Sometimes, the most fun part of writing is the research. I love to learn about new things and Tarot Cards are certainly new territory for me. Not that anyone needs to know a thing about Tarot Cards to enjoy this strip. If you see things through Star Maiden’s eyes, you can enjoy just about anything. (Except swearing. Star Maiden really doesn’t like swearing.)
Oh, and you might notice the SF site is all-new, all-different as of today. Scroll down a bit to see my blog on the all changes!
Hey, everybody. Big changes today, huh? You have no idea. This has been in the works for a long, long time. Let’s not talk about how long. Instead, let’s enjoy the new. I’d encourage everyone to have a poke around. You’ll find some neat surprises as you do and you’ll find that things are a little bit different than what you’re used to. I expect some grumbles, but with time I think you’ll come to love this new site and this new way of experiencing the SuperFogeys world.
Some highlights:
• BLOG – This is the biggest one for me. Because the new site is built on the more traditional Comicpress system, I can now write blogs that are separate from the strips. You’re reading one right now! My goal is to have something new for you to read/look at each and every day–regardless of whether or not a strip posts that day. The blog will always be accessible from the home page, and will run here, below the strip.
• REVAMPED NAVIGATION – Because Comicpress is so very different from the old system, we had to do a bit of jerry-rigging to accomodate both SuperFogeys and SuperFogeys Origins. You’ll notice six navigation buttons under the strips and between them all you should have no trouble getting to where you want to go. Of course, the quickest way to get somewhere is this:
• REVAMPED ARCHIVES – By using the pull-down to the right of the navigation buttons you can access anything in the archives by section. Clicking on any one section will bring to a visual representation of that section and from there you can click on the exact strip or page you’re looking for. It really takes the guesswork out of jumping around the archive and I think you’re really gonna like it.
• REEDITED ARCHIVES – I’ve gone back through each and every strip and reedited it and made minor adjustments to the Valhalla chapters–particularly the early ones. This mostly involved making adjustments to speech balloons to bring more visual unity to the archive. Reading through the whole story will be a slightly (slightly!) different experience than it was before.
• BIGGER STRIPS – Speaking of adjustments to the strips, you’ll also notice they look a bit bigger. On the old site, I could only run them 800 pixels wide. The strips are now 900 pixels wide, from the first to the last.
• COMMENTS – Comments are done a bit more traditionally now. While you do have to click to see and make comments, you can now comment on the strip and blog content separately. At this time, the comments from the old site have not been brought over to the new one, but I hope to have that rectified one day. It’s a programming issue and getting the right person to work on it has been a bit of a challenge. Rest assured, it is one of my number one goals to get those ported over somehow.
• FAN ART – I’ve accumulated a lot of fan art over the years, and, up until now, I’ve had no place to put it. Well, that’s all changed and this site has a place for fan art. At this time, the fan art page will only show you the title of subject of the fan art–you have to click on it to see it–but that’s another of those programming issues we hope to work out in time. For now, I’ll be posting fan art in the blog section and it will immediately go into the archive on the Fan Art page when I do. I’ll be cycling through all the old fan art I have with time, but any new fan art that’s sent along to me will immediately get bumped to the front of the line.
Well, I think that’s enough for now. There’s lots more to discover and I’m sure you’ll find it on your own. Big thanks to Michael DeVito, Jon Conkling and everyone else who have worked so hard for so long to make this possible. Please do chime in and let us all know what you think!
Before there was The SuperFogeys, there was the blog “From Behind the Light.” It was mostly personal stories from my own life with a sprinkling of other nonsense like short fiction stories and a some early comics. Now that we’re on this new site, I can do more blogging of that type and bring back some of the old stuff that most of you have never seen. Here’s one:
Have you ever gone a date with someone that just embarrassed you to no end and about whom you felt the need to apologize for to every person you came in contact with? I haven’t. Instead, women tend to go on those types of dates with ME. You needn’t fear, however. Now that I’m married there is only one woman upon whom I inflict my embarrassment mojo. We have a love/tolerate relationship.
