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 [...]
