The super-prison in the first panel is loosely based on the design of the Hall of Justice from the old Superfriends cartoon show. I don’t have a good reason for this other than it’s a design that always stuck with me and seemed strong enough to house all the wonderful bad guys that must be [...]
How is it than in one strip I have both my worst and one of my best drawings of Dictator Tot? I like the idea of what I was going for in the first panel, but I don’t think I pulled it off very well. Love the drawing of her in the last panel, though [...]
My wife loves, loves, loves Dictator Tot in the first panel. I don’t usually do a lot of shading in SF, but that first panel screamed for a different lighting scheme. I don’t know that you’d be able to tell what’s going on without it. Second panel could have been better. A more arresting visual [...]
The Third Man is a character that first appears in the backup story in the First SuperFogeys Collection. I have big plans for him. His look is directly inspired by the film “The Third Man,” and Orson Welles’ character in particular. I think it’s fair to say I took a bit of inspiration from one [...]
Visually, this strip is meant to be a direct reference to Episode 55. I’ll make it clear right here: Yes, The Third Man is the person the Healer was talking to. The Third Man’s connection to Gene was a surprise to me. I had planned for the Third Man to be involved with the shenanigans [...]
Finally we’re back to the Fogeys. It was a conscious decision on my part to not have the Fogeys enter the stage for so many strips—six, to be exact. I wanted to try something new. Re-energize myself. I found I really missed them and the strip seems to come alive when they’re “on screen.” I [...]
Something I’m starting to return to that I haven’t really done since Chapter 1 is repeated panels, something I swore off of (for the most part) for Chapter 2. The difference now is that it’s not a crutch. I truly feel that this strip (and the next one, for that matter) was best served by [...]
Visually, this is one of my absolute favorites. You can see I’m trying something new with the background. I first used the “faded background” technique in a guest strip I did for Wes Molebash’s strip “You’ll Have That” Once I did it there, I knew I needed to try it for SF. More copy/pasting [...]
Whew. What a mother of a strip this was. For those of your keeping track at home, that’s 21 panels there. This marks Swifty’s return to the story after an absence of about 18 srips. I wanted it to be huge and Swifty playing frustrated is just fun. Originally, the last panel was silent—no joke. [...]
The first panel shows a depth of field we haven’t really seen in SF thus far. My goal was to do a drawing that would also work well as a group shot and, possibly, a wallpaper. Plans are in the works for just such a thing. Obviously, this is a huge change of pace for [...]
What a nightmare this strip was. Sometimes moving the plot along is a joy. Anytime I do it I already know what the point of the strip is, I just have to figure out what the joke is. Except…for this one…I had no joke. I had a set-up, but no payoff. Still, I started drawing, [...]
Gene’s closing line in panel one was originally something like “Give her your utmost respect.” I quickly discovered at the lettering stage that I didn’t have enough room for that. Thank goodness. I love that he just shouts “Respect!” Kinda’ thing that makes me laugh. Spy Gal threatening violence on a little girl makes me [...]
The Swifty-Jerry dynamic is one of my favorites, and this is one of my favorite exchanges that I’ve had a chance to write. I love how Jerry just ignores Swifty. A fun strip that segued into one of the biggest mistakes I ever made with the SuperFogeys…
Could I just not be bothered to draw backgrounds this time? Looks like. Still, the colors are pretty, right? Right? I try to make the Space Pig be an animal of as few words as possible. You never quite know where he’s coming from, I think. He’s a popular character, so he must be [...]
I don’t remember if this strip was done this way out of laziness or because I wanted to shake things up. Honestly, if I had to guess I’d say I was trying to shake things up. I think I was trying to create the feeling of overhearing the conversation before you really see who is [...]
Another “colorful” strip. Seriously, this is just ugly. I never pull off the silhouetted figures thing as well as someone like Mike Witmer over at Pinkerton. I try but…no. Still, Jerry getting rejected by Spy Gal…that’s always gold as far as I’m concerned.
I think my ink line is too thick in these middle Chapter 3 strips. Also, the camera is just a little too tight, a constant problem of mine overall. Knowing what I wanted to do with Dr. Klein by the end of this chapter, it was important to keep him present in the story. That’s [...]
I love the panel with the close-up of the hands. From the drawing to the colors, it just works. Too bad the rest of the strip doesn’t. A lot readers asked me what those sparks near Spy Gal’s wrist were in the last panel. Then answer: My feeble attempt at visually depicting her arthritis. …I [...]
Swifty coming in at the end was kind of cheap. I didn’t have a real gag for this one, and he usually does in a pinch. It was an important Dr. Klein moment though.
Just keeping the Third Man alive here. Also, it was important to me that Dictator Tot get her animal crackers.
