UPDATE – 4/8/2011 Just for kicks, I updated this strip with a new version I drew back at the time of the release of SuperFogeys Volume One. It was included as an extra in that book, but I figured it was time for the world to see it. Here’s what the original first strip looked [...]
This is one of those that’s a favorite of a lot of people (or so I’m told) but that I’ve never really liked much. Bathroom humor always feels cheap and forced to me. On these early strips I was drawing at a smaller size and using paper and pens that were quite a bit different [...]
After I did the first 10 SuperFogeys strips on my blog at MySpace, I decided to try to find a place to get the strip hosted and see if I could produce something like it on a regular basis. When the SuperFogeys did find a host site (pre-Th3rd World) I decided to start the strip [...]
This is the first strip where I’m really demonstrating the perverseness of Dr. Rocket, an aspect of his personality that would come to define him later. It’s hard writing a perverse character in what is essentially an all-ages strip, but I think this strip is a good example of how it can be done. It’s [...]
I knew I wanted Dr. Rocket’s monologue to be about how he got Spy Gal unconscious, but I wanted his means of accomplishing that to be something humorous, brief and unique. I thought he might drug her, but just any ol’ drug wouldn’t do. It had to be something exotic. Boom: Space Pig Urine. It [...]
There are essentially two ways to do a comic strip (as I see it): with or without a continuing story. The intro of Spy Gal is when I realized that I just wasn’t capable of doing one-off jokes. I ALWAYS have a story to tell. Spy Gal was originally supposed to be a character named [...]
For Spy Gal’s intro, I wanted to push the boundaries of good taste a little. Is it right to make light of the dementia that all-too-often takes over the minds of older people? …Depends on how you do it. Turns out Spy Gal was faking, but it’s a theme I plan on revisting. Why Turnip? [...]
It still pains me to look at the art in a lot of these early strips. Where the crud are the frickin’ wheelchairs? The only answer I have is that I was lazy and was trying to draw as little as possible. I really saw the strips as more of an exercise in pacing and [...]
his is the second of the additions I made to the original 10 black and white strips I did to kick off the SuperFogeys. Originally, episode 8 went into what is now episode 10 without this minor stopover to make explicit what was once subtle. She’s Spy Gal. Spy Gal is a spy. Duh. It [...]
This is one of my favorites. I think it really brings home the idea that these guys are old. We don’t know how Mr. Crook died, but he was in a nursing home and that’s what people tend to do there so we don’t even wonder what the cause was. Maybe that’s a story I’ll [...]
First of all: yes, they’re watching Jeopardy. The real point of this strip was to show Jerry’s concern for Spy Gal and Captain Spectacular’s utter lack of it. I wrapped that point in a Jeopardy joke recycled from Groundhog Day because I figured I’d better do this joke now and early in order to get [...]
This one is just ugly. None of the characters look right, though I do love how the idea of Spy Gal kissing Dr. Rocket just rolls off Captain Spectacular. The man just does not care. Plus: sexy shoulder blades.
I love this strip. I think this is the one where you get the best sense of the relationship between Captain Spectacular and Jerry. The first panel alone–I think if the entire strip were just that panel, I’d be happy. I don’t think anyone else laughs at that first panel (That’s not where the joke [...]
This is the strip that finally broke me. I enjoy the dialogue here a lot, but the art is the (seemingly) umpteenth strip made out of spare parts. This is when I realized things had to change.
I do believe this strip marks the first close-up I’d ever done in the Superfogeys. I began looking for ways to change the camera around and push the framing into the storytelling more. It was just one panel, but it was a start.
I love this little experiment. It’s two jokes, one the main plot and one a jokey subplot, that don’t work so well on their own but that compliment each other, I think, pretty well. Jerry’s frustration here is my own. Sleep, it seems, will always be denied me. I had no idea the Space Pig [...]
Double-sized strips are always fun, but I’m not sure this is the best use of it. The flashback certainly was fun to do. The idea here should be clear: Jerry is Captain Spectacular’s sidekick. This is all set-up and revelation. You should be getting the idea by now that Chapter 1 is really Jerry’s story.
This is the episode that almost never was. My original plan was to go from strip 26 to the last strip of Chapter 1–what is now strip 28. However, I realized fairly late in the game that I hadn’t really done anything to set up WHY CS and Spy Gal would get back together. I [...]
The last strip of Chapter One is one that I had planned for a long, long time. Once I decided to do the SuperFogeys for real, I quickly came up with a grand plan. This plan extends far, far beyond this chapter, though this ending is the first touchstone in that plan. If you ever [...]
