NOW UPDATED WITH THE FULL POST (scroll down to see additional content)! JASON SIGLER TOPS HIMSELF Is it just my imagination or is the artist of this month’s SuperFogeys Origin actually growing as an artist right before our eyes? Every page has been better than the last and it’s been a pure pleasure to watch [...]
SWIFTY AND THE PROPHECY ENDS! I can’t thank Jason Sigler enough for the stellar job he did on this story! He brought a real energy and zaniness that you don’t often see with SF, but that was absolutely what this story called for. Thanks a bunch, man! Be sure and listen to the Digitial Strips podcast [...]
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE MEGA DAVID REDDICK/BROCK HEASLEY ANNOUNCEMENT! WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, WES MOLEBASH! In a lot of ways, Wes Molebash is the man who got me into webcomics. Now, I don’t know if that’s something he wants to take credit for. It’s certainly not something he did consciously! It was his now finished [...]
STAR MAIDEN’S PARENTS, BEZUEL AND NIADA This was a tricky, tricky page to script. Bezuel and Niada have a bit of a complicated interplay going on here and getting the ideas AND the emotion across was the challenge of this page. In these short origin stories the job is always the same–conveying the maximum amount [...]
WES MOLEBASH DRAWS A PRE-TEEN STAR MAIDEN! Did you know he draws other things as well? And writes? It’s true! Check out his great comic Max vs. Max right away. (No joke. Do it now. It’s good, good stuff.) Thank me later. ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT TO GET YOUR SPY GAL ORIGIN SUBMISSIONS IN! That’s [...]
WES MOLEBASH DRAWS CAPES! WES MOLEBASH DRAWS MORE STAR MAIDEN! We’re four pages into this origin and we’re only just now seeing capes! Wes has been tackling each and every beat of this story with flair and this page is no exception. Hopefully my colors aren’t mucking things up too badly. Are you reading Wes’ [...]
NOT THE END OF THE ORIGIN OF STAR MAIDEN…BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN Originally, this was to be the final page of the Star Maiden origin, with a big ol’ “The End” slapped on the final panel there. Would that have been satisfying? You tell me. As artist Wes Molebash (creator of one of my [...]
THE ORIGIN OF STAR MAIDEN ENDS! Man, was this one ever fun–which is an odd thing to say considering there’s not a single joke across the six pages of Star Maiden’s origin. To tell you the truth, that was on purpose. To me, it seemed like the most unexpected thing to do with Star Maiden’s [...]
SOVIET SAM and T.L. COLLINS Welcome back, T.L. Collins! More than any other artist, T.L. defines what a SuperFogeys Origin should look like. We haven’t seen him grace these “pages” since 2009, but he comes back in a big way with this 8-page Soviet Sam story. Sam is a character we’ve only glimpsed briefly in the [...]
T.L. COLLINS BUSTS OUT THE BRILLIANCE I love this page. I think it’s a bit of risk, storytelling wise, but I think it works and T.L. just brought his A game to the page. Be sure and check out the fantastic work he’s doing on his own webcomic, Bullfinch. BACK IN FIGHTING SHAPE I spent the [...]
THE TROUBLE WITH SOVIET SAM PAGE 3 So…you may have noticed that this page is missing some colors and some elements of the panels seem out of whack. T.L. and I regret bringing the page to you this way, but we figured this was better than no page at all. The sad truth is that T.L. [...]
HE’S NAKED! Ten points to whoever can remember the first time we saw a naked Captain Spectacular. Better provide a link if you wanna prove your superior intellect! Give it up to T.L. Collins for rendering this in fine fashion. I could look at his Soviet Sam all day. Having Captain Spectacular in there too [...]
DR. ROCKET, THAT’S ONE TO GROW ON As you can all tell by now, this Soviet Sam story is serving multiple functions, the least of which (no, really, the LEAST) is to enlighten some SF moments past. This page in particular is important to me because, looking back, the Dr. Rocket circa Chapter 3 didn’t get [...]
THIS DEPRESSING MOMENT IN THE LIFE OF SOVIET SAM BROUGHT TO YOU BY… T.L. Collins! Blame him if the rest of your day is a bummer because of this. He was the one who wanted to do a Soviet Sam story. (But seriously, how perfectly is he nailing the emotion of these scenes? Just great [...]
THE RETURN OF DEATH, M.D.! Been a while since we’ve seen our good friend Death, M.D. I love this guy. He just takes so much delight in his job. Who among us gets to say that? You gotta respect that. T.L. Collins informs that he really dug drawing this page, and Death, M.D. in particular. I [...]