Dr. Rocket is always a lot of fun. Perversity is one of the worst evils, I think, because it reduces people to objects. That’s pretty dangerous thinking. Here, the good doctor is showing another side of his evil–the clumsy, bid-for-power type of evil. It’s not a very good plan for world domination, but in the [...]
And now we see the real plan. Get the Captain on the computer to see his ex-wife. In the end, it’s kind of weak. There should have been something extra on the plan, or a bigger reaction from the Captain. It bears fruit, sure, but I think the Captain’s reaction could have been stronger and [...]
A fun, fun page. Star Maiden is just a pure pleasure to right. Star Maiden started out as Star Woman. Eventually, that character turned into Spy Gal (as explained in the commentary for episode 6, I think). Still, the initial idea for Star Woman wouldn’t let go. I knew I wanted a Wonder Woman type. [...]
That last panel of Star Maiden is something I’m really pleased with. I wanted a really fluid figure and I often have a hard time drawing women. I surprised myself here. For some reason, readers really latched onto the phrase “Spill it, Gramps!” I have no idea why. I didn’t think it was particularly funny. [...]
The genesis for this flashback came from Daniel Woodhouse, artist on “Thog Infinitron” and sometime artist of “Beaver and Steve.” I asked Dan to do a short backup story for the second SuperFogeys book and asked him what he wanted to draw. He said “Captain Spectacular fighting in the skies above a city. Maybe a [...]
I don’t know why Mr. Crook is in there. It doesn’t really add anything to the story to have him there. Great Dr. Rocket moment though. I had a lot of fun drawing that tongue and making it as yucky as possible.
The obvious signified of a flashback is to do the art in black and white. That gray shading I add in there is an effect I wish I had time to do on all the SuperFogeys strips. Plans are for that effect to be added to the strips for the trade collections. Once that happens, [...]
This strip is a favorite of mine. It’s some of my favorite dialog I’ve written and the sparse look really works for it. Portal could have been drawn better though.
Obviously, something big went down in that other dimension. For the whole story, check out the backup tale “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension” in the second SuperFogeys book. It’s drawn by Julio Molina-Muscara, artist on “Omega Chase.” I wanted a “no bad guy” break-up here. I think you get where everyone [...]
The Pig is the minister! That’s the payoff to the Space Pig’s WebSpace page. Don’t know how many people picked up on that. I had a lot of fun with this page. Designing the Ninja Bridesmaid was particularly fun.
Some people objected to the Captain and Star Maiden getting a divorce over a stinky sock. Them I would say: it’s one panel. Obviously, there’s a much bigger story there. I had a lot of fun with the interplay between Dictator Tot and Captain Spectacular here. I need to get those two together again.
Remind me never to do a triple-sized again. In fact, this burned me out so much that not a single double or triple-sized strip appeared in all of Chapter 4. I had been waiting a long time to do this one. I knew from before the beginning of Chapter 2 that the Third Man and [...]
Kind of a weird way to start a chapter. You could argue that this really belongs in Chapter 3 (as it’s mostly old business), but I knew Dr. Klein was going to be disappearing for the bulk of the chapter and wanted to make sure he got in there in some way so that things [...]
After the reveal of the last chapter that Dr. Klein is the Third Man, everything he says is just a little more sinister. This is my playing with that a bit. Artistically, this strip is bunk. Nothing looks right and that third panel is atrocious.
Hands down, this is my most favorite Dictator Tot strip. I think I really scored with her dialog here, none of which I can take credit for. This is very, very similar to conversations I’ve had with my daughter Elora. It was fun to break the 4 panel structure a bit as well, even though [...]
Another ugly, ugly strip. An important one though. This is one of those that I think people read and then didn’t ask the right questions about. Jerry’s tears are a leftover plot thread from Chapter 3. The last time anyone talked about him it was in Episode 88 when Captain Spectacular mentioned that Jerry had [...]
Slapsticky? Yes, definitely. But I still love it. Shoot, I love it because it’s slapsticky. Obviously, I’m riffing on the Nintendo Wii here, notorious for it’s flying game remotes. I got a Wii in December of 2006. Love that thing and with all the reports of the sytem being used in nursing homes across the [...]
As bad as the art was in the firs few strips of this chapter, I think it got that much better once the Wii stuff came in. Spy Gal’s jumping pose was something I was nervous about doing (I’m not good with the action), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. All of [...]
Some readers thought Jerry was out-of-character here. In my mind, Jerry is basically a decent guy, but even decent guys can be pushed too far. If it’s Swifty talking, then you can be sure that Jerry is being pushed too far. I labored and labored over the wording of Dr. Rocket’s apology. It had to [...]