One of the better-paced strips I’ve done (or so I’ve been told) and a solid, economical reintroduction to three of the main characters.
Some people thought Dr. Klein’s look in the third panel coupled with his German name mean that Dr. Klein is evil. I won’t comment on the prejudices of my readership, but I will say that I did not have that in mind when I drew it. I was just experimenting with what I could do [...]
Ugh. This is my failed experiment. Like Strip 25, I had two ideas for a strip and tried to make them into one. As drawn, panel 3 preceded panel 2, but at the last minute I got the idea to integrate them more. It didn’t work. Not helping matters is the last panel. For the [...]
More Healer nonsense. You can see how my camera is really changing up now. I’ve left behind almost completely the cut/paste of the previous chapter, something I was real glad to do. The Space Pig is always fun to bring back. There’s no way to explain him and his function every time out, so I [...]
I hate the first panel of this one. CS and Spy Gal just don’t look right and I don’t know what I was thinking. The entire point of this strip was to establish that Spy Gal is attracted to Dr. Klein. I don’t do anything more with it for the whole of Chapter 2, but [...]
This is a strip I’m really proud of. It’s very much a side-trip from the main story, but I think it’s poignant in a way that SuperFogeys hasn’t been up until now. While writing the SuperFogeys, I often have to ask myself, “What will it be like when I’m old?” I guess this is one [...]
Jerry was late to the party because I needed to remind the audience of his feelings for Spy Gal. I’m sure there was a better way to do that. Not a favorite of mine.
I had been looking for an excuse to do a single-panel strip for a long time and this conclusion of the Healer’s interviews with all the SuperFogeys was a good excuse for it. Originally, the dialogue on this one was vastly different. It was a back and forth between the Healer and the Captain; none [...]
This is one of those connecting strips that I didn’t know I needed until I did. Strip 45 was always a story I was going to tell, but before I got to that story I realized that I had nothing leading into it. What would be Dr. Rocket’s final scheme? Why, bunnies of course. Why [...]
See the bunny? I liked the idea that Dr. Rocket kept one bunny for himself. Of course it begs the question…what happened to the bunny? That answer is coming in Chapter 6. This strip took a little longer than your average strip. In the end, I think I probably pumped a little too much detail [...]
Another “ugh” strip for me. I have a real problem with drawing too big for the panel. I truly need to zoom the camera out more. The Healer declaring the Captain the winner without checking the score should come across as a bit strange. He’s just being too nice. It’s the first hint there might [...]
Bingo Knight’s design came from the idea that he is essentially a super accountant. I mean, a super hero who settles Bingo scores? How could he be anything BUT an accountant? Once I knew that, all I had to do was put a dorky guy in a Knight costume and the idea sold itself.
I tried and tried to not make this one a double-sized. I had just done one and I didn’t want to take the time to do another one, but there just wasn’t any other way to make it work. Too many characters all interacting with each other. It has been said that this is one [...]
This is the one that was lifted almost entirely from the rejected version of strip 43. That’s how a lot of strips get written. I may write lots and lots of possible dialogue for any given strip and if something isn’t right for the idea, but the dialogue is good anyway, I’ll save it and [...]
This is one I was really excited about doing. The art in the SuperFogeys represents a style that I invented just for this strip. I work in a lot of different styles at my 9-to-5 and in my freelance work, so it was fun to show off one of those styles in this strip. Plus, [...]
By the time I got to this strip I’d really tossed away any notion I had of keeping the same structure of four panels for each strip. This is another of those ideas I had from almost the very beginning of Chapter 2. It’s so weird seeing the Captain standing. I don’t know that I’ll [...]
I love Gene. He’s such a jerk and yet, I think, you feel sorry for him. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s just me. I broke my rule of having Spy Gal being tough enough to defend herself because I couldn’t pass up the joke. I hope no one minded.
I’m color-blind (mildly so, but still…), but the SuperFogeys are a one man show so you all have to put up with my puke palette. However, it’s always nice when a strip looks pretty like I think this one does. The entire point of this strip is to justify the next one…
…just as the entire point of Chapter 2 was to justify this one joke. See, I wrote this one as one of the first 10 strips back in the first weeks of the creation of the SuperFogeys. I quickly realized that I couldn’t use it because, uh, hello? Captain Spectacular can’t walk. Thus, Chapter 2 [...]
This is an important call back to the end of Chapter 1. I had to keep Jerry’s unrequited love alive somehow and it seems particularly harsh that it’s now Spy Gal herself who is diminishing him. Jerry’s just fun to mess with.
