as a Lance Corporal. The system for advancement to Corporal and Sergeant, "cutting scores," is heavily dependent on career-field and seniority—this leads to a large number of "terminal lances" in infantry specialties who might, in another field, have advanced to NCO rank. According to Uriarte, he created the strip "to poke fun at the Marine Corps, much like Gunny Wolf in Charles F. Wolf Jr.'s old Sempertoons, but with an emphasis on the grunt Lance Corporal’s point of view."

Graphic novel
In 2016, Terminal Lance creator Maximilian Uriarte independently released the 290-page graphic novel Terminal Lance: The White Donkey which he wrote and illustrated. The book was independently published on February 1st, 2016, after a successful Kickstarter in 2013. Shortly after, the book was picked up by Little, Brown and Company and retitled The White Donkey: Terminal Lance, and was released on April 19, 2016.

In popular culture

 * On May 30, 2012, The Duffel Blog ran a satire piece stating that the creator of the Terminal Lance strip was not Maximilian Uriarte, but instead was Carlton Kent—the former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. The article made a joke that Kent had said that he created the strip in order to reach out to junior Marines in better ways.