This is the payoff for all the set-up I did at the beginning of the chapter with Spy Gal and Jerry. Wait, I take that back, you don’t really get the payoff for this until Chapter 5, but this is the beginning. Pants. Always good for a joke. Spy Gal growing suspicious of Dr. Klein [...]
Nurse Carter has a personality! I think I do an alright job of developing my characters, but Nurse Carter has always been the one that I’ve neglected. Here, finally, she says something that hints at something resembling a thought in her head. It’s the kind of character humor that can be difficult to do, but [...]
Drawing a sauced Captain Spectacular was so much fun that I have to find a way to do it again. I WILL find a way to do it again. Originally, this was going to be flashback to how CS met Jerry. I’ll still tell that story one day, but with Spy Gal’s suspicions raised, I [...]
Here’s one of the advantages of planning far, far ahead: I can drop tidbits in here and there because, to me, the stories already exist. Tom and the Mysterious Woman in the photograph are something for later (probably Chapter 7), but knowing about them already, I can use them to illustrate a point here. The [...]
Had a blast with the first panel. I love drawing Mr. Crook, design courtesy of Eskimo Dave creator Mike Hartigan. I wish he wasn’t dead. Check back to Episode 10 of Chapter 1 for a part of Mr. Crook’s story. Mustache on Captain Spectacular doesn’t look too bad. A little more insight on the Jerry/Swifty [...]
This was supposed to be a very normal operation with some choice quips from Dr. Rocket. That was the idea anyway. Then I remembered, “Oh yeah, this is the SuperFogeys.” As with most things involving Dr. Rocket, this crosses the line from weird into disturbing. I’m pretty much okay with that.
Wow. Just, wow. This strip is sooooo busy. I think there’s a certain charm to it, but hold crud, those panels are just loaded. Usually not a good idea. I have no idea why the Space Pig is singing “Last Kiss.” That was the song that seemed to fit and once I got the idea [...]
This is a mean, mean cliffhanger. I don’t know that it’s fair to end this chapte like this, but it really couldn’t end any other way. Thematically, the next chapter has to begin a few seconds after Dr. Rockets declaration of good news and bad news. I’m hoping it’ll make sense why I did it [...]
This and the next three WebSpace Pages were intended for Chapter 3 proper, but I couldn’t fit them in and still make the big Third Man reveal be #100–which was important to me. The Captain isn’t the most popular SuperFogey, but he is the most important. All the clues to why are here in his [...]
Had a lot of fun drawing Spy Gal in her civvies. Just makes sense to me that she’d be into firearms. Originally, her profile pic was completely different. She was leaning on a pillow and it was nice, but…I hated it. So I’ve switched it out for the one you see above. Matches the other [...]
That profile pic of Jerry is my most favorite drawing of him that I’ve done. It just captures him so perfectly. The first mission of the Society of Heroes is a tale I want to tell. It should appear as a backup story in a future SuperFogeys book. Watch for that.
This has the worst SuperFogeys drawing I’ve ever done or likely will do. That photo of young Swifty and his car is just atrocious. The less said here the better.
The Space Pig’s a minister. Why not? I did it as a setup for something later in the chapter, but I don’t think anyone ever made the connection. I debated for a long time whether “High on the Hog” was blasphemous. I guess I decided it wasn’t!
I wish I had never done the WebSpace pages. Originally, I thought they would be a great change of pace. A fun way to get to know characters better that the readers would enjoy. Well, that all happened. To an extent. But then I kept doing it. And doing it. I felt some reader fatigue [...]
Captain Supermarket is actually a real person. Sort of. The real Captain Supermarket is Justin Robinson, Editor-in-Chief of Th3rd World Studios. “The Rant Aisle” is his sometimes blog on pop culture that can be found on the Th3rd World site. I liked the idea of a person thinking themselves a superhero simply for trolling message [...]
Full disclosure: I’m not a gambler. In fact, it’s very much against my personal, religious beliefs to gamble. Still, the idea popped into my head for these characters and I had to do it. Besides, I know the Fogeys are going to Vegas one day. Guess who they’re gonna find there?
