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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 10, 20 | 854 – Don’t Touch the Lava |
Mar 21, 07 | 120 – Swifty’s Losing? |
Jan 1, 07 | 60 – Introducing Dictator Tot! |
Mar 3, 07 | 106 – What’s in the Box? |
Nov 30, 10 | SF Origins: The Death of Mr. Crook, Pg. 3 “A Man Dies, An Idea is Born” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Mar 13, 07 | 112 – Budapest ’68 All Over Again |
Apr 25, 12 | 406 – Spy Gal’s Wall of Evidence |
Aug 14, 08 | 154 – Tangerine’s Surprise |
Feb 9, 07 | 99 – The Tale of How Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden Met and Married, Conclusion |
Nov 10, 20 | 854 – Don’t Touch the Lava |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Aug 24, 12 | Pg. 3 “Crybabies” |
Jan 13, 11 | 291 – Ear Cancer |
Jan 1, 09 | Guest Strip by Mark R. Engel of “Prematurely Disappointed!” |
May 19, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 14 “Save Him, Dirtlicker” |
Nov 10, 14 | 635 – The Blame Game |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 12, 12 | Pg. 8 “Gross Fetuses” |
Jun 17, 11 | Pg. 10 “Lost Faith” |
Jul 3, 15 | 651 – Duplicity |
Feb 23, 10 | SF Origins: The Six Wives of Captain Spectacular, Pg. 8 “The Return of Zurida” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Feb 28, 18 | 767 – Done Pretending |
Jul 27, 12 | Pg. 5 “Long Night of the Monsters” |
Jun 19, 08 | 140 – The Kindness of His Heart |
Jan 4, 11 | Guest Strip by Javier Del Villar, Part Two |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Mar 25, 20 | 842 – Someone to Hit |
Jun 24, 13 | Bubbles of Light 0 |
Jan 11, 17 | 725 – Slaughter Many, Many More |
Jul 7, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 21 “Sayonara, Sucker!” |
Apr 1, 10 | 250 – To Be So Stupid |
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, [...]
Related Comics ¬
Apr 4, 07 | 134 – Driving Everybody Off |
May 18, 12 | Pg. 2 “Not Ready or Able” |
May 27, 11 | Pg. 7 “In the Future” |
Dec 19, 12 | 468 – Jerry’s Savior |
Aug 10, 15 | 667 – The Importance of Good Hygiene |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 2, 16 | 710 – Crimson Oils |
Jan 9, 07 | 65 – Co-Conspirators |
Jan 13, 14 | 562 – Violent Amputation |
May 23, 11 | 318 – The Plans of Dr. Klein, Pt. 1 “Getting Rid of Captain Spectacular” |
May 14, 08 | SF Collection #1 Cover |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Aug 6, 12 | 433 – Isn’t the Alien Invasion Over By Now? |
Aug 27, 18 | Swifty Origin, Pg. 13 “Doom” |
Apr 11, 12 | 402 – Lost Signal |
Dec 21, 12 | Guest Strip by Crystal Murphy! |
Mar 19, 18 | 772 – Showdown at the New California Coast |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 24, 20 | 858 – She Brewed Beer Yesterday |
Jul 18, 11 | 334 – Whaddaya Wanna Do? |
Dec 28, 09 | Guest Strip by Don Oskowski of “Conduit Flux!” |
Jun 10, 10 | 260 – What Happened to Star Maiden, Pt. 2 “Homecoming” |
Oct 21, 08 | 173 – The Blender of Vengeance |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jan 18, 11 | SF Origins: The Thrice Evil, Pg. 5 “Hungry” |
Oct 5, 12 | Pg. 7 “The Babymaker” |
Jan 18, 17 | 727 – Parlor Tricks |
Jul 23, 12 | 429 – Shenanigans |
Nov 5, 14 | 634 – Twin Plots |
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, [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 30, 13 | 544 – Whose Mess Is It, Anyway? |
Dec 5, 16 | 716 – Boy Haircut |
Feb 20, 12 | 388 – Bay-buh |
Jun 17, 08 | 139 – Jerry’s Fate Revealed |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 9, 16 | 712 – Ah-ah-ah |
Aug 1, 12 | 432 – Tea Time, Interrupted |
Oct 7, 11 | Chapter 12, “Jackpot!” Recap by Steve VanDyken |
Aug 18, 09 | SF Origins: Tangerine, Pg. 4 “Justice” |
Feb 10, 11 | 295 – It’s Got Him Thinkin’ |
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. [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jan 4, 07 | 63 – The Food is Plastic! |
Dec 3, 12 | 463 – May Percy Have a Pet? |
Jan 8, 14 | 561 – Blind Rage |
Jan 13, 14 | 562 – Violent Amputation |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Aug 27, 10 | SF Origins: Operation: Valhalla, No. 4 “Talking Turnips” |
Jan 17, 07 | 72 – Dictator Tot’s Marching Orders |
Feb 16, 10 | SF Origins: The Six Wives of Captain Spectacular, Pg. 6 “The Bottle and the Women” |
Aug 14, 08 | 154 – Tangerine’s Surprise |
May 20, 11 | Pg. 6 “Invisible” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 11, 06 | 39 – Jerry Arrives Late |
