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 [...]
Archive for ‘Chapter 05 – The Redemption of Dr. Rocket’
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 [...]
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Nov 11, 11 | Pg. 7 “Nipped” |
May 6, 10 | 255 – Parental Duty |
Jan 6, 12 | Pg. 7 “Space Pig the Sidekick?” |
Oct 7, 11 | Chapter 12, “Jackpot!” Recap by Steve VanDyken |
Aug 25, 14 | 620 – Her Husband’s Keeper |
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Feb 1, 07 | 92 – Not the Woman He Used to Know |
Mar 25, 07 | 124 – Shooting |
Jan 4, 07 | 63 – The Food is Plastic! |
Sep 24, 12 | GUEST STRIP by Gwen Patton! |
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 [...]
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Sep 6, 22 | 921 – Obedience is Key |
Jul 13, 11 | 333 – A Word with Her Fiancee |
Oct 17, 06 | 24 – Too Little Too Late |
Oct 8, 09 | 228 – The Star Maiden Strip Show |
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Feb 12, 18 | 762 – Jerry vs. Soviet Sam |
Aug 10, 11 | 341 – Stop |
Oct 7, 11 | Chapter 12, “Jackpot!” Recap by Steve VanDyken |
May 26, 15 | What You’ve Been Waiting to Know… |
May 3, 08 | 86 – WebSpace Page: Jerry |
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 [...]
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Apr 3, 07 | 133 – Beginning the Tale of How Captain Spectacular Met Dr. Klein |
Oct 3, 06 | 11 – The Power Dampener |
Sep 18, 08 | 164 – Why “Tangerine?” |
Sep 28, 16 | 702 – He’s Got Gloves |
Jul 30, 09 | 218 – Good Friends |
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, [...]
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Dec 5, 06 | 54 – Gene Gets What’s Coming to Him |
Jan 2, 12 | 374 – A Spy Gal Shaped Hole |
Nov 29, 17 | 751 – Who Do You Think Paid for All This? |
Aug 19, 13 | 527 – A Concerned Husband |
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 [...]
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Sep 25, 08 | 166 – Beer Don’t Judge |
Feb 8, 07 | 98 – The Wedding of Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden |
Dec 6, 06 | 55 – A Mysterious Figure in the Wings |
Aug 25, 09 | SF Origins: Tangerine, Pg. 5 “Making It Right” |
Mar 3, 07 | 106 – What’s in the Box? |
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 [...]
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Apr 11, 12 | 402 – Lost Signal |
Jan 25, 11 | SF Origins: The Thrice Evil, Pg. 9 “We Can Work With That” |
Jun 9, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 17 “Er-Hurm!” |
Jun 24, 10 | 262 – What Happened to Star Maiden, Pt. 4 “All Hail” |
Dec 15, 20 | 862 – That’s It!? |
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 [...]
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Mar 27, 07 | 126 – Who the @#$% is the Third Man? |
Jan 31, 07 | 91 – WebSpace Page: Star Maiden |
Aug 10, 20 | 843 – What About the Crawfish? |
Oct 19, 11 | 356 – Best Luck of Her Life |
Mar 26, 07 | 125 – Jerry’s Down |
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 [...]
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Oct 7, 13 | 541 – Husband |
Jun 29, 11 | 329 – Ear Twist |
Mar 11, 10 | 247 – Not a Busload of Strangers |
May 2, 08 | 85 – WebSpace Page: Spy Gal |
Nov 20, 19 | 814 – Ptoof! |
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, [...]
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Nov 21, 11 | 364 – Comrade |
Sep 4, 08 | 160 – Best Friends Forever? |
Mar 31, 07 | 130 – When Pigs Fly |
Jul 15, 11 | Pg. 14 “Why Wouldn’t She?” |
Feb 3, 20 | 829 – Too. Far. |
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 [...]
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Jan 9, 17 | 724 – Requiem for Tangerine |
Jun 1, 12 | Pg. 4 “The O’Hara Family Tragedy” |
Aug 18, 09 | SF Origins: Tangerine, Pg. 4 “Justice” |
Mar 4, 10 | 246 – Righteous Kill |
Jul 1, 13 | 517 – The Man in the Iron Cage |
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. [...]
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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 [...]
