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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Jul 21, 22 | 908 – Torture |
Jan 13, 07 | 68 – Jerry’s Computer Troubles |
Apr 13, 11 | 307 – T-Magus |
Sep 30, 10 | 278 – The Others |
Mar 12, 09 | 199 – Life is Like Pastry |
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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Feb 17, 12 | Pg. 2, “Devil Horned Goodbye” |
Sep 24, 12 | GUEST STRIP by Gwen Patton! |
Jul 2, 09 | 214 – Father and Sons |
Jul 4, 11 | 330 – Swim City |
Apr 3, 07 | 133 – Beginning the Tale of How Captain Spectacular Met Dr. Klein |
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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Jun 24, 08 | 141 – Why, Little D? |
Aug 21, 08 | 156 – An Utter Lack of Decorum |
Mar 24, 07 | 123 – The Box is Opened |
Apr 3, 07 | 133 – Beginning the Tale of How Captain Spectacular Met Dr. Klein |
Mar 20, 07 | 119 – #@$% Heroic |
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 5, 16 | 696 – Account Closed |
Sep 14, 16 | 699 – How Captain Spectacular Takes Care of Business |
Jun 24, 13 | Bubbles of Light 0 |
May 24, 22 | 891 – Third Eye Blind |
Feb 2, 10 | SF Origins: The Six Wives of Captain Spectacular, Pg. 4 “Zurida, Mistress of Worlds” |
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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Jan 21, 13 | 473 – Monkey Rain |
Feb 12, 14 | 571 – ZBC Nightly News with Richelieu Madden and Gwen Dreck |
Dec 28, 11 | Guest Strip by Crystal Murphy! |
Nov 15, 06 | 43 – The Healer Approaches the Captain |
Jun 15, 10 | SF Origins: The Life and Times of Soviet Sam, Pg. 4 “Pantsless” |
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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Nov 6, 08 | 177 – Lay Some More On Me |
Aug 20, 14 | 619 – The Repentant |
Feb 6, 13 | 478 – What If Money Man Had Lived? |
Aug 19, 10 | 273 – All Is Revealed |
Mar 25, 11 | Pg. 8 “Get Her” |
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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Jun 28, 22 | 901 – Vanished |
Jan 3, 11 | Guest Strip by Javier Del Villar, Part One |
Jan 30, 07 | 90 – Introducing Star Maiden! |
Mar 12, 12 | 394 – The Bottom Drops Out |
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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Jul 29, 15 | 662 – Lazy Villainy |
May 6, 13 | 501 – New Age Nitwit |
Jul 8, 11 | Pg. 13 “A Tree Falls in the Forest…” |
Mar 11, 07 | 110 – Spanking |
Apr 25, 18 | 781 – Everyone in the War Room! |
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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Jul 22, 10 | 266 – The Greatest Book Ever Written |
Dec 2, 09 | The SuperFogeys 2010 Teaser |
Aug 25, 09 | SF Origins: Tangerine, Pg. 5 “Making It Right” |
Jan 9, 17 | 724 – Requiem for Tangerine |
Aug 21, 08 | 156 – An Utter Lack of Decorum |
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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Sep 25, 12 | GUEST STRIP by Crystal Murphy, Summer Fun Pt. 1! |
Sep 11, 19 | 799 – Redemption is Possible |
Mar 10, 14 | 578 – A Different Kind of Torture |
Dec 24, 09 | Guest Strip by Rufus Edge of “Comicdeoxyribonucleicacid!” No. 2! |
Jan 18, 12 | 379 – A True Hero |
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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Jul 25, 11 | 336 – Walking Diagonally |
Dec 12, 11 | 370 – Ugly Little Man |
Feb 15, 11 | Pg. 3 “For The Girls” |
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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Feb 19, 18 | 764 – Meanwhile, Inside Dr. Rocket’s Bedchamber |
