And now you see the entire impetus for the Wii storyline. I knew I wanted Star Maiden to be so deranged that she actually sees the Fogeys as their younger selves. With that in mind, I thought her interpretation of “air boxing” would be hilarious. Turned out to be more dramatic, but what are you [...]
Visually, this is a very exciting strip for me. Even the lame “Kirby Dot” I used for the energy effect on Star Maiden’s blast look pretty decent. This is the strip where I began to realize just how much fun writing Star Maiden was going to be. I mean, here I have a character that [...]
This is another callback to Spy Gal’s initial appearance in Chapter 1 where the Fogeys discussed her “hotness.” Again, Star Maiden’s reference to bunnies is not so random as it first appears. A quick read of episodes 44 and 45 of Chapter 2 should give enough of a clue to what she might be talking [...]
Some pretty loaded dialog here, and one of my favorite CS/Jerry conversations at that. I like the talky stuff. Action is fun and I understand the need for it, but I always see the core of the SuperFogeys being the interplay between the characters. That’s where the meat is. Love the promise of the last [...]
Some readers misunderstood this strip to mean that Spy Gal is upset at Star Maiden again. Not my intention at all, something I hope becomes clear in the next strip. Swifty’s line at the end came from trial and error. All of his dialog in the last panel went through many iterations. I think the [...]
The rare one-paneler! Very rarely do I have an idea for a strip that lends itself to this. The challenge is the layout. Getting all those characters into one frame isn’t easy for me, but well worth it, I think.
The plot of this particular strip was pretty simple: Jerry and Dictator Tot play Wii Bowling. DT loses. DT pulls out a gun. Here’s the script, as originally written: 123 – 1: DT assuming the bowling stance. DT: Bowling is very simple. The remote is like the ball. You pull it back with the button… [...]
There’s a kid with a gun. The kid’s a villain though, so I’m asking you to go with it. There’s not much funny about gun violence. This isn’t the place to really get into it, but my life has certainly been affected by gun violence on more than one occasion. My feeling is that if [...]
Did Swifty go too far? That’s what some readers thought. I admit that I had second thoughts about this one as well, but knowing what I know about Swifty and Jerry’s relationship, I think he is justified. True, I haven’t actually REVEALED why Swifty hates Jerry so much, but still… The second panel with Spy Gal’s [...]
Here’s a bit of a storytelling trick…by keeping Dr. Rocket out of the strip for several weeks (off camera–he was in the room the whole time), I make his appearance in the last panel just that much more surprising. That’s the hope anyway. It all seems terribly convenient, I agree. You’re supposed to be thinking [...]
Nothing funny here. Again. I’m pushing the readers’ limits, but all for a (hopefully) good purpose. Some people felt the Captain was out of character here. I disagree, of course, but I think I understand why they might think that. To me, the Captain sees Jerry as his “son.” He would do anything for him, [...]
How did I go this long without a “When Pigs Fly” joke? That first panel was a challenge for me. In case you haven’t already been able to tell, perspective isn’t my strong suit. Still, I’m pleased with how it turned out. I think it works for what it is. Again, Star Maiden is just [...]
This is the payoff for all the set-up I did at the beginning of the chapter with Spy Gal and Jerry. Wait, I take that back, you don’t really get the payoff for this until Chapter 5, but this is the beginning. Pants. Always good for a joke. Spy Gal growing suspicious of Dr. Klein [...]
Here’s one of the advantages of planning far, far ahead: I can drop tidbits in here and there because, to me, the stories already exist. Tom and the Mysterious Woman in the photograph are something for later (probably Chapter 7), but knowing about them already, I can use them to illustrate a point here. The [...]
Had a blast with the first panel. I love drawing Mr. Crook, design courtesy of Eskimo Dave creator Mike Hartigan. I wish he wasn’t dead. Check back to Episode 10 of Chapter 1 for a part of Mr. Crook’s story. Mustache on Captain Spectacular doesn’t look too bad. A little more insight on the Jerry/Swifty [...]
This is a mean, mean cliffhanger. I don’t know that it’s fair to end this chapte like this, but it really couldn’t end any other way. Thematically, the next chapter has to begin a few seconds after Dr. Rockets declaration of good news and bad news. I’m hoping it’ll make sense why I did it [...]
This and the next three WebSpace Pages were intended for Chapter 3 proper, but I couldn’t fit them in and still make the big Third Man reveal be #100–which was important to me. The Captain isn’t the most popular SuperFogey, but he is the most important. All the clues to why are here in his [...]
That profile pic of Jerry is my most favorite drawing of him that I’ve done. It just captures him so perfectly. The first mission of the Society of Heroes is a tale I want to tell. It should appear as a backup story in a future SuperFogeys book. Watch for that.
Here’s the cover to the first printed edition of the SuperFogeys, collecting both chapters 1 and 2.
This is the cover to Book 2, which collected both all of Chapter 3 and the backup story, “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension.”
