UPDATE – 4/8/2011 Just for kicks, I updated this strip with a new version I drew back at the time of the release of SuperFogeys Volume One. It was included as an extra in that book, but I figured it was time for the world to see it. Here’s what the original first strip looked [...]
This is one of those that’s a favorite of a lot of people (or so I’m told) but that I’ve never really liked much. Bathroom humor always feels cheap and forced to me. On these early strips I was drawing at a smaller size and using paper and pens that were quite a bit different [...]
After I did the first 10 SuperFogeys strips on my blog at MySpace, I decided to try to find a place to get the strip hosted and see if I could produce something like it on a regular basis. When the SuperFogeys did find a host site (pre-Th3rd World) I decided to start the strip [...]
This is the first strip where I’m really demonstrating the perverseness of Dr. Rocket, an aspect of his personality that would come to define him later. It’s hard writing a perverse character in what is essentially an all-ages strip, but I think this strip is a good example of how it can be done. It’s [...]
I knew I wanted Dr. Rocket’s monologue to be about how he got Spy Gal unconscious, but I wanted his means of accomplishing that to be something humorous, brief and unique. I thought he might drug her, but just any ol’ drug wouldn’t do. It had to be something exotic. Boom: Space Pig Urine. It [...]
There are essentially two ways to do a comic strip (as I see it): with or without a continuing story. The intro of Spy Gal is when I realized that I just wasn’t capable of doing one-off jokes. I ALWAYS have a story to tell. Spy Gal was originally supposed to be a character named [...]
For Spy Gal’s intro, I wanted to push the boundaries of good taste a little. Is it right to make light of the dementia that all-too-often takes over the minds of older people? …Depends on how you do it. Turns out Spy Gal was faking, but it’s a theme I plan on revisting. Why Turnip? [...]
It still pains me to look at the art in a lot of these early strips. Where the crud are the frickin’ wheelchairs? The only answer I have is that I was lazy and was trying to draw as little as possible. I really saw the strips as more of an exercise in pacing and [...]
his is the second of the additions I made to the original 10 black and white strips I did to kick off the SuperFogeys. Originally, episode 8 went into what is now episode 10 without this minor stopover to make explicit what was once subtle. She’s Spy Gal. Spy Gal is a spy. Duh. It [...]
This is one of my favorites. I think it really brings home the idea that these guys are old. We don’t know how Mr. Crook died, but he was in a nursing home and that’s what people tend to do there so we don’t even wonder what the cause was. Maybe that’s a story I’ll [...]
I had written myself into a bit of a corner. I had Spy Gal come to Valhalla, but she didn’t really need to be there. Somehow, I had to make her stay. Enter the Orderly (later named Gene) and the Power Dampener. Visually, Spy Gal would never be the same after this strip and I [...]
This is one of my absolute favorites. I think it’s one of the funniest last panels I’ve ever come up with. So, of course, only about half the people who read it actually get it. This one gets knocked down by a lot of people for not standing too well on its own. I suppose [...]
Time between the creation of SuperFogeys 12 and 13: 2 months. This is the first strip that really sets the tone for what the SuperFogeys would be. The art is finally coming into its own, resulting in a strip that I’m really proud of. I love the subtle pacing of the camera zoom. It’s a [...]
First of all: yes, they’re watching Jeopardy. The real point of this strip was to show Jerry’s concern for Spy Gal and Captain Spectacular’s utter lack of it. I wrapped that point in a Jeopardy joke recycled from Groundhog Day because I figured I’d better do this joke now and early in order to get [...]
What’s sadder than a guy who can run really fast that’s stuck behind a walker? The answer is nothing, my friends, nothing. That’s what makes Swifty so much fun–we all know exactly why he’s so bitter and grumpy and you just can’t blame the guy. For Swifty’s design, I couldn’t make him look too much [...]
This is one of those strips I really, really struggled with. I knew the last thing I wanted was for Dr. Rocket to successfully take advantage of Spy Gal. I mean, this just isn’t that kind of strip. The simplest solution would have been to have Jerry or Captain Spectacular bust through the wall and [...]
When did The SuperFogeys turn into Three’s Company? The answer: Strip 17.
This one is just ugly. None of the characters look right, though I do love how the idea of Spy Gal kissing Dr. Rocket just rolls off Captain Spectacular. The man just does not care. Plus: sexy shoulder blades.
Although I didn’t realize it at the time, this was a step in the right artistic direction for the SuperFogeys. The changing camera views were necesitated by the storyline and made for a much stronger reading experience. There’s a little easter egg in this one with the picture of the girl on the wall in [...]