Mega Matt was done as a favor to Th3rd World publisher Michael DeVito. He has a friend, Matt, who is pretty much as you see above. Well, not exactly. But pretty close. I had a lot of fun doing this page and drew on a couple of my own friends for inspiration. In fact, I [...]
Captain Emo was the winning entry in the first SuperFogeys “Create-A-Character” contest. He was created by William Sharpe, III and will reappear in a future chapter. Had so much fun with the song lyrics. I can’t write lyrics, which made it all the more perfect, I think.
Here’s the cover to the first printed edition of the SuperFogeys, collecting both chapters 1 and 2.
This is the cover to Book 2, which collected both all of Chapter 3 and the backup story, “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension.”
With Chapter 4 complete, it’s time to roll out Book #3! This cover was a collaboration between me and the artist known only as Jorzac. He generously provided pencils and then those are my sloppy inks slapped on top. Colors byMADConk. Thanks, Jorzac! Collection #3 of course contains the entirety of Chapter 4, along with a [...]
UPDATE! COLLECTION #4 NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER! This is it! The cover to the fourth collection of the SuperFogeys. Dare I say it’s our best one yet? Didn’t start out that way though. Th3rd World Publisher Michael DeVito deserves all the credit in the world for the stellar job he did on the coloring for [...]
THE TEASER FOR CHAPTER 7, “VISITING DAY” Chapter 6, “Funeral for a Frenemy” is over! The Dr. Rocket we knew was really the impostor Herman! The real Dr. Rocket is back! So…now what? What happens in “Visiting Day?” I cannot tell, but I can tease… Spoiler Alert! Skip to the next section of the post [...]
Commentary I’m proud to say that no one guessed how in the world the cliffhanger from the end of the last chapter would resolve itself. The nice thing about doing a humor strip is that, at times, the humor can be a convenient “out” of a storytelling situation and somehow it doesn’t feel cheap. In [...]
Commentary Even more with the convincing the audience that this is really who Dr. Rocket is now. While not exactly visually resplendent, I wanted to revisit something here (both artistically and from a character standpoint) that I hadn’t shown since chapter one: that in Valhalla “things are different” and mortal enemies can play a game [...]
Commentary Visually, I really love this one. After what I felt was kind of a visually bankrupt previous strip, I really wanted to do something different with this one. With the action being outside of Valhalla and not featuring any of the Fogeys, the opportunity was certainly there. Dictator Tot’s exit was a long time [...]
Commentary Now, this I realize that this is almost entirely a cut-and-paste job from an eariler strip. In this case, I thought it was justified as a)it allowed me to get ahead a little and b)it was perfect for the pacing I was trying to achieve. I think the coloring really sells it and I had [...]
Commentary This strip hearkens back to something set up in Star Maiden’s WebSpace page, namely that she was a webcam girl. I had a lot of fun with the second panel in trying to make Star look both sexy and deranged. The drool pretty much sold it. Swifty’s feeling at the end of this strip pretty [...]
Commentary Looking at my comments below, it’s clear I wasn’t very happy about the way this strip turned out at the time. Looking at it now, I’m not sure what my problem was. Looks pretty decent to me, although I regret the color scheme I chose for Jerry’s hospital room, especially since he’s going to [...]
BRIAN ANDERSON Today’s amazing spotlight on Dr. Rocket comes to us from Brian Anderson of the nationally syndicated comic strip,Dog Eat Doug! Brian is doing me a huge favor this week as last week’s ER visit really threw me off my game. Look at the detail in the good Doctor’s face! Amazing work, Brian, and [...]
RUFUS EDGE Holy Guest Strips, Captain! I was amazed to get 2 guest strips of high caliber this week, and now, suddenly, I’ve got two more! This latest one was actually submitted as Fan Art, but I think you can easily see why I tossed it into the regular rotation. I literally laughed out loud [...]