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May 20, 11 | Pg. 6 “Invisible” |
May 18, 12 | Pg. 2 “Not Ready or Able” |
Oct 3, 16 | 703 – Like a Television During a Calliou Marathon |
Dec 3, 12 | 463 – May Percy Have a Pet? |
May 17, 08 | SF Collection #3 Cover |
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 [...]
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Aug 14, 08 | 154 – Tangerine’s Surprise |
Apr 16, 09 | 204 – Florida Beckons |
Jun 1, 12 | Pg. 4 “The O’Hara Family Tragedy” |
Jan 27, 07 | 87 – The Third Man is Not Pleased |
Aug 28, 13 | 530 – Jerry’s Greatest Hits |
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 [...]
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Dec 3, 12 | 463 – May Percy Have a Pet? |
Dec 5, 12 | 464 – Cuffed |
Oct 26, 12 | Pg. 10 “The End?” |
Mar 31, 12 | Pg. 6 “Find the Sharp Metal Instrument” |
Oct 30, 19 | 808 – 2.5 Seconds Later |
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 [...]
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Mar 15, 07 | 114 – Enter: Star Maiden |
May 5, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 12 “Date or Fight?” |
Jul 9, 09 | 215 – Little Snot |
Apr 9, 07 | 138 – Good News and Bad News |
Mar 3, 07 | 106 – What’s in the Box? |
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 [...]
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Jul 16, 14 | 610 – Do the most you can do. |
Mar 20, 13 | 490 – Two Thirds of a Secret Revealed |
Dec 27, 10 | Guest Strip by Crystal Murphy, Part One (2010) |
Sep 26, 06 | 5 – The Urine of What!? |
Dec 10, 12 | 465 – Lip Lick |
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 [...]
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Apr 3, 07 | 133 – Beginning the Tale of How Captain Spectacular Met Dr. Klein |
Jun 17, 08 | 139 – Jerry’s Fate Revealed |
Aug 17, 12 | Pg. 2 “Youthfulenergysupersurplus!” |
Oct 12, 12 | Pg. 8 “Gross Fetuses” |
Apr 30, 12 | 407 – Spy Days Are Over |
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 [...]
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Oct 4, 11 | Chapter 9, “Head Games” Recap by Eric Merritt |
Mar 13, 07 | 112 – Budapest ’68 All Over Again |
Dec 5, 11 | 368 – Darn That Dr. Klein |
Oct 3, 12 | 446 – General Spy Gal |
Dec 5, 16 | 716 – Boy Haircut |
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 [...]
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Sep 14, 15 | 682 – Milk and Cookies |
May 27, 13 | 507 – Telling Off Skunk Head |
Dec 2, 08 | 184 – The Origin of Captain Spectacular and Dr. Rocket, Pt. 1 “Laban and Amram” |
Nov 26, 14 | 640 – Jerry Must Come Back |
Nov 10, 06 | 38 – The Good Ol’ Days |
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 [...]
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Apr 7, 14 | 586 – The New Percy |
Oct 3, 12 | 446 – General Spy Gal |
Feb 14, 18 | 763 – Serious Issues |
Mar 11, 21 | 881 – Minutes Away |
Oct 8, 06 | 15 – Introducing Swifty! |
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 [...]
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Apr 5, 07 | 135 – The Tale of How Captain Spectacular Met Dr. Klein, Conclusion |
Apr 4, 11 | 304 – Catchy and Mysterious |
May 7, 18 | 784 – What is Jerry Missing? |
Jan 25, 12 | 381 – Shut Up |
Sep 30, 10 | 278 – The Others |
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 [...]
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Mar 31, 07 | 130 – When Pigs Fly |
Feb 17, 11 | 296 – Even Her |
Apr 21, 14 | 588 – In the Dark, Where He Thinks He Belongs |
Feb 27, 12 | 390 – Bubbles of Light 7 |
Sep 30, 10 | 278 – The Others |
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 [...]
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Mar 3, 14 | 576 – Torture Chamber 3B |
Oct 13, 09 | SF Origins: JA – Tom’s Story, Pg. 2 “Not About My Dad” |
Oct 22, 09 | 230 – Cleaning Out Her Ears |
Apr 15, 13 | 497 – Michelle |
Oct 23, 08 | 174 – Big Mistake |
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 [...]
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Oct 24, 12 | 452 – Book of Mormon Story |
Jul 11, 11 | 332 – Captain Spectacular’s Buds |
Nov 11, 06 | 39 – Jerry Arrives Late |
Sep 14, 11 | 351 – Dreams Come Crashing In |
Jun 29, 11 | 329 – Ear Twist |
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 [...]
