THE SUPERFOGEYS 5TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

by Brock Heasley on August 17th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

We’re about one month out from the 5th anniversary of the creation of the SuperFogeys. Crazy, right? It was impressed upon me the need to celebrate this fact. I say: let’s do it.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

ARTISTS

I’m looking for artists to help chart the course the SuperFogeys have taken in the past 5 years. There are 11 1/2 chapters in the Valhalla saga so far and I think it would be a lot of fun to see those chapters retold in YOUR style and in the way YOU wanna do it. A little montage recap, if you will.

What’s the format? Doesn’t matter. 4-panel strip. Full comic book page. Double-sized strip…whatever you wanna do.  Have fun with it. Wanna do a parody of what I did? Go for it! Wanna retell the story as a noir or a fantasty or put all the Fogeys in diapers? Up to you! Go nuts.

This is gonna take a certain amount of skill (which is why, if you’re not real confident about your art skills, I have a way for writers to contribute below) and I’d hate for any two people to do the same chapter, so here’s how this will work:

If you’d like to participate, please email me right away at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com with the number and name of the Chapter you’d like to tackle. First come, first serve.

You have a whole month to do this. All chapter recaps are due Tuesday, September 20th. The official 5th anniversary is September 22nd and the celebration starts then with each recap rolling out one at a time on each weekday until they’re done. I think these could be a lot of fun and will be a great (although slightly bizarre) resource for new readers.

The only real rules are to keep harsh language, bloody violence and nudity out of it. Be sure and check out the Story page for a list of chapters and their brief descriptions to refresh your memory!

UPDATE - Here are the specs: 900 pixels wide (height is up to you) and at least 72 dpi.

UPDATE 2 - The requests are coming in and I’ve gotten some for SFO stories. Just to be totally clear, I’m looking for short recaps for VALHALLA-era stories, meaning chapters 1-12. If that doesn’t appeal to you at all and you really, really want to do one of the SFO stories, of course I will make an exception. But I just wanted to make sure everyone is clear on how this is supposed to work. Theoretically, if I can get an artist for each one of the 12 chapters (with the 12th being a particularly fun chapter because it’s not finished yet–you get to make up your own ending!), then a person could read them all in a row and get a whacked out version of the overall SF story thus far. Fun, right? Sorry for not being clear on this earlier.

UPDATE 3 - I’ve also been asked if a recap can run for multiple days. The answer is: no, not really. The recap can be as long or as short as you want, but it will all run on the same day. Any other questions, hit me up in the comments below or on email.

WRITERS

Can’t draw a stick figure to save your life? Way more comfortable with a keyboard than a pencil? Try this on for size:

I’m looking for short essays about the SuperFogeys to post in the blog. The essays should make some attempt to reflect on the past five years, but other than that they can be just about anything and strike whatever tone suits you. They could be humorous, serious, academic, spirtual–whatever.

Tell us about your Top 10 favorite moments in SuperFogeys history (I could read Top 10 lists all day), or who your favorite character is and why. Tell us about a key moment in the story that hooked you or discuss the psychology of Jerry. Tell us why you think the character of Mega Matt endures despite not appearing in the strip for a couple years now. Tell us your version of where SuperFogeys goes from here or…whatever. The possibilities are endless.

Length doesn’t matter. Subject doesn’t matter. Just don’t include any harsh language and keep it clean.

Entries can be emailed to me at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com. Deadline is Tuesday, September 20th.

WHAT YOU COULD GET FOR PARTICIPATING

As my own way of commemorating the 5th Anniversary, I’ll be drawing up a special print featuring all of the major SF characters. (If you guys dig it, I may put the prints up for sale for a righteous price.) But, if you participate as either a writer or an artist in the SuperFogeys 5th Anniversary Celebration, your name goes into a drawing to win the ORIGINAL art for the print.

As you all know, drawing the SuperFogeys is something I rarely do anymore, so this will be pretty special.

Everyone is free to submit as many essays and chapter recaps as they wish, but only one entry per person. Sound good?

Do it! Do it now!

 

PRIZE UPDATE!

This just in: now you could win three times the prizes for participating in the SuperFogeys 5th Anniversary Celebration!

I talked with Marc Lapierre and between us we found a way to sweeten the pot a little. In addition to the original art for a special 5th Anniversary SuperFogeys print I’ll be drawing solo, you could also receive:

- An original “lunchtime” sketch by SuperFogeys artist Marc Lapierre (subject of your choosing!)

- A cameo in the current chapter of the SuperFogeys. (Your likeness will be drawn by Marc to appear in the strip–and I’ll even put words in your mouth!)

3 prizes. One winner. Who wants in?

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SFO ARTIST CHRIS WATKINS RELEASES HIS FIRST BOOK!

by Brock Heasley on August 8th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

For many of you, the first time you saw the artwork of Chris Watkins, it was right here on this site in the SuperFogeys Origins story “Spy Gal & Friends in Operation: C.O.W.” earlier this year.

Well, Chris also does his own webcomic, Odori Park, and the first collection of Odori Park is available for preorder right now! Guess who wrote the foreword? Check it out:

If you’re smart, you’ll skip this page. There is amazing, incredible work to be found in this book and it is not on this page.

I have a feeling some of you are still reading, so I’m gonna tell you a story in the hopes that you’ll get bored enough to turn the page and discover (or revisit) the hilarious, true-to-life adventures of Colin, Arisa and Sprout for yourself before my feeble words have a chance to taint your experience. Still with me? Okay, you asked for it.