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: T.L. COLLINS ENDS HIS RUN ON SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS I knew this day was coming, but I was hoping to put it off as long as possible. T.L. was the artist that made SuperFogeys Origins possible. The first to say yes and the only one to take it on as a regular gig. Without [...]
WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, CORY THOMAS! If there’s one thing the SuperFogeys is known for, it’s action. Strike that. Opposite of that. Action is exactly what’s going to make “Spy Gal’s Secret Mission”–a mostly silent tale–so special. It’s an experiment I hope you enjoy as much as we do. Cory, artist and colorist of this short, [...]
SILENT RUNNING So. Much. Violence. Kids, turn away. Today’s break from verbosity comes to us courtesy of Cory Thomas, the creator of Watch Your Head. Watch it now! IN SATURDAY’S LOCAL NEWS…WEBCOMIC ARTIST CONFUSES READERSHIP WITH OLD SCHOOL ATTIRE, NEW SCHOOL CREATIVITY Last week I told you about an interview I did with Mike Osgueda at [...]
DON’T MESS WITH SPY GAL. SERIOUSLY. OR CORY THOMAS. Without any speedlines or sound fx, Cory Thomas has perfectly captured Spy Gal’s journey downward to the door to the unseen person who speaks the first words of this up-til-now silent tale. That’s quite the feat. Hats off to you, Cory. Can’t wait to see what you [...]
THE ANNOTATED SPY GAL’S SECRET MISSION This was a story that was a bit of an experiment and was a challenge for both me and artist Cory Thomas (Go read Watch Your Head!) If you can’t tell already (and if you can’t then you must be brand, brand new to the strip–hey, welcome!), I kind [...]
THE SUPERFOGEYS CALL-IN SHOW IS TONIGHT! Tonight, at 8pm PST, I’ll be the featured guest on the TGT Webcomics Podast for their very first Call-in Show. This will your opportunity to talk with me, live, and ask any questions you’d like as we gear up for the big ending to Chapter 9. I admit to [...]
SILENCE IS BROKEN Welcome back, everyone! Man, last week. Last week was what I have been waiting for and working towards ever since I decided to make this little comic called SuperFogeys into an ongoing thing. I sweated and fretted over whether or not I could keep the secret and worried that, after all that work, [...]
WHAT IS THIS? Well, this is SuperFogeys Origins. In content if not format. For the vast majority of you, this is the first time you’re seeing Operation: Valhalla. Originally, this story was written for and appeared in the now-out-of-print first SuperFogeys collection and this is the first time it has ever appeared in its complete form [...]
THE ANNOTATED OPERATION: VALHALLA NO.2 If you’re just joining us, this is part two of the DIRECT SuperFogeys prequel, Operation: Valhalla. This is actually the first true appearance of the Third Man as this story came out in print before his online appearance in Chapter 3, “The Techno Shuffle.” We’ve also seen that this was not [...]
THE IMPORTANCE OF OPERATION: VALHALLA With today’s strip you can finally now see how this story begins to tie into SuperFogeys Chapter One. This is the real reason I wrote the story in the first place–to show that the Third Man knew what he was doing and what he wanted from the very beginning. There [...]
MONSTERPLEX IS BACK! I’ve been promising for a while now that my Zuda-winning/Zuda-booted comic, Monsterplex, would be coming back–at least enough so I can show you all the work we did that you never got to see. If you head on over to the Monsterplex blog right now you’ll see that I’ve begun posting those [...]
WELCOME TO A SPECIAL SATURDAY UPDATE! This is the penultimate strip of Operation: Valhalla – The DIRECT SuperFogeys Prequel. Hope you all have been digging it so far. This is the first appearance of Spy Gal’s family, but most of you will remember them from Chapter 7, Visiting Day. Last strip of this story is tomorrow, see you [...]
OPERATION: VALHALLA ENDS HERE! And now you see how it all began. This strip was tricky. It’s the only one that I can remember that has both Jerry and Dr. Klein in it at the same time. The artist, Mike Hartigan, had no clue about the link between them and, for some reason, removed the [...]
WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, LEE CHEROLIS! For you new readers (and there have been a lot of you lately), Back in May of this year I ran a contest to see choose who would draw the next, great origin–Spy Gal’s. Over the course of several weeks, many wonderful artists submitted their own version of Spy [...]