Nov 19, 14 | 638 – The Man Who Sold the World |
Dec 15, 20 | 862 – That’s It!? |
Mar 19, 14 | 581 – Gorgeous Guy Has Feelings |
Aug 25, 22 | 918 – Not Going in There |
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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Apr 20, 11 | 309 – Time Travelin’ Scamps |
Mar 18, 21 | 883 – Through the Mall! |
Oct 3, 12 | 446 – General Spy Gal |
Jan 25, 07 | 83 – The Seduction of Dr. Klein |
Jan 25, 17 | 729 – After the Battle |
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 14, 12 | Pg. 6 “Who Could Have Done This?” |
Jul 2, 09 | 214 – Father and Sons |
Nov 7, 16 | 711- Fallen Son |
Nov 13, 08 | 179 – Reverend Space Pig |
Feb 8, 12 | 385 – Tiger Dung |
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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Apr 25, 18 | 781 – Everyone in the War Room! |
Feb 10, 11 | 295 – It’s Got Him Thinkin’ |
Jan 13, 14 | 562 – Violent Amputation |
Sep 18, 16 | 700 – Happy Tenth Anniversary, SuperFogeys |
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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Oct 3, 16 | 703 – Like a Television During a Calliou Marathon |
Aug 20, 12 | 437 – Ever Since The Shriveled Speedster Left |
Mar 24, 07 | 123 – The Box is Opened |
Sep 16, 15 | 683 – What Makes Peace Worthless |
Aug 24, 10 | SF Origins: Operation: Valhalla, No. 1 “Incoming!” |
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 15, 16 | 690 – Name Calling |
Jul 1, 13 | 517 – The Man in the Iron Cage |
Mar 3, 07 | 106 – What’s in the Box? |
Sep 30, 11 | Chapter 7, “Visiting Day” Recap by Rossana Bugini |
Mar 27, 07 | 126 – Who the @#$% is the Third Man? |
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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Aug 13, 14 | 617 – 4 Seconds Earlier |
Mar 24, 14 | 582 – The Discomfort of Dark Maiden |
Jul 22, 08 | 147 – Three Plus Seven |
Dec 2, 08 | 184 – The Origin of Captain Spectacular and Dr. Rocket, Pt. 1 “Laban and Amram” |
May 13, 11 | Pg. 5 “Jerry the Superhero” |
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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Dec 2, 09 | The SuperFogeys 2010 Teaser |
Apr 16, 09 | 204 – Florida Beckons |
Nov 6, 08 | 177 – Lay Some More On Me |
Jan 28, 13 | 475 – Too Old For This |
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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Nov 7, 16 | 711- Fallen Son |
Nov 10, 09 | SF Origins: Spy Gal vs. Star Maiden, Pg. 2 “Girlfight” |
Apr 28, 14 | 590 – Will He Fight? |
Dec 29, 08 | Guest Strip by Scott Gallatin of “Madscott!” |
Jun 22, 11 | 327 – The Buddy System |
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 23, 13 | SuperFogeys Q and A: 4 of 4 |
Apr 30, 18 | 782 – The Lone Figure in the Doorway |
Oct 13, 06 | 20 – Worse Than He Thought |
Jan 27, 14 | 566 – Guns Blazin’ |
Dec 10, 20 | 861 – tink tink tink |
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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Jul 22, 15 | 659 – Wasting Time |
Jan 14, 07 | 69 – Swifty’s Computer Problems |
Jan 1, 09 | Guest Strip by Mark R. Engel of “Prematurely Disappointed!” |
Jul 8, 08 | Guest Strip by Brian Anderson of “Dog Eat Doug!” |
Apr 21, 14 | 588 – In the Dark, Where He Thinks He Belongs |
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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Jul 20, 11 | 335 – Diagonally |
Apr 16, 12 | 403 – Don’t Say No to Dark Maiden |
Jun 18, 18 | Pg. 3 “The Prophecy” |
Jul 17, 08 | 146 – Cad and a Layabout |
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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Jan 29, 14 | 567 – The Day Spa |