There is a quaint little Mexican Restaurant in the Old Town section of the city where I live called ‘La Posada.’ It’s so quaint that you would never take this particular eatery for a restaurant. It’s a converted, small house where the people are swell and the food is good. You ever eat in a place like this? I feel like an intruder every time I go in. For all I know, the chef just rolled out of bed before cooking my enchiladas and my order acts as his wake up call. “Curse you, Heasley… curse you,” I can hear him saying.
One night about a year and a half ago we decided to treat ourselves to some ‘La Posada’ after a particularly stressful week. Money was tight and we were looking at having our second child early the next year and all I could think about was money and how much of it everyone else had and we didn’t. Now, my wife is a very reasonable individual. She’ll get worked up over things, but she always calms down afterwards. She knows better than to get me worked up because there are always physical manifestations and whatever it is takes over my brain. No one knows this better than our waitress that night at ‘La Posada.’
Nicest Waitress in the World: Can I take your order?
Me: Yeah, um…
Wife: I’ll have the Enchiladas and Tacos combo.
NWITW: Would you like some tortillas with that?
Wife: Yes, please.
Me: Those are free, right?
NWITW: Yes, they are.
Me: Okay. Great. Um…I’ll have the same but instead of the regular tacos can I get the fish tacos?
NWITW: Sure thing. That’ll be a dollar more, is that okay?
Me: Really? Oh, never mind then. I’ll just take the regular tacos.
NWITW: Ok. Would you like anything to drink with that?
Wife (kicking me under the table): Just water’s fine.
NWITW: Ok. Would you like lemon with that?
Me: Does that cost extra?
‘Does that cost extra?’ Now, there’s a phrase that will haunt me for the rest of my life. If we’re at a party and my wife needs a funny story, there’s always ‘Does that cost extra?’ Yes, it’s true, I actually wanted to know if the little lemon slices they put on the rim of our glasses of water cost money.
The Nicest Waitress in the World leaves and you can bet I was in for it.
Wife: Omigosh. You sound just like Logan.
This is not a compliment. Now, Logan is my younger brother. You do not want to go to a restaurant with Logan. He is notorious for giving waiters and waitresses a hard time. (Hopefully, he doesn’t also read this blog. Love ya, bro!) Sample of Logan:
Logan: Hey, you better keep this pitcher of water full. Your tip depends on it; you understand what I’m saying?
We eat and my wife’s conversation seems distracted. I think she’s secretly praying every time our waitress comes around that I won’t open my mouth. The food is excellent, as always, and the check arrives. We had set aside some cash for the evening and we had just enough to cover it. Only just. There was no money for the tip.
What was I supposed to do? Break out my check card for a $3 tip? That seemed ridiculous and even more embarrassing. We left the table and made our way to the register. Like I said, it was a small place. Who do you think our cashier was? That’s right, the Nicest Waitress in the World. I paid the cost of the meal with great shame and left.
NWITW: Have a good night.
I once read that Quentin Tarantino doesn’t believe in tipping. No, not cows. Or goats for that matter. He doesn’t believe in leaving tip at a restaurant after a meal. From what I understand he expounds on this philosophy through a character in a bloody, profane movie he did (that I have not seen) called ‘Reservoir Dogs.’ His reasoning, I believe, is this: I’m paying for the meal and you’re providing a service for which you are also paid therefore I do not need to tip you for simply doing your job. On a certain level, this makes sense. On another level, Quentin Tarantino is a big, fat jerk. And so was I.
My wife left the restaurant as soon as we got up from the table. No way she was gonna stick around and watch me pay for the meal and give some sort of implied approval of my non-tipping ways. I made my way out to the car and got in.
Wife: What did you do about the tip?
Me: I didn’t pay it.
Wife: You really didn’t pay it!?
Me: No. I need to go back. I need to pay it.
Wife: We don’t have any money.
Me: We need to get money. We have to find an ATM.
Wife. You have got to be kidding me. I’m not going back in there.
I drove around Old Town for about 15 minutes looking for an ATM. When I finally found one, I bit the bullet and took out the minimum from our savings–$20. Now, I knew I wasn’t going to tip $20, even if she was The Nicest Waitress in the World. I just couldn’t afford it. I also only had a Twenty Dollar Bill. We found a little cafe and I bought a small milk. By now 30 minutes had passed since we left the restaurant.