LEE CHEROLIS STEPS UP HIS GAME! How beautiful is that page? I’ll admit I wasn’t entirely sure about Lee’s approach to color on this art–it’s a lot stronger than what I’m used to. But I gotta say my reservations were unfounded. He knows his art well and this is just firing on all cylinders. And [...]
GORGEOUS PAGE I’ve just been really knocked out by the work Lee Cherolis has been doing on the art for this story. Hope you guys agree. See you on Thursday with SuperFogeys 276! A special visitor is coming to Valhalla…
THE THING THAT AMAZES ME ABOUT THE WORK THAT LEE CHEROLIS IS DOING ON THIS ORIGIN… …is how wonderful the color is. The pages look one way in their black and white form, but then Lee adds all kinds of dimension and details with his color. It really is the whole package. Too often in [...]
IS IT HOT IN HERE? Greeting, SuperFans! I do believe the sexy quotient has gone up considerably today. Blame the amazing Spy Gal origin artist Lee Cherolis. And me. A little. I mean, I guess I wrote it. I think we’re skirting the edge of acceptable content here, but we don’t do these things for no [...]
SUPERFOGEYS TURNS FOUR, I TURN TO YOU In case you missed it (I did), the SuperFogeys turned four last month, on the 22nd of September. September 22nd, 2006 was the first day I ever posted a SF strip online–on MySpace, if you can believe it. And now here we are. I’ve reached the point in [...]
PAGE 7, “BOOM” In a lot of ways this is my favorite page of this story. I think that’s true for Lee as well. I think it’s fair to say that we’ve gone into some uncharted territory here (for The SuperFogeys) and that’s kind of fun to see. Don’t you think? WALLPAPER AND DONATIONS UPDATE Well, [...]
THE SPY GAL ORIGIN ENTERS ITS LAST ACT We’re in the home stretch now! Just 3 more pages after this one and then You’ll know everything you need to know about Spy Gal before she joined the Society of Heroes (if not everything there IS to know). The amazing art is, always, by Lee Cherolis who [...]
UPDATE! THE SPY GAL FAN ART YOU HAVE TO SEE! This is just came across my inbox. Inspired by your comments on today’s Spy Gal page, SuperFan Gwen Patton (the creative force behind Jenny Everywhere’s Infinite: Quark Time) came up with this fan art featuring Spy Gal eating fried chicken. Gwen calls this a new [...]
NOT THE LAST PAGE…BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN One of the things Lee did after he read my script for the Spy Gal Origin was to immediately demand that we split the last page into two. My challenge as a writer is always to script these things into the number of pages the artist is willing [...]
THE SPY GAL ORIGIN COMES TO A CLOSE How about a big round of applause for Lee Cherolis for the great job he did on this story? From the Spy Gal Art Contest in May until now, it’s been a long road for Lee to get to this point and I for one think did a [...]
MR. CROOK CAN’T CATCH A BREAK! Oft-neglected but never forgotten, Mr. Crook is one of those characters that you hear more about than you actually see. As anyone who has read Chapter 1 knows, Mr. Crook died 2 weeks before Spy Gal came to Valhalla. But, until now, we’ve never known how he died. To get to [...]
MASSIVE SUPERFOGEYS VOL. 1 PRICE DROP FOR THE HOLIDAYS! Don’t have SuperFogeys Vol. 1 yet? Looking for a great gift idea? Just in time for the holidays, the price on SuperFogeys Vol. 1 Regular and Artist editions have been slashed by $5! Check out what a measly $14.99(+shipping) will get you: The first five chapters of the [...]
THANK YOU, MICHAEL ODOM! I love this little 3-pager. I know you guys kind of run hot and cold on the smaller, lighter stories, but I love them both because they provide a breather and because they’re always a chance for me to experiment a little. Whether it’s to try my hand at a twisted version [...]
WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, STEVE OGDEN! If you don’t know the name Steve Ogden, then you’re missing out on one of the most beautiful webcomics out there,Moon Town. Steve is a class act who can do it all–write, letter, draw, ink, and color. In fact, this is only the second Origins tale that I myself [...]
MR. CROOK IS BACK…AND SO IS STEVE OGDEN! Seems like we just said farewell to Mr. Crook, but this story takes place a little over 50 years before that one, so all is well. This is the second, amazing page from Steve Ogden. Do him a favor and check out his wonderful webcomic,Moon Town. ONE WEEK [...]