And that’s it, folks! Captain Spectacular’s dialogue here with Dr. Klein offers real insight into his character. CS has retired from not only the hero business, but also from life. Even though this seems like a return to the status quo, the Captain will remain healed and able to walk. Might make things interesting later [...]
Finally we’re back to the Fogeys. It was a conscious decision on my part to not have the Fogeys enter the stage for so many strips—six, to be exact. I wanted to try something new. Re-energize myself. I found I really missed them and the strip seems to come alive when they’re “on screen.” I [...]
Visually, this is one of my absolute favorites. You can see I’m trying something new with the background. I first used the “faded background” technique in a guest strip I did for Wes Molebash’s strip “You’ll Have That” Once I did it there, I knew I needed to try it for SF. More copy/pasting [...]
The first panel shows a depth of field we haven’t really seen in SF thus far. My goal was to do a drawing that would also work well as a group shot and, possibly, a wallpaper. Plans are in the works for just such a thing. Obviously, this is a huge change of pace for [...]
Gene’s closing line in panel one was originally something like “Give her your utmost respect.” I quickly discovered at the lettering stage that I didn’t have enough room for that. Thank goodness. I love that he just shouts “Respect!” Kinda’ thing that makes me laugh. Spy Gal threatening violence on a little girl makes me [...]
I don’t remember if this strip was done this way out of laziness or because I wanted to shake things up. Honestly, if I had to guess I’d say I was trying to shake things up. I think I was trying to create the feeling of overhearing the conversation before you really see who is [...]
And now we see the real plan. Get the Captain on the computer to see his ex-wife. In the end, it’s kind of weak. There should have been something extra on the plan, or a bigger reaction from the Captain. It bears fruit, sure, but I think the Captain’s reaction could have been stronger and [...]
That last panel of Star Maiden is something I’m really pleased with. I wanted a really fluid figure and I often have a hard time drawing women. I surprised myself here. For some reason, readers really latched onto the phrase “Spill it, Gramps!” I have no idea why. I didn’t think it was particularly funny. [...]
The genesis for this flashback came from Daniel Woodhouse, artist on “Thog Infinitron” and sometime artist of “Beaver and Steve.” I asked Dan to do a short backup story for the second SuperFogeys book and asked him what he wanted to draw. He said “Captain Spectacular fighting in the skies above a city. Maybe a [...]
I don’t know why Mr. Crook is in there. It doesn’t really add anything to the story to have him there. Great Dr. Rocket moment though. I had a lot of fun drawing that tongue and making it as yucky as possible.
The obvious signified of a flashback is to do the art in black and white. That gray shading I add in there is an effect I wish I had time to do on all the SuperFogeys strips. Plans are for that effect to be added to the strips for the trade collections. Once that happens, [...]
This strip is a favorite of mine. It’s some of my favorite dialog I’ve written and the sparse look really works for it. Portal could have been drawn better though.
Obviously, something big went down in that other dimension. For the whole story, check out the backup tale “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension” in the second SuperFogeys book. It’s drawn by Julio Molina-Muscara, artist on “Omega Chase.” I wanted a “no bad guy” break-up here. I think you get where everyone [...]
The Pig is the minister! That’s the payoff to the Space Pig’s WebSpace page. Don’t know how many people picked up on that. I had a lot of fun with this page. Designing the Ninja Bridesmaid was particularly fun.
Some people objected to the Captain and Star Maiden getting a divorce over a stinky sock. Them I would say: it’s one panel. Obviously, there’s a much bigger story there. I had a lot of fun with the interplay between Dictator Tot and Captain Spectacular here. I need to get those two together again.
As bad as the art was in the firs few strips of this chapter, I think it got that much better once the Wii stuff came in. Spy Gal’s jumping pose was something I was nervous about doing (I’m not good with the action), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. All of [...]
Some readers thought Jerry was out-of-character here. In my mind, Jerry is basically a decent guy, but even decent guys can be pushed too far. If it’s Swifty talking, then you can be sure that Jerry is being pushed too far. I labored and labored over the wording of Dr. Rocket’s apology. It had to [...]
I had a TON of fun with this episode. Webcomics can, at times, be a bit of a grind. That schedule, even at just twice a week, can be killer. A visually interesting episode like this where I get to play with depth of field and extreme reactions is just a blast. I had only [...]
Eh. I can take or leave this one. I think there’s some neat character animation going on in those first panels, but it’s not drawn very well. This is one of the first strips I wrote for this chapter, and one of the least successful. When I first wrote it, it seemed to encapsulate what [...]