LUCAS TURNBLOOM Guest strip week continues! Lucas Turnbloom is a fellow Tall Tale Features member and premiere editorial cartoonist. His work has been seen in USA Today, CNN.com, Time.com and a bunch of other places that wouldn’t touch my work with a 10-foot pole. Lucas’s first love is strip work and to that end he has [...]
SEAN CONCHIERI Today’s guest strip is a special one. Sean Conchieri is an early SuperFogeys supporter, having done the very first review of my little webcomic that could over at Way of the Geek. And here’s a follow-up review Sean did a year later, “Revisiting the SuperFogeys”. You can even see what the first SF strip looked like [...]
Commentary Ah, “Wrinkly Butt.” As this one was sitting at my drawing board, my wife happened upon it and exclaimed “WHAT IS UP WITH SPY GAL’S CHEST?” I explained that she’s been long established as a large-chested character and that she’s clearly folding her arms here so… My wife wasn’t having it. It was an [...]
Commentary Ah, the proposal. I think this veers towards the sitcomish, but I like it for one reason: that we stay on Jerry the whole way through. Jerry doesn’t say a word, but he has his own little George-Bailey-Welcoming-Home-His-Brother-At-The-Train-Station moment, a brilliant bit of acting by Jimmy Stewart in It’s A Wonderful Life in which he [...]
Commentary Okay, I admit it. I goofed. There’s a huge continuity error here and I didn’t realize it until months later. Spy Gal states in panel 2 that they had been engaged before. The thing is…I made it pretty clear in the flashback for Chapter 3 that they hadn’t. Captain Spectacular was PLANNING to propose, [...]
Commentary I am nothing if not patient. I created Tangerine quite a while ago. In fact, his actual first appearance is on the cover of the first SuperFogeys book and in the bonus story of that same book as drawn by Mike Hartigan. Each of the SuperFogeys are pretty much analogues for characters in either the [...]
Commentary Ah! Ah! Ah! Too much! There’s just way too much going on in this strip. I could have easily took all the same ideas here and spread them out into three strips instead of compacting them into one. Plus, I was way too in love with my own dialogue. Swifty’s in the first panel [...]
Commentary My previous comments: Some of you have already seen this strip. I did this one a month or so back as a guest strip for Lucas Turnbloom’s “Imagine This”. But…as you can see from the previous strip…it fits right in nicely with our ongoing story. Big thanks to my Tall Tale Features compatriot for lending me [...]
Commentary Ugh. Another butt-ugly strip. I think I’m starting to realize that this was a bit problem for me in Chapter 5 – too many strips trying to do too much. Dr. Rocket’s gift-giving continues here. Of particular note is the peanut butter cookie he gives Captain Spectacular. That’s actually a follow-up to a bonus [...]
Commentary Oh, this is just the ultimate slam. Captain Spectacular is definitely a “lives in the moment” kind of guy. I just couldn’t resist kicking Jerry when he’s down. He doesn’t speak, but again he communicates a lot. This strip is also one of the first indications that Cap and Doc were once friends, [...]
Commentary This is one of those rare strips that I think is pretty good, both visually and from a story standpoint, but that has a pretty weak punchline. There’s just something so obvious about that last panel. What I do like a lot is the unconventional paneling. I don’t remember exactly how I hit on the [...]
COMMENTARY In the first panel there, you’ll notice a sign on the box that’s cut off. The full sign would read “Ark of the Covenant – Do Not Touch,” an obvious shout-out to Indiana Jones. The monster is another shout-out. This is my lame attempt at a tribute to the master of drawing monsters—Jack Kirby. [...]
COMMENTARY Look at the detail in that darkened warehouse! I kid. If you look closely at the third panel you’ll see that Dictator Tot has tossed aside a small device. I didn’t have room to explicitly state it, but the idea is that she was using that device to make it appear as though she [...]
COMMENTARY Based on this strip, for some reason, a lot of people assumed that Captain Spectacular II is the son of Captain Spectacular. Such is not the case. I love, love, love the look of this one. I wish I got to play with colors like the more often, or, at least, that I was [...]