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Dec 22, 09 | SF Origins: Harvey the Science Rabbit, Pt. 1, Pg. 4 “His Darlings” |
Jun 12, 13 | 512 – The Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened to Swifty |
Apr 3, 13 | 494 – Hugging in the Throne Room |
Jul 23, 09 | 217 – Jerry’s Family? |
Oct 4, 06 | 12 – Introducing Space Pig! |
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 [...]
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May 20, 11 | Pg. 6 “Invisible” |
Jun 30, 22 | 902 – Devastation |
Jan 13, 14 | 562 – Violent Amputation |
Jan 20, 12 | Pg. 2 “Strange Visitor” |
Sep 5, 16 | 696 – Account Closed |
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 [...]
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Jun 10, 11 | Pg. 9 “College Years” |
Jan 13, 11 | 291 – Ear Cancer |
Jul 25, 12 | 430 – Meanwhile, At The Great Hall of the Society of Heroes… |
Mar 23, 07 | 122 – Who Will Jerry Fight? |
Aug 20, 12 | 437 – Ever Since The Shriveled Speedster Left |
COMMENTARY There wasn’t room in the flashback of this chapter to make it explicit that Dr. Rocket was responsible for the public turning against the Captain in the 70’s, so it was nice of Tangerine to make that point for us here. Unfortunately, this strip and the next few are far too wordy. I had [...]
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Apr 3, 13 | 494 – Hugging in the Throne Room |
Aug 17, 12 | Pg. 2 “Youthfulenergysupersurplus!” |
Jan 29, 09 | 193 – The Origin of Captain Spectacular and Dr. Rocket, Pt. 10 “Escape” |
Oct 7, 06 | 14 – Watchin’ TV |
Nov 6, 13 | 546 – Tangerine Makes a Decision |
COMMENTARY This strip angered a lot of people. No one—and I mean NO ONE—felt that Captain Spectacular would just stand by and watch Spy Gal get knocked out like that. Honestly, I couldn’t understand that reaction based on what we’d just seen in his flashback. Not only is the Captain flawed, but Tangerine is his [...]
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Jan 6, 09 | Guest Strip by T.L. Collins of “Bullfinch!” |
Oct 23, 17 | 740 – Boop |
Aug 6, 09 | 219 – Bubbles of Light 5 |
Jul 15, 08 | 145 – Wrinkly Butt |
Sep 14, 15 | 682 – Milk and Cookies |
COMMENTARY I want to do an entire comic book of Star Maiden just walking around Valhalla and interacting with everyone. She’s so, so much fun to write and draw. Some of my most favorite lines from her ever are in this strip. I wanted to cut down the dialogue for the print edition, but I [...]
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Nov 29, 17 | 751 – Who Do You Think Paid for All This? |
Aug 26, 13 | 529 – Why Did Jerry Do It? |
Oct 2, 08 | 168 – Tangerine Gets His Mad On |
Oct 22, 12 | 451 – Will Tangerine Help? |
Dec 14, 10 | SF Origins: The Thrice Evil, Pg. 2 “No One Should Die Among Strangers” |
COMMENTARY Here’s another idea that’s too big for the strip format. I’m just really pushing the boundaries of what a strip can do. Thankfully, I don’t have anything like a syndicate to answer to, so I can do this, get this idea out of the way, and regret not expanding it two strips later. Still, [...]
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Dec 30, 08 | Guest Strip by Chris Blanchard of “Renaissance Guy!” |
Jan 14, 07 | 69 – Swifty’s Computer Problems |
Mar 18, 07 | 117 – Dementia |
Sep 4, 13 | 532 – How Hard is the Rock Upon Which Stands Your Principles? |
Dec 26, 11 | Guest Strip by Will Boyer! |
COMMENTARY No single strip that I have done (at the time of this writing I’m about 10 strips into Chapter 7) has caused as much controversy as this one. The comments exploded when this strip hit. I think maybe 1% of the audience saw this coming. And, even if they did, no one thought it [...]
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Nov 17, 20 | 856 – Grab That Rabbit! |
Sep 30, 10 | 278 – The Others |
Mar 19, 12 | 396 – Give Tom a Chance |
Apr 13, 11 | 307 – T-Magus |
Sep 7, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal, Pg. 2 “Cats at the Back” |