I love this strip. I think this is the one where you get the best sense of the relationship between Captain Spectacular and Jerry. The first panel alone–I think if the entire strip were just that panel, I’d be happy. I don’t think anyone else laughs at that first panel (That’s not where the joke [...]
Me: Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Me: What’s that? Me: You know how we could get a lot of strips done quickly? Me: How? Me: We could just cut/paste all the best bits from previous strips and add only minor alterations! Me: Genius. Future Me: I beg to differ.
My lazy self strikes again. As for the story here, this strip was important to me because I had a very real fear at the time that it was going to be perceived that I had a hatred towards women. Dumb, right? I mean, Dr. Rocket is a character, he doesn’t speak for me, but [...]
This is the strip that finally broke me. I enjoy the dialogue here a lot, but the art is the (seemingly) umpteenth strip made out of spare parts. This is when I realized things had to change.
I do believe this strip marks the first close-up I’d ever done in the Superfogeys. I began looking for ways to change the camera around and push the framing into the storytelling more. It was just one panel, but it was a start.
I love this little experiment. It’s two jokes, one the main plot and one a jokey subplot, that don’t work so well on their own but that compliment each other, I think, pretty well. Jerry’s frustration here is my own. Sleep, it seems, will always be denied me. I had no idea the Space Pig [...]
Double-sized strips are always fun, but I’m not sure this is the best use of it. The flashback certainly was fun to do. The idea here should be clear: Jerry is Captain Spectacular’s sidekick. This is all set-up and revelation. You should be getting the idea by now that Chapter 1 is really Jerry’s story.
This is the episode that almost never was. My original plan was to go from strip 26 to the last strip of Chapter 1–what is now strip 28. However, I realized fairly late in the game that I hadn’t really done anything to set up WHY CS and Spy Gal would get back together. I [...]
The last strip of Chapter One is one that I had planned for a long, long time. Once I decided to do the SuperFogeys for real, I quickly came up with a grand plan. This plan extends far, far beyond this chapter, though this ending is the first touchstone in that plan. If you ever [...]
This first strip in chapter 2 is all about setting up the game and introducing Dr. Klein, an obviously important figure at Valhalla. When I started the SuperFogeys, I always had it in the back of my mind that I would need to create a “man-in-charge” at some point. Dr. Klein, with his german name [...]
I love Spy Gal. It’s probably the adolescent schoolboy in me, but I have a lot of fun teasing her and putting her in some horrible situations. It’s always fun to see what she’ll do. Gene is the stand-in for my fifteen-year-old self. And, in case you can’t make it out, the book Spy Gal [...]
One of the better-paced strips I’ve done (or so I’ve been told) and a solid, economical reintroduction to three of the main characters.
Some people thought Dr. Klein’s look in the third panel coupled with his German name mean that Dr. Klein is evil. I won’t comment on the prejudices of my readership, but I will say that I did not have that in mind when I drew it. I was just experimenting with what I could do [...]
Ugh. This is my failed experiment. Like Strip 25, I had two ideas for a strip and tried to make them into one. As drawn, panel 3 preceded panel 2, but at the last minute I got the idea to integrate them more. It didn’t work. Not helping matters is the last panel. For the [...]
Like Spy Gal in Chapter 1, I had spent two strips building up the arrival of the Healer. I wanted his entrance to be important and surprising. Originally, the Healer was going to be an old man in a cloak. Much more like Dr. Strange or something like that. After being comfortable with that for [...]
The SuperFogeys are so stiff and immobile, it was fun to cut loose a little on a character like the Healer. I made it double-sized because I wanted the figures to breathe a little and see what I could do with a character who is real expressive. There’s some good lines in this one (Dr. [...]
More Healer nonsense. You can see how my camera is really changing up now. I’ve left behind almost completely the cut/paste of the previous chapter, something I was real glad to do. The Space Pig is always fun to bring back. There’s no way to explain him and his function every time out, so I [...]
I hate the first panel of this one. CS and Spy Gal just don’t look right and I don’t know what I was thinking. The entire point of this strip was to establish that Spy Gal is attracted to Dr. Klein. I don’t do anything more with it for the whole of Chapter 2, but [...]
This is a strip I’m really proud of. It’s very much a side-trip from the main story, but I think it’s poignant in a way that SuperFogeys hasn’t been up until now. While writing the SuperFogeys, I often have to ask myself, “What will it be like when I’m old?” I guess this is one [...]
Jerry was late to the party because I needed to remind the audience of his feelings for Spy Gal. I’m sure there was a better way to do that. Not a favorite of mine.