COMMENTARY This strip originally without the “Clap! Clap!” at the end. It wasn’t until the day after I posted it that Th3rd World Publisher Mike DeVito suggested it and I redrew the last panel immediately. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Captain’s hair is a character all its own. People were mostly confused [...]
COMMENTARY This is the second appearance of the Bubbles of Light. No one questioned the first appearance back in Chapter 4 and I don’t really blame them. There wasn’t much to go on. Here we get a few more clues, leading to the obvious conclusion that Swifty—or at least some iteration of him—is time-traveling. The [...]
What a fun strip this was to work on. From the dialogue dance to the pure character illustration, I just love it. What I’m trying to do is say a lot about the relationship between Captain Spectacular and Spy Gal in very few frames. Up to you whether I succeeded or not. Captain Spectacular thinking [...]
COMMENTARY The relationship between Spy Gal and Star Maiden is one of my most favorite things in the SuperFogeys, and I don’t spend nearly enough time on it. Spy Gal’s mothering instinct really comes out when she sees someone suffering and yet…she’s still Spy Gal. I think I could have drawn the light effect better [...]
COMMENTARY The angry looks that the Space Pig and Tangerine are giving each are meant to suggest a fallout between them after the events of “The Secret Origin of the Space Pig” (which you can find in SuperFogreys Vol.1, on sale in the SF Store). Tangerine finally arriving at Valhalla was a long time in [...]
COMMENTARY Tangerine’s body design presents some unique challenges. He doesn’t really have elbows (the way I draw him anyway) and he’s so much shorter than everybody else that whenever he appears it requires some rethinking of how I usually frame the characters in the panel. I thought long and hard about the use of the [...]
COMMENTARY I felt like, with two and half years behind me and being in the middle of a complicated (in comparison, anyway), back-and-forth chapter like this one that I needed to take a minute to acknowledge just what the heck was going on. Spy Gal is admittedly making some leaps in logic here, but it’s [...]
COMMENTARY One of the more awkwardly organized strips I’ve done, design-wise. The balloons in the second panel just would not fit in a natural way. In comics, you generally want the person speaking first on the left side of the panel and the next person to the right of them and so on. Usually, I [...]
COMMENTARY When I created Tangerine about two years prior to the strips on this page being drawn, this strip and the one above were in my original notes. Tangerine’s entire personality was then extrapolated from these two conversations with Jerry. The Pink Shade is a character that gets referenced now and again, but her actual [...]
Yes, that is my wife in the comic up above. I suppose this deserves a bit of explanation. We just got our new Mac a couple week ago. Macs are new to Erin and she was playing with the photo booth feature. She sent me one photo of herself (the one that constitutes the sixth [...]
COMMENTARY Arachno is supposed to be an analogue to Spider-Man. He’s probably too dead-on in name to every make an actual appearance, but he provides a good shorthand here to illustrate just how unusual the public turning against him was to the Captain. SUPERFOGEYS 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY This week marks the 2-year anniversary of both the [...]
COMMENTARY This is maybe one of the most economical and tragic things I’ve ever written. Really, the intent was to begin really breaking down Tangerine’s character, but Captain Spectacular got swept up in that tide as well as we see his fatal character flaw—when things are going well, the Captain does just fine. When things [...]
COMMENTARY I had to do a bit of a storytelling shuffle to keep Tangerine away from Dr. Rocket until this point in the story. I love his entrance here. In particular, I loved doing the growling drawing of Tangerine. The red color isn’t meant to suggest that Tangerine can actually turn red—it’s just an artistic [...]
COMMENTARY One of my all-time favorite strips. Visually, I think this just works. I think I had just rewatched the movie Quiz Show shortly before writing this strip, so I had Geritol on the brain. Great movie. SUPERFOGEYS FALLING BEHIND IN WEBCOMIC READER’S CHOICE AWARDS The SuperFogeys need your help! Those of you that have [...]
COMMENTARY In the first two panels we see that Swifty did indeed use the Space Pig Urine given to him by Dr. Rocket earlier in the chapter. I wish I had chosen a different wall color for the background of this strip (and all those remaining in Chapter 5 for that matter). That brown is [...]