With Chapter 4 complete, it’s time to roll out Book #3! This cover was a collaboration between me and the artist known only as Jorzac. He generously provided pencils and then those are my sloppy inks slapped on top. Colors byMADConk. Thanks, Jorzac! Collection #3 of course contains the entirety of Chapter 4, along with a [...]
UPDATE! COLLECTION #4 NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER! This is it! The cover to the fourth collection of the SuperFogeys. Dare I say it’s our best one yet? Didn’t start out that way though. Th3rd World Publisher Michael DeVito deserves all the credit in the world for the stellar job he did on the coloring for [...]
THE TEASER FOR CHAPTER 7, “VISITING DAY” Chapter 6, “Funeral for a Frenemy” is over! The Dr. Rocket we knew was really the impostor Herman! The real Dr. Rocket is back! So…now what? What happens in “Visiting Day?” I cannot tell, but I can tease… Spoiler Alert! Skip to the next section of the post [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
LUCAS TURNBLOOM Guest strip week continues! Lucas Turnbloom is a fellow Tall Tale Features member and premiere editorial cartoonist. His work has been seen in USA Today, CNN.com, Time.com and a bunch of other places that wouldn’t touch my work with a 10-foot pole. Lucas’s first love is strip work and to that end he has [...]
SEAN CONCHIERI Today’s guest strip is a special one. Sean Conchieri is an early SuperFogeys supporter, having done the very first review of my little webcomic that could over at Way of the Geek. And here’s a follow-up review Sean did a year later, “Revisiting the SuperFogeys”. You can even see what the first SF strip looked like [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
PINKERTON MOVES OVER TO TH3RD WORLD Didja’ hear? Mike Witmer has moved his great, abso-stinkin’ hilarious webcomic Pinkerton over to Th3rd World. Now, Pinkerton has been with Th3rd World for a few months now, but last week Mike finally make the big move of making Th3rd World the exclusive spot for all things Pinkerton. The best [...]
SUPERFOGEYS ON DIGITAL STRIPS Well, sadly, SF went out on the first round of Webcomic Idol. Were my readers confused about the voting process? Did SF have a target on its back? Were the other comics that much better? Is this all a result of a smear campaign by Marvel and DC for damage done [...]
TWITTER Hey, anyone else on Twitter? I’ve been on it for about a month now and I think I’ve moved past the addictive stage and into the comfortable I’ll-post-when-I-really-have-something stage. It’s fun. See my Twitter page here. Right now I’m slowly working my way through adding commentary to the strips in Chapter 5. Every time I [...]
UPDATE! CALL FOR GUEST STRIPS Each year I schedule a one week break for myself around Christmastime. I never miss updates, so I figured I deserve at least a week away. Nice time to recharge. Last year, I just didn’t post anything during that week, but now it occurs to me that there might be [...]
MOTHER OF AN EPISODE So little dialogue…so much drawing…and I don’t like any of it. I’ve gotten slammed in the past for being too critical of my work. Whenever I get into that mode, people usually do one of two things: either 1) defend my work against me and my wonderful insecurities or 2) tell [...]
FUNERAL It didn’t occur to me until this week how coincidentally timed this chapter of SF is. Unless I miss my guess, today is the 11th anniversary of my own father’s funeral. He died on the 23rd of November. The story of all that is amazing, funny, tragic, epic, inspiring and defining (for me). Yes, [...]
COMIC MAKING AND THE HOLIDAYS DO NOT MIX Oh, man! I finished the strip you see above yesterday. Yesterday. I never do that. I’m admant about having Tuesday’s strip done by at least Thursday the week prior. Guess what happened last Thursday? I ended up having to stay up late on Saturday in order to [...]
MY YOUNGEST BROTHER GOT ENGAGED! This has no relation to SuperFogeys! But I’m excited for him! She’s a great girl! Virtual (non-alcoholic) toast! 588 B.C. As most of you have already guessed, this little origin story starts with a very real event–that of the Babylonian invasion of Israel. What happened was the ruling power in [...]
RELIGION IN THE SUPERFOGEYS Well, I think it’s fair to say the last episode stirred the pot a little. And if it wasn’t the episode itself, then it was my comments. I don’t think there’s any need to rehash it all, but I just want to say that I don’t see the SuperFogeys as a [...]
SUPERFOGEYS FEATURED ON AIN’T IT COOL NEWS! Ain’t It Cool News is the BIGGEST movie news/rumor site on the web. Every week they feature a comic book review column and every once in awhile they take a look at webcomics in their “dot.comics” feature. Well, this week Ambush Bug took a look at SuperFogeys and [...]
FANTASTIC SUPERFOGEYS FAN ART BY T.L. COLLINS How great is that? Big thanks to T.L. for this amazing piece of work. This is exactly the sort of thing you might have seen on the stands in 1963 in the Fogey universe! Be sure and check out T.L’s great comic Bullfinch when you get a chance. You [...]
LAST CALL FOR GUEST STRIPS! The last day I’m accepting guest strips for my upcoming Christmas break is fast approaching. I know for sure that some of you are working on them, so please get them in asap along with a link to your site or comic! Email your guest strip to me by 11:59pm [...]
