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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Dec 16, 13 | 557 – Dog Off the Leash |
Jan 30, 07 | 90 – Introducing Star Maiden! |
May 22, 13 | 506 – Disappearing Act |
Jul 8, 08 | Guest Strip by Brian Anderson of “Dog Eat Doug!” |
Nov 9, 11 | 361 – The Whole Place is Coming Down |
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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Nov 10, 20 | 854 – Don’t Touch the Lava |
Nov 1, 06 | 29 – Introducing Dr. Klein! |
Jul 4, 11 | 330 – Swim City |
Sep 30, 10 | 278 – The Others |
Dec 19, 11 | 372 – She’s His Sister |
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 10, 12 | Pg. 1 “Ozzy Osbourne” |
Jan 8, 07 | 64 – Introducing Dictator Tot! |
Jan 6, 11 | Guest Strip by Marjorie Rishel |
Mar 3, 07 | 106 – What’s in the Box? |
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 [...]
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Feb 26, 09 | 197 – Requiem |
Jan 15, 20 | 824 – Knives Out |
Nov 3, 06 | 31- Spittin’ Oatmeal |
Dec 8, 06 | 57 – Captain Spectacular Forgot His Pants |
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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Mar 25, 11 | Pg. 8 “Get Her” |
Jul 20, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal’s Secret Mission, Pg. 1 “Entry” |
Apr 4, 07 | 134 – Driving Everybody Off |
Aug 15, 11 | 342 – The Wrong Man |
Apr 9, 07 | 138 – Good News and Bad News |
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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Sep 18, 15 | 684 – Better Than Dyin’ |
Dec 25, 08 | Merry Christmas From The SuperFogeys (2008) |
Aug 12, 19 | 790 – Hey-O! |
Dec 24, 12 | Merry Christmas From The SuperFogeys! |
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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Sep 11, 15 | 681 – Man Child |
Jul 27, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal’s Secret Mission, Pg. 2 “Down” |
Jul 1, 11 | Pg. 12 “Comic Book Clothing Physics” |
Mar 11, 20 | 838 – The Situation |
Jan 27, 20 | 827 – Lay Her Down |
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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Oct 14, 08 | 171 – Hello, Karma |
Aug 7, 15 | 666 – When He Can Smell You From in There, It’s a Problem |
Jul 22, 10 | 266 – The Greatest Book Ever Written |
May 25, 12 | Pg. 3 “A Couple of Brothers” |
Oct 21, 08 | 173 – The Blender of Vengeance |
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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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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Jan 28, 21 | 869 – A Wonderful Side Effect |
Aug 10, 20 | 843 – What About the Crawfish? |
Jul 9, 08 | Guest Strip by Rufus Edge of “comicdeoxyribonucleicacid!” |
May 27, 11 | Pg. 7 “In the Future” |
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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Jul 14, 22 | 906 – He Looks Different |
Nov 23, 06 | 50 – And the Actual Winner of Bingo Night is… |
Apr 4, 07 | 134 – Driving Everybody Off |
Mar 23, 21 | 884 – No Good at This |
Feb 3, 14 | 568 – Old Biddy |
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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Aug 9, 10 | 269 – Sparing Her |
Mar 15, 07 | 114 – Enter: Star Maiden |
Dec 10, 12 | 465 – Lip Lick |
Mar 19, 18 | 772 – Showdown at the New California Coast |
Nov 21, 12 | 460 – Riding the Sunway |
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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Sep 10, 12 | 443 – “Open to Ideas” |
Feb 8, 07 | 98 – The Wedding of Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden |
Sep 25, 08 | 166 – Beer Don’t Judge |
Aug 13, 09 | 220 – Don’t Act Like You Care |
Oct 16, 08 | 172 – The Superhero Code |
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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Jan 9, 17 | 724 – Requiem for Tangerine |
Oct 12, 12 | Pg. 8 “Gross Fetuses” |
Sep 4, 13 | 532 – How Hard is the Rock Upon Which Stands Your Principles? |
Jan 7, 13 | 469 – Beating Into Submission with Peace |
Apr 25, 12 | 406 – Spy Gal’s Wall of Evidence |
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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Mar 19, 18 | 772 – Showdown at the New California Coast |
Jan 28, 07 | 88 – Who Smells Like Fish? |
Oct 11, 17 | 737 – Dastard Number Two |
Aug 10, 15 | 667 – The Importance of Good Hygiene |
Sep 28, 11 | Chapter 5, “The Redemption of Dr. Rocket” Recap by Geoff Munn |
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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Feb 2, 10 | SF Origins: The Six Wives of Captain Spectacular, Pg. 4 “Zurida, Mistress of Worlds” |
Jan 15, 14 | 563 – Wreckage |
May 20, 11 | Pg. 6 “Invisible” |
Sep 5, 12 | 442 – The Rest of Them |
Dec 24, 09 | Guest Strip by Rufus Edge of “Comicdeoxyribonucleicacid!” No. 2! |
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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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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Jul 17, 15 | 657 – The Most Difficult Thing Swifty Has Ever Done |
Feb 16, 21 | 874 – The One True |
Oct 19, 11 | 356 – Best Luck of Her Life |
Jun 14, 22 | 897 – Streaking Past |
Aug 25, 22 | 918 – Not Going in There |
