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 [...]
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 [...]
Drawing a sauced Captain Spectacular was so much fun that I have to find a way to do it again. I WILL find a way to do it again. Originally, this was going to be flashback to how CS met Jerry. I’ll still tell that story one day, but with Spy Gal’s suspicions raised, I [...]
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 [...]
Had a lot of fun drawing Spy Gal in her civvies. Just makes sense to me that she’d be into firearms. Originally, her profile pic was completely different. She was leaning on a pillow and it was nice, but…I hated it. So I’ve switched it out for the one you see above. Matches the other [...]
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 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 [...]
RUFUS EDGE Holy Guest Strips, Captain! I was amazed to get 2 guest strips of high caliber this week, and now, suddenly, I’ve got two more! This latest one was actually submitted as Fan Art, but I think you can easily see why I tossed it into the regular rotation. I literally laughed out loud [...]
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, [...]
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 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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
ORIGINAL ART SALE UPDATE! Went ahead and added a piece of art to the store today! Man, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be! Just one strip’s pencils right now, but more to come. Make your requests now! Check out the pencils to 106! Okay, I’ve brought this up before, but [...]
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 [...]
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Nice to see a little color around here, isn’t it? The only things that should black and white at Christmastime is “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th St.” Next Week: Guest Strip Week is upon us! Next week you’ll get not two but four posts, one each on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and [...]
Today’s Strip… Is by the mad genius that is Scott Gallatin. Scott traffics in the insanity of the every day with his absurd take on his own life, Madscott. It’s autobiography like you’ve never seen and while I fear for Scott’s sanity, he never fails to make me laugh. Scott is also the cohost of the long-running [...]
UPDATE – THE SCRIPT Below in the comments, Greg Bulmash asked a great question about how exactly TL and I work together. Specifically, he was curious as to how much influence I, as the writer, have over the visuals and how much is TL’s invention. I figure some of you might like to know as [...]
SILENCE It’s taken me 197 strips (holy snot, that is such an impossible number to the me of 2 years ago), but I finally did a strip with no dialogue! Believe it or not, this has been a goal of mine for a while, but I could never come up with an idea I felt [...]
FLASHING BACK Long time fans might find today’s Origins a little familiar. Essentially, what we have here is this little scene done up TL Collins style and given some context. There are some subtle inconsistencies (like Dr. Rocket’s hair), but nothing too imporant. Really like what TL did with the top panel in particular–he showed me [...]
TODAY’S SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS I do try to not be so wordy (not that you can tell) and every time I get out of his way, TL just shows me how its done. This was kind of a tricky layout, but he nailed it. NEW T-SHIRT Over the weekend, on the suggestion of one Mr. Tom [...]
BIG INTERVIEW IN THE OFFING Did an interview yesterday with a big time comics news site. Don’t know how much I can say about it yet, but when it hits it’s gonna put SF in front of a whole bunch more eyeballs. Details here just as soon as I can give ‘em. I won’t wait [...]
UPDATED WITH PIC AND LINK!! THE SUPERFOGEYS ON BIG BANG THEORY!? BIG THANKS to Norm Feuti of the absolutely amazing webcomic Gill for providing this screen shot! You can also check out the clip to this scenehere! So freakin’ cool… Original post: As of this writing The Big Bang Theory hasn’t aired in California yet, but [...]
NEW TALL TALE RADIO INTERVIEW! To celebrate SuperFogeys 200 and a few other things, Tom Racine interviewed me last week and we had a blast. I think this is a good one. I was very careful about inappropriate laughter and even reduced my number of “ums” per minute by 75%! Heck yeah! Tom puts it [...]
“CHARACTERS” PAGE UPDATE! Hey, don’t if everybody know this, but just above the strip is a tab that links to a page with a rundown of all the characters that have graced the pages of the SuperFogeys. I try to keep it as current as possible. I just did a massive update that takes into [...]
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY WRAP-UP! What a whirlwind of a weekend. Not only did my brother get married on Friday, but I was also recovering from food poisoning and attended my first Free Comic Book Day as a comic creator. I arrived with my wife Erin and eldest daughter Elora at 9:40am at Heroes Comics [...]
T.L. COLLINS AND THE AIDS WALK/RUN Hey all, just wanted to let you know about this great thing SuperFogeys Origins Artist T.L. Collins is doing. Show him some support, won’t you? (UPDATED WITH LINKS!) BUBBLES OF LIGHT A SuperFogeys Origins/SuperFogeys crossover? Yep. Wondering how they sync up? Well, the Bubbles of Light have shown up before. [...]
“SORRY, FIDEL” SHIRT UPDATE! The shirts are in! They should be going out this week so those of you that ordered them will be getting them very, very soon. If you’ve been waiting to order yours, now’s the time! You can get them right here. LOST SEASON 5 FINALE I’m so frickin’ pumped for the finale! [...]
T.L. COLLINS INTERVIEWED ON THE VILLAINS CORNER WEBCOMIC CHAT! Found this while googling (why didn’t you tell me about it, TL!?). It’s a fantastic interview with TL and the guys over at Villains Corner about both Bullfinch and SuperFogeys Origins. TL goes in depth on the creation of Bullfinch and the painful process that it [...]
A PEACOCK NAMED ARISTOTLE Okay, this is just too weird not to share. There I am, just minding my own business at work and taking a brief break to check out Facebook. I notice that my wife has posted something new. I look closely. I can’t be seeing what I’m actually seeing, can I? I click [...]
See you on Thursday with SuperFogeys 212! ——————- FREE! Download SF Ch. 1, “Insane Romance From Hell” on Your iPhone/iTouch Here (AVAILABLE NOW) Order Your Copy of “The SuperFogeys Collection #4 “The Redemption of Dr. Rocket” ARTIST Edition Here! (SHIPS JUNE 18th) Order Your Copy of “The SuperFogeys Collection #4 “The Redemption of Dr. Rocket” [...]
ORDER YOUR BULLFINCH COMIC BOOK TODAY! Anyone who reads SuperFogeys Origins knows very well how incredible talented TL Collins is. As the artist, TL brings it week in a week out, even tweaking the pages when I go all diva on him and demand that Spy Gal’s hairy back be erased! (Okay, that’s never happened, [...]
SWIFTY’S NEW COSTUME This went mostly unaddressed last week, but chances are a few more of you will notice it today. Yes, it’s true that Swifty’s costume has suffered a mid-story change out of nowhere. It’s similar enough to the old one that Swifty in the Valhalla continuity won’t need changing, but it looks pretty [...]
END OF SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS BOOK ONE How about a big round of applause for T.L. Collins! Week in and week out, his work has both excited and inspired me. His art got better and better as we went along and he never missed a deadline. Not once. You gotta give it up to him for [...]
I’M AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON THIS WEEKEND! For those of you that missed it on Tuesday… Through an odd series of circumstances that I won’t bore you with, last Thursday I was given two exhibitor passes to the sold-out San Diego International Comic Convention. I’ve gone to the con twice as a fan, but [...]
SUPERFOGEYS VOL. 1 – THE TRADE PAPERBACK – NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!! I have been waiting so, so long for this. The SuperFogeys has always been meant to be read as a whole and this new trade paperback represents the best possible reading experience. I’m pulling out all the stops for this. First, take a [...]
UPDATE! – MAJOR CHANGE TO SUPERFOGEYS VOL. 1!! As you know, I’ve been working hard on putting together the first SuperFogeys trade paperback. This week I finally got all the strips rewritten and re-edited (mostly just to make it a smoother read and not so “strippy”), and I also did some art tweaks here and [...]