I knew the back half of this chapter would be light on the Swifty, so I wanted to make sure his last time in the spotlight was a memorable one. Everyone seems to have a different favorite Swifty ailment, but the one I like the best (and the first one I wrote) is the one [...]
Yeah, I did a Viagra joke. You almost have to, given the subject matter. I think I did it in the best possible way. It was important to me to have the Healer is so disapproving and grossed out. I think that’s how we all felt the first time we saw Bob Dole talking about [...]
I had been looking for an excuse to do a single-panel strip for a long time and this conclusion of the Healer’s interviews with all the SuperFogeys was a good excuse for it. Originally, the dialogue on this one was vastly different. It was a back and forth between the Healer and the Captain; none [...]
This is one of those connecting strips that I didn’t know I needed until I did. Strip 45 was always a story I was going to tell, but before I got to that story I realized that I had nothing leading into it. What would be Dr. Rocket’s final scheme? Why, bunnies of course. Why [...]
See the bunny? I liked the idea that Dr. Rocket kept one bunny for himself. Of course it begs the question…what happened to the bunny? That answer is coming in Chapter 6. This strip took a little longer than your average strip. In the end, I think I probably pumped a little too much detail [...]
Another “ugh” strip for me. I have a real problem with drawing too big for the panel. I truly need to zoom the camera out more. The Healer declaring the Captain the winner without checking the score should come across as a bit strange. He’s just being too nice. It’s the first hint there might [...]
I absolutely love this strip. This is a case of art elevating the script. On paper, this one didn’t seem like it would be much. If anything, I felt like I was trying to do too much. However…I think it works. Bingo Knight was a character name given to me by a reader of my [...]
Bingo Knight’s design came from the idea that he is essentially a super accountant. I mean, a super hero who settles Bingo scores? How could he be anything BUT an accountant? Once I knew that, all I had to do was put a dorky guy in a Knight costume and the idea sold itself.
I don’t know how much this strip actually adds to the plot, but it makes me laugh and sometimes that’s enough. A genuinely well-drawn Spy Gal in this strip, I think. She’s a tough one to draw just right and I always have a hard time with her hair.
I tried and tried to not make this one a double-sized. I had just done one and I didn’t want to take the time to do another one, but there just wasn’t any other way to make it work. Too many characters all interacting with each other. It has been said that this is one [...]
This is the one that was lifted almost entirely from the rejected version of strip 43. That’s how a lot of strips get written. I may write lots and lots of possible dialogue for any given strip and if something isn’t right for the idea, but the dialogue is good anyway, I’ll save it and [...]
This is one I was really excited about doing. The art in the SuperFogeys represents a style that I invented just for this strip. I work in a lot of different styles at my 9-to-5 and in my freelance work, so it was fun to show off one of those styles in this strip. Plus, [...]
By the time I got to this strip I’d really tossed away any notion I had of keeping the same structure of four panels for each strip. This is another of those ideas I had from almost the very beginning of Chapter 2. It’s so weird seeing the Captain standing. I don’t know that I’ll [...]
I love Gene. He’s such a jerk and yet, I think, you feel sorry for him. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s just me. I broke my rule of having Spy Gal being tough enough to defend herself because I couldn’t pass up the joke. I hope no one minded.
Talk about left field, huh? All I’ll say here is that I do know who the Healer is talking to and it is a hint at something greater and we WILL find out who it is. There are more questions to be asked about this one, but I’ll let you figure out what they are.
I’m color-blind (mildly so, but still…), but the SuperFogeys are a one man show so you all have to put up with my puke palette. However, it’s always nice when a strip looks pretty like I think this one does. The entire point of this strip is to justify the next one…
…just as the entire point of Chapter 2 was to justify this one joke. See, I wrote this one as one of the first 10 strips back in the first weeks of the creation of the SuperFogeys. I quickly realized that I couldn’t use it because, uh, hello? Captain Spectacular can’t walk. Thus, Chapter 2 [...]
This is an important call back to the end of Chapter 1. I had to keep Jerry’s unrequited love alive somehow and it seems particularly harsh that it’s now Spy Gal herself who is diminishing him. Jerry’s just fun to mess with.
And that’s it, folks! Captain Spectacular’s dialogue here with Dr. Klein offers real insight into his character. CS has retired from not only the hero business, but also from life. Even though this seems like a return to the status quo, the Captain will remain healed and able to walk. Might make things interesting later [...]
Titling a chapter is a source of great stress for me. I’m not very good at it and I put it off until I absolutely have to come up with something. That said, “The Techno Shuffle” very much fits what this chapter is going to be all about. Originally, this chapter opened on two characters [...]