Oct 21, 08 | 173 – The Blender of Vengeance |
Apr 25, 18 | 781 – Everyone in the War Room! |
Oct 12, 10 | SF Origins: Spy Gal, Pg.7 “BOOM” |
Jan 10, 07 | 66 – Captain Spectacular’s Fear of Modern Technology |
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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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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Jun 17, 13 | 513 – Devil’s Bargain |
Aug 26, 13 | 529 – Why Did Jerry Do It? |
Oct 2, 08 | 168 – Tangerine Gets His Mad On |
Mar 26, 07 | 125 – Jerry’s Down |
Nov 11, 06 | 39 – Jerry Arrives Late |
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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Jun 4, 12 | 417 – Guess Who’s Back? |
Oct 28, 13 | 543 – The Ignored Little Boy |
Jun 29, 11 | 329 – Ear Twist |
Mar 19, 09 | 200 – Where is He!? |
Oct 29, 12 | 453 – Buried Weapons |
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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Jan 2, 12 | 374 – A Spy Gal Shaped Hole |
Sep 27, 12 | GUEST STRIP by Crystal Murphy, Summer Fun Pt. 3 |
Apr 6, 12 | Pg. 7 “Death or Peanut Butter Cookies?” |
Nov 14, 12 | 458 – Quite An Entrance |
Jul 28, 22 | 910 – The Hero the World Needs |
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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Feb 17, 11 | 296 – Even Her |
Jan 13, 14 | 562 – Violent Amputation |
Mar 13, 11 | 299 – Why The Hospital |
Jul 8, 08 | Guest Strip by Brian Anderson of “Dog Eat Doug!” |
Nov 6, 17 | 744 – The USZ is Truly a Wondrous Place |
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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Jan 18, 17 | 727 – Parlor Tricks |
Sep 10, 18 | Pg. 15 “Something Missing” |
Apr 13, 12 | Pg. 8 “Enter: The Thrice Evil” |
Mar 10, 09 | SF Origins: The Society of Heroes, Pg. 4 “Arrival in New York” |
Jun 4, 12 | 417 – Guess Who’s Back? |
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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May 28, 09 | 210 – What Happens Next |
Mar 23, 10 | SF Origins: Swifty and the Prophecy, Pg. 3 “After That Bear!” |
Aug 13, 09 | 220 – Don’t Act Like You Care |
Mar 4, 10 | 246 – Righteous Kill |
Jul 6, 11 | 331 – Paradise |
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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Nov 8, 17 | 745 – The Song of Rocket’s Loyalty |
Aug 24, 10 | SF Origins: Operation: Valhalla, No. 1 “Incoming!” |
Jan 10, 07 | 66 – Captain Spectacular’s Fear of Modern Technology |
Nov 11, 11 | Pg. 7 “Nipped” |
Apr 8, 07 | 137 – The Operating 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 [...]
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May 4, 11 | 313 – Dr. Rocket’s Space Journey, Pt. 2: A Lovely Woman |
Dec 27, 10 | Guest Strip by Crystal Murphy, Part One (2010) |
Jan 9, 12 | 376 – Beaten But Not Broken |
Aug 13, 14 | 617 – 4 Seconds Earlier |
Jan 25, 07 | 83 – The Seduction of Dr. Klein |
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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Feb 28, 18 | 767 – Done Pretending |
Nov 25, 10 | 286 – Duty and Retirement |
Jul 11, 12 | 428 – You Know Who You Sound Like? |
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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Aug 4, 22 | 912 – Jerry Speaks |
Jun 14, 22 | 897 – Streaking Past |
Feb 8, 07 | 98 – The Wedding of Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden |
Aug 7, 15 | 666 – When He Can Smell You From in There, It’s a Problem |
Jul 3, 13 | 518 – The Last Secret |
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 [...]