I grew up next to a Japanese family. The rumor was that they were millionaires, with multiple properties back in Japan that they managed from their modest home in California. I was close enough with their daughter that I could have asked to verify the rumors, but I thought that would be impolite and I wasn’t sure how Japanese people deal with rudeness. If ninjas were a possibility, I didn’t want to find out. The daughter’s name? Arisa.

In my head, even though Arisa and I were never romantically involved, Odori Park is the alternate reality where she and I got married and had a kid we named after a vegetable. Where we opened a used bookstore and hired a loser named Chaz. Where we tried to meld our cultures together and made fun of each other’s food. Where she was the smart, understanding one and I was the goofball with the ever-changing facial hair. Where everything was hilarious and our world was conceived and ably drawn by the ever-capable, extremely underrated Chris Watkins.

There’s magic to what Chris does. You don’t have to read very many strips to see it. He has a mastery of form and pacing and character design that I envy. A great deal. He’s so good at the visual side of comics that it’s easy to overlook how truly terrific the writing is.

I’m a dialogue guy. The way people talk to each other is a particular thing and translating it effectively on the page is a trick few master. Chris nails the cadences and specific banter a young married couple shares like he’s transcribing from life. Maybe he is. Is that your secret, Chris? It would make the rest of us feel better about our own efforts if it was.

And what is all that talent in the service of? A simple tale of a young couple from two different worlds. That’s it. And it’s brilliant and well-observed and reminds us that the biggest, most important thing in the world is the love two people share. Dang. That’s awesome.

Sucker. You read all of this, didn’t you? Well, stop wasting time. Turn the page. Enjoy the feeling of money well spent and dive into the world of Odori Park without hesitation. You’re about to smile. Lucky you. Lucky us.

Thanks, Chris.

-Brock Heasley, 7/20/2011

Want a copy? Preorder! Hurry!

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STUFF HAPPENS. ALWAYS.

by Brock Heasley on August 3rd, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

As @TNickPerkins told me today on Twitter, “DUDE. Stuff happens to you don’t it?” It would seem.

My wife calls me. Middle of the afternoon and I’m at work. “A man in a van just drove into our house and then smashed into our car.” No, no one got hurt. Not even the driver. Thank goodness. At the end of the day, I don’t care about anything else. Just that.

I drive home immediately and there’s tons of police and paramedics and a guy sitting on our lawn with his head held low. His van is still joined at our Scion’s hip. Things are worse than I thought. He also hit our water main. I just missed seeing the gusher turned off by a handy neighbor with a wrench. 100 phone calls and two hours later, our car has been towed away, we have a rental, and I’m eating pizza and drinking bottled water. The pizza was nice.

Even nicer? Earlier in the day, my daughter Elora bought me a present with her allowance. A deck of Star Wars 3D playing cards. She could not have picked a better time to give them to me. Sweetest thing she’s ever done and it inspired my first smile since I first got the bad news.

So that was my Tuesday, how was yours?

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COWBOYS AND ALIENS REVIEW

by Brock Heasley on July 27th, 2011
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Just got back from an early screening of Cowboys and Aliens about a half hour ago. The recollections are fresh! You know the story. Man with no name comes to town. He stirs up trouble. Aliens attack. Been done, right?

Actually, no. What’s amazing to me is that no one ever really thought to do this before. Why do aliens always attack us in the modern day? Stargate was the first movie I can recall that dealt with an earlier alien invasion. I put aliens in the Dr. Rocket/Captain Spectacular origin 2500 years in the past. I know Dr. Who has gone there. But there’s not many example of aliens not knocking down Will Smith’s door.

It’s a legit conceit though, isn’t it? That aliens could come at any time? My wife laughed the first time she saw the trailer for Cowboys and Aliens. She still maintains it’s the stupidest idea for a movie ever. But it’s not, is it? It’s no more ridiculous than Tom Cruise running away from the Tripods.

Gotta say, I had a good time with this one. Jon Favreau, the director, has never really done wrong (from what I’ve seen). He infuses an energy and a sense of humor that I quite like and that gels with my own sensibilities quite well. Cowboys and Aliens has that energy in spades.

But what I think I like most about the movie is how very seriously it is a western first. The aliens just happen to be there. I love that. That’s new. Sometimes you take two things that have been done to death and combine them and you get something different. That’s what this is.

Love Harrison Ford as the grizzled Civil War vet. Love Daniel Craig as the man with no name. Olivia Wilde was failed by the script, but she acquits herself well with what she’s given. One of my big complaints against the movie, it’s her character. There was a lot more that could have easily been done to make her more compelling and the movie just doesn’t go there.

Also, the movie has the wrong ending. Won’t spoil it here, but you’re better off closing your eyes the last five minutes. There was more that could have been done there.

Have fun this weekend, kids. This isn’t going to change your life, but this is a good genre mashup. I hope they do another.

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TINY, TINY REVIEW OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

by Brock Heasley on July 25th, 2011
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My wife surprised me with a ticket to Captain America Saturday night (she’s so cool) and I have to say I had a TON of fun with it. Lots of great winks and nods and a great, truly American story at the heart of it. Loved the Red Skull, the incorporation of ideas from across Cap’s comic book history, and the shocking feel of the ending. It’s not a perfect movie. I had issues with some of the transitions and the way some big moments were handled, but overall I highly recommend it. I’m so amped for The Avengers next year!

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