ARTISTS! YOUR GUEST STRIPPIN’ XMAS SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE NOW! Guest Strippin’ Xmas begins next week and if you want to see your work featured here then now’s the time to get your entry in to me. Deadline is tonight (December 21st) 11:59pm PST (although I’ll accept submissions for as long as 12 hours after that–but [...]
WELCOME BACK TO REGULAR UPDATES! I hope you guys enjoyed Guest Strippin’ Xmas as much as I did. Really inventive crop of guest strips this year, some of which had me literally laughing out loud. If you missed ‘em and would like to check ‘em all out at once, start here. How’d everybody’s Christmas/Holiday season go? [...]
STEVE OGDEN GOES THE EXTRA MILE I don’t think there’s a single page of this little story that was more labored over than this one. Steve made the decision to add a page to the original 5-page story and it really helps things tremendously. The exact look and pace and number of panels on this [...]
HE THRICE EVIL ORIGIN CONCLUDES! Man, what a finish. This Thrice Evil origin was a real labor of love for both Steve Ogden and I and we sincerely hope you enjoyed it. Steve busted his butt to make this thing as perfect a short story as he could–adding a full page to its length and [...]
WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, CHRIS WATKINS! I have nothing but good things to say about my collaboration with Chris Watkins. Not only has he been a dream to work with, but the storytelling choices he makes and the very defined, cartoony spin he puts on things leaves me a bit jealous. And those colors! Chris’s [...]
BOOM. ACTION. Chris Watkins turns it out in fine style today. Looking solely at his work on Odori Park, I don’t think you’d ever guess that Chris could handle action like he does at the end of this page. It’s just so, so great. MY BOOK HAS PASSED ITS BIGGEST TEST SO FAR There’s one person [...]
COLORS Man, I love Chris’s colors on this one. So bright and perfect for the time period (late 1960′s). Be sure and check out his webcomic, Odori Park! BIG THINGS IN THE WORKS I’ve got some HUGE stuff in the works for SF right now and that leaves me with little time to compose a post [...]
I’M A FATHER! (AGAIN!) Those of you that follow me on Facebook know good and well by now that my third daughter, Violet, was born without a hitch last Friday morning. Things truly could not have gone better and her mother and I are so, so relieved. A lot of people asked me in the [...]
CONTINUALLY IMPRESSED I’m still amazed that with each new page of this story Chris Watkins continues to top himself. This page rocks and serves as a perfect lead-in to the major revelations in store for next week. But, like most things in SuperFogeys, I’ll bet many of you have figured it out already from the trail [...]
MONICA RETURNS Read the Spy Gal Origin lately? Now’s a good time to go back and review! Come on back here after you’re done and we’ll discuss. Ready? Here we go. Fun and pointless fact: Operation: C.O.W. was always intended to be a sequel of sorts to Spy Gal’s origin, though it was, in fact, written first! [...]
THE ANNOTATED OPERATION: C.O.W. PAGE 7 Poor, poor Barry. But then, you all knew where this was headed, didn’t you? You heard about this incident a long time ago…right here. I hope we get to know Barry better some day. You’ve now met both of Spy Gal’s husbands, but clearly there’s more to Barry’s story. [...]
WHO SAYS I’M WORDY? I can be a wordy sonuvagun, it’s true. But one thing I’ve been working on a lot lately is trying to pare down my word counts in the comics (not here in my comments though–I’m not that merciful). Comics are very much the interplay between words and pictures (not strictly speaking, [...]
AN APOLOGY You may have noticed the today’s SFO page looks a little different than the ones that have come before it. What you’re looking at is what’s called flats–just the very basic colors have been laid into the art. What’s missing is the rendering, which is what really makes art like this sing. Click [...]
WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, JOHN JETT! John is one of those guys whose style just screams “classic.” He reminds me a lot of George Perez–and that’s a very good thing. His style is just absolutely perfect for the Jerry origin since, during the course of the next 12(!) weeks, we’re gonna be covering a lot of [...]
JERRY’S ORIGIN BEGINS…NOW! "Tom?" I hear you say. "Who the heck is Tom?" It’s been a while since we’ve seen him, but for those of you who need to get up to speed, let’s look back a little, shall we? Tom’s Origin Story When Tom Met Ms. Missile Tom in Chapter 7, Visiting Day The [...]
JOHN JETT TAKES THINGS TO ANOTHER LEVEL There’s the way I write it…and then there’s the way John draws the snot out of it! I’m always impressed by the the number of details and the unique take John has on all of the characters. Really inspiring stuff. See more of John’s work at his site! [...]