Sep 14, 16 | 699 – How Captain Spectacular Takes Care of Business |
Jan 28, 10 | 241 – He’s Gone |
Feb 6, 13 | 478 – What If Money Man Had Lived? |
Mar 25, 10 | 249 – How to Prove Your Love |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jun 11, 09 | 211 – Shrinking Your Carbon Footprint |
Aug 17, 10 | SF Origins: Baby Swifty’s First Words, Pg. 1 “Back to Start” |
Aug 25, 22 | 918 – Not Going in There |
Nov 27, 08 | 183 – Eloquence |
Mar 28, 07 | 127 – Entralean Slime Pellet |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 14, 10 | 280 – Twin Sisters |
May 1, 08 | 101 – WebSpace Page: Captain Spectacular |
Nov 19, 06 | 47 – Bingo Knight! |
Mar 24, 14 | 582 – The Discomfort of Dark Maiden |
Dec 3, 09 | 236 – You Have to Be Careful Who You Let Into Your Life |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jan 16, 13 | 472 – The Stink of the Space Monkeys |
Jan 27, 14 | 566 – Guns Blazin’ |
Jan 6, 09 | Guest Strip by T.L. Collins of “Bullfinch!” |
Sep 1, 22 | 920 – …The More They Stay the Same |
Aug 3, 12 | Pg. 6 “Inevitably Betrayed” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Dec 30, 10 | Guest Strip by Scott Gallatin of “Madscott!” (2010) |
Apr 23, 14 | 589 – The Lie of Never |
Jul 1, 08 | 143 – Ogle |
Jan 23, 12 | 380 – Mr. Jerry |
Apr 15, 11 | Pg. 1 “A Sudden Meeting” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jul 9, 18 | Pg. 6 “Date or Fight?” |
Nov 30, 11 | 367 – The Division Sword |
May 3, 08 | 86 – WebSpace Page: Jerry |
Mar 18, 10 | 248 – The Difference Between Justice and Revenge |
Feb 24, 14 | 574 – Jerry Stirring |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jan 8, 09 | 191 – The Origin of Captain Spectacular and Dr. Rocket, Pt. 8 “The Process Explained” |
Jan 4, 11 | Guest Strip by Javier Del Villar, Part Two |
Feb 6, 07 | 96 – Portal? |
Feb 14, 18 | 763 – Serious Issues |
Jan 10, 18 | 753 – What She’d Like to Know |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 7, 13 | 541 – Husband |
Feb 13, 12 | 386 – The Papanazi Report: Vegas |
Apr 14, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 9 “Press Conference” |
Sep 29, 06 | 7 – Turnip Turnip |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Sep 12, 11 | 350 – Great Things Ahead |
Aug 12, 19 | 790 – Hey-O! |
Aug 20, 09 | 221 – And By Books Do You Mean Skin Rags? |
Sep 9, 15 | 680 – Thrice Evil is Not Pleased |
May 21, 09 | 209 – Coming to Jesus |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 29, 09 | 231 – The Greatest Revenge Plot Never Imagined |
Jul 7, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 21 “Sayonara, Sucker!” |
Sep 8, 22 | 922 – The New Normal |
Mar 12, 18 | 770 – Bumps in the Road |
Feb 4, 10 | 242 – Comfort Food |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Jul 29, 13 | 521 – Spy Gal Awakened |
Apr 10, 13 | 496 – The First Condition |
Jul 29, 10 | 267 – Without Pants, Nothing is Possible |
Sep 18, 15 | 684 – Better Than Dyin’ |
Mar 7, 18 | 769 – Weeping Wandering Fat Children |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Mar 31, 07 | 130 – When Pigs Fly |
Apr 6, 11 | 305 – Favorite Thing He’s Seen All Year |
Oct 26, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal, Pg. 9 “What Is Strength?” |
Jul 16, 18 | Pg. 7 “Passion Enough to Change a Heart” |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
May 6, 13 | 501 – New Age Nitwit |
Jan 15, 20 | 824 – Knives Out |
Dec 10, 09 | 237 – A Surprise Visitor |
Aug 28, 13 | 530 – Jerry’s Greatest Hits |
May 7, 12 | 409 – Walkin’ Blues |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Oct 23, 13 | SuperFogeys Q and A: 4 of 4 |
Jun 22, 15 | 646 – Dark Maiden Wants What Now? |
Aug 3, 15 | 664 – Too Old to Drive |
Nov 19, 14 | 638 – The Man Who Sold the World |
Sep 5, 16 | 696 – Account Closed |
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 [...]
Related Comics ¬
Nov 14, 16 | 713 – No More Killin’ |
Dec 30, 08 | Guest Strip by Chris Blanchard of “Renaissance Guy!” |
May 20, 11 | Pg. 6 “Invisible” |
Aug 7, 13 | 524 – Cracked |
Jul 16, 14 | 610 – Do the most you can do. |
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, [...]
Related Comics ¬
Mar 26, 07 | 125 – Jerry’s Down |
Mar 15, 07 | 114 – Enter: Star Maiden |
Oct 1, 06 | 9 – How to Turn Dr. Rocket On |
Sep 9, 11 | Pg. 1 “Blood on the Table” |
Oct 21, 06 | 27 – Spy Gal’s Explanation |
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 [...]