I had a TON of fun with this episode. Webcomics can, at times, be a bit of a grind. That schedule, even at just twice a week, can be killer. A visually interesting episode like this where I get to play with depth of field and extreme reactions is just a blast. I had only [...]
Eh. I can take or leave this one. I think there’s some neat character animation going on in those first panels, but it’s not drawn very well. This is one of the first strips I wrote for this chapter, and one of the least successful. When I first wrote it, it seemed to encapsulate what [...]
And now you see the entire impetus for the Wii storyline. I knew I wanted Star Maiden to be so deranged that she actually sees the Fogeys as their younger selves. With that in mind, I thought her interpretation of “air boxing” would be hilarious. Turned out to be more dramatic, but what are you [...]
Visually, this is a very exciting strip for me. Even the lame “Kirby Dot” I used for the energy effect on Star Maiden’s blast look pretty decent. This is the strip where I began to realize just how much fun writing Star Maiden was going to be. I mean, here I have a character that [...]
This is another callback to Spy Gal’s initial appearance in Chapter 1 where the Fogeys discussed her “hotness.” Again, Star Maiden’s reference to bunnies is not so random as it first appears. A quick read of episodes 44 and 45 of Chapter 2 should give enough of a clue to what she might be talking [...]
Some pretty loaded dialog here, and one of my favorite CS/Jerry conversations at that. I like the talky stuff. Action is fun and I understand the need for it, but I always see the core of the SuperFogeys being the interplay between the characters. That’s where the meat is. Love the promise of the last [...]
I did it. I did a strip with no males in it. In one sense, I really like writing women. It’s different and it’s fun to get outside of myself like that. On the other hand…I”m no woman. There’s a lot going on here. Star Maiden is obviously not on the same page as Spy [...]
Some readers misunderstood this strip to mean that Spy Gal is upset at Star Maiden again. Not my intention at all, something I hope becomes clear in the next strip. Swifty’s line at the end came from trial and error. All of his dialog in the last panel went through many iterations. I think the [...]
The rare one-paneler! Very rarely do I have an idea for a strip that lends itself to this. The challenge is the layout. Getting all those characters into one frame isn’t easy for me, but well worth it, I think.
My mother hates the language in the SuperFogeys. This bleeped out stuff isn’t for her. Can’t imagine what she’d say if I didn’t censor. Personally, I can’t stand foul language. I think I’ve said the “F” word twice in my life. Once out of anger and another time by accident. Both times, it ruined my [...]
A transitional strip. I hate these. Usually, I’m able to cover it up better with a joke, but not so much here.
The plot of this particular strip was pretty simple: Jerry and Dictator Tot play Wii Bowling. DT loses. DT pulls out a gun. Here’s the script, as originally written: 123 – 1: DT assuming the bowling stance. DT: Bowling is very simple. The remote is like the ball. You pull it back with the button… [...]
I’ve made no secret that I have a long, long term plan for the SuperFogeys. Pieces of a puzzle that I want to lay down and that will add up into something (I hope) special one day. This is one of those pieces. I won’t say I always knew it would be Jerry to get [...]
There’s a kid with a gun. The kid’s a villain though, so I’m asking you to go with it. There’s not much funny about gun violence. This isn’t the place to really get into it, but my life has certainly been affected by gun violence on more than one occasion. My feeling is that if [...]
I love this strip. You need that reaction to the name “Third Man” and the leap in logic Star Maiden makes here is a nice shout-out to one of my heroes, Orson Welles. Some day, I have to actually draw a Zombie Orson Welles. In that first panel, Dictator Tot is being removed from the room [...]
Did Swifty go too far? That’s what some readers thought. I admit that I had second thoughts about this one as well, but knowing what I know about Swifty and Jerry’s relationship, I think he is justified. True, I haven’t actually REVEALED why Swifty hates Jerry so much, but still… The second panel with Spy Gal’s [...]
Here’s a bit of a storytelling trick…by keeping Dr. Rocket out of the strip for several weeks (off camera–he was in the room the whole time), I make his appearance in the last panel just that much more surprising. That’s the hope anyway. It all seems terribly convenient, I agree. You’re supposed to be thinking [...]
Nothing funny here. Again. I’m pushing the readers’ limits, but all for a (hopefully) good purpose. Some people felt the Captain was out of character here. I disagree, of course, but I think I understand why they might think that. To me, the Captain sees Jerry as his “son.” He would do anything for him, [...]
How did I go this long without a “When Pigs Fly” joke? That first panel was a challenge for me. In case you haven’t already been able to tell, perspective isn’t my strong suit. Still, I’m pleased with how it turned out. I think it works for what it is. Again, Star Maiden is just [...]