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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Aug 11, 22 | 914 – Time to Go |
Sep 9, 10 | 275 – A Moment of Silence |
May 23, 11 | 318 – The Plans of Dr. Klein, Pt. 1 “Getting Rid of Captain Spectacular” |
Jan 4, 17 | 723 – Ascendant |
Jul 9, 14 | 608 – Gumdrops and Rainbows |
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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Oct 19, 11 | 356 – Best Luck of Her Life |
Feb 22, 11 | Pg. 4 “Ruined Her Show” |
May 27, 11 | Pg. 7 “In the Future” |
Oct 12, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal, Pg.7 “BOOM” |
Oct 9, 13 | 542 – The Visible Man |
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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Sep 12, 11 | 350 – Great Things Ahead |
Aug 21, 19 | 793 – The Hero He Hates to Be |
Mar 30, 10 | SF Origins: Swifty and the Prophecy, Pg. 4 “SMACK!” |
May 30, 12 | 416 – Alcohol is His Kryptonite |
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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Dec 9, 06 | 58 – Jerry’s Single Chest Hair |
Jun 27, 11 | 328 – Pairing Off |
Sep 5, 11 | 348 – The Wheel of Fortune |
Aug 6, 18 | Swifty Origin, Pg. 10 “The Heart” |
Mar 30, 07 | 129 – Captain Spectacular’s Plea |
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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Dec 10, 20 | 861 – tink tink tink |
Aug 9, 10 | 269 – Sparing Her |
Jan 8, 18 | 752 – Like Jerry |
Jan 5, 10 | Guest Strip by Joe Cook of “Shattered Myth!” |
Oct 23, 17 | 740 – Boop |
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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Oct 2, 13 | 540 – Jerry is Committed |
Sep 12, 16 | 698 – Good Thing or Bad Thing? |
Oct 20, 20 | 848 – Organic Deodorant |
Dec 24, 12 | Merry Christmas From The SuperFogeys! |
Aug 8, 16 | 688 – Zurida, The Peacemaker |
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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Jan 15, 14 | 563 – Wreckage |
May 2, 18 | 783 – FINALLY! |
Dec 29, 10 | Guest Strip by Javier Del Villar (Extra) |
Jul 26, 22 | 909 – Get Outta Town |
Dec 24, 09 | Guest Strip by Rufus Edge of “Comicdeoxyribonucleicacid!” No. 2! |
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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Aug 11, 22 | 914 – Time to Go |
Aug 17, 12 | Pg. 2 “Youthfulenergysupersurplus!” |
Sep 12, 12 | 444 – A New Mission |
Apr 11, 11 | 306 – He Looks Like He’s Dying |
Jan 2, 12 | 374 – A Spy Gal Shaped Hole |
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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Dec 16, 19 | 819 – Time for a Refill? |
Jul 10, 08 | Guest Strip by Lucas Turnbloom of “Imagine This!” |
Sep 25, 06 | 4 – Who is Coming to Valhalla? |
Jun 15, 10 | SF Origins: The Life and Times of Soviet Sam, Pg. 4 “Pantsless” |
Oct 16, 08 | 172 – The Superhero Code |
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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May 6, 13 | 501 – New Age Nitwit |
Sep 7, 15 | 679 – The Design of His Life |
Jun 3, 09 | The SuperFogeys Free Comic Book Day Page! |
Feb 13, 13 | 480 – A Bevy of Buxom Beach Beauties |
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 1, 08 | 101 – WebSpace Page: Captain Spectacular |
Sep 24, 09 | 226 – The Deal is Off |
Sep 21, 16 | 10th Anniversary BONUS STRIP 2! |
Mar 15, 07 | 114 – Enter: Star Maiden |
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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Nov 23, 06 | 50 – And the Actual Winner of Bingo Night is… |
Mar 27, 07 | 126 – Who the @#$% is the Third Man? |
Dec 26, 11 | Guest Strip by Will Boyer! |
Aug 27, 18 | Swifty Origin, Pg. 13 “Doom” |
Nov 17, 06 | 45 – The Tale of How Captain Spectacular was Paralyzed, Conclusion |
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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Sep 21, 16 | 10th Anniversary BONUS STRIP 2! |
Nov 4, 11 | Pg. 6 “A Zombie Rabbit” |
Jul 16, 18 | Pg. 7 “Passion Enough to Change a Heart” |
Aug 26, 08 | 157 – The Third Man’s Message |
Sep 7, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal, Pg. 2 “Cats at the Back” |
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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Nov 4, 06 | 32 – Bingo Night Begins |
Dec 18, 19 | 820 – Heart-Stopping Great Looks |
Aug 11, 22 | 914 – Time to Go |
Sep 11, 08 | 162 – Just Another Purty Face? |
Dec 19, 16 | 720 – Thank You for Making Me Angry |
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 25, 10 | 286 – Duty and Retirement |
Nov 26, 14 | 640 – Jerry Must Come Back |
Nov 5, 06 | 33 – Why Walk When You Can Fly? |
Feb 1, 12 | 383 – Jackpot. |
Jan 7, 13 | 469 – Beating Into Submission with Peace |
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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Sep 28, 16 | 702 – He’s Got Gloves |
Feb 4, 10 | 242 – Comfort Food |
Jan 6, 11 | Guest Strip by Marjorie Rishel |
Jul 2, 09 | 214 – Father and Sons |
Apr 25, 18 | 781 – Everyone in the War Room! |
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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Jul 9, 18 | Pg. 6 “Date or Fight?” |
Jun 2, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 16 “Eagle vs. Bear” |
Jan 16, 13 | 472 – The Stink of the Space Monkeys |
Oct 30, 19 | 808 – 2.5 Seconds Later |
Oct 27, 14 | 631 – Two Decisions |