Now, I did not want to go back. I already knew at this point that this would rank as one of the top five embarrassments of my life, but what was I going to do? If anyone ever deserved to be tipped, it was NWITW. I entered the door and who do you think was still at the cash register?
Me: Hi. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave without giving a tip. I just didn’t have enough money on me. Here you go.Thanks a lot for tonight. The food was really good.
I handed her $5.
NWITW: Thank you. Have a good night.
For about a split second we just kind of looked at each other. There was this look of terrible gratitude in her face and her whole frame seemed to relax. I can only imagine the things she said about me to her coworkers. And I felt good, too. It was obvious she’d had a rough day and I think she was sure she would never see me again. She was probably hoping she wouldn’t. But not at that moment.
Of course, I ruined the moment by tripping over the threshold as I backed out of the restaurant to back to the car.
Interesting. Not sure if I prefer this format to the previous just yet. Sooo… we’ll see how accurate this fortune is shortly.
I look forward to your comments, Scott! I hope everyone else chimes in as well.
Loving the new layout. I’m sure the future looks even more Awesome!
SuperFogeys…in HD!
I just noticed that Star Maiden has a smiley face on her palm in panel 3. Probably unintentional, but still awesome.
Great looking site, and a great looking strip!
“Good Luck is Yours, the best of your life!”?? So…they’ll be having the best good luck or was that supposed to say “rest of your life”??
Jazyl H – Thanks, man! Hope it works for you going forward.
THeasley – Darn straight SuperFogeys in HD. I didn’t even notice the smiley face. That’s hilarious. Marc, did you mean to do that?
Dierna – It’s the former, not the latter. So… no typo.
Since her power shoots from her hands, I’d like to think that’s a subtle Star Maiden quirk.
Whoa. We can reply to comments individually?? That’s so cool. I had no idea!
The smiley face on Star Maiden’s hand was just a happy accident. I can totally see her being the type to have random happy ball point pen drawings on her palm, though!
Gonna jump on in here with the interpretation of the Tarot Cards, using what I think Brock originally used in his research.
Since she’s using 5 cards, I’m going to assume it’s the Star Spread.
First Card: What you can see — Queen of Rods.
My quick research indicates that the Queen of Rods is made up of opposing elements — Good/Evil, Fire/Water, Yin/Yang. The Queen of Rods is also very stubborn and determined to achieve a goal. Unfortunately, this card doesn’t give us a clear indicator of who — Star Maiden, Swifty and Jerry ALL could be interpreted to be represented here. (Star Maiden for her dark turn, Swifty for his stubbornness and not-too-good-lately side, and Jerry is obvious)
Second Card: What you do not see — Lovers
Lovers represent harmony, emotion and the proper choice. Again, this could be applied to many characters: Star Maiden & Swifty (as they’re present), SpyGal, and Jerry.
Third Card: What can be changed — The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man represents mystery, wisdom, and hard earned lessons. That one is almost certainly Jerry but really could represent ALL of the Fogeys.
Fourth Card: What can’t be changed — The Fool
The Fool represents innocence, unconventional behaviour, new beginnings and the cause of all effects. It’s pretty safe to say the Fool represents the upcoming finale all caused by Jerry (let’s remember that without the giant robot, the power source would have never been activated and nobody would have found Dr. Rocket)
The Fifth Card: What you can expect — The Wheel of Fortune
Change.
In other words… the reading isn’t accurate. Not that it would help them anyway since it’d be a Cassandra Truth. Doesn’t help us readers any either… we already knew this.
Scott, that is awesome. I’m the first to admit that your research wielded far more thorough results than mine. I’ll be interested to see your analysis once he events of this chapter play out!
I’ve only had my tarot cards drawn once, and it was by a mime in a steampunk basement club on Halloween. Even if I could’ve figured out what she was trying to say about my fortune, I’d be slightly disinclined to believe it…..
I unabashedly agree with you. I put no stock in tarot cards. That said, I did do a bit of research for this strip. I twisted it to my own ends, but still…
Haha, I never said I don’t believe in fortunes! I’ve just yet to come across anyone who seems…. Legitimate. I’ve been wanting to look into tarot simply because the history and mythology behind it looks fascinating, but there’s an astonishingly larger selection of TYPES of tarot than I ever realized. (Its also probably so convoluted thanks to artistic license!)