There’s no way to overstate how big a domino just fell in today’s strip. Soviet Sam and Space Pig are just catching up to a valuable piece of intel that was dropped on you, the reader, waaaaaaaay back in strip 100. I made a choice back then to reveal something to the reader that none of the characters knew about. Then, several chapter later, I did it again. Everything I know about storytelling tells me that that is not how you reveal things. It puts the characters at a disadvantage and it can be frustrating for readers to be so many steps ahead of them.
I admit I was attracted by this idea that you SHOULDN’T do something. I wanted to see, in all of my hubris, if I could do the thing that is not done and make it work. I hoped there would be a new tension that could arise from the knowing. If you know a hammer is going to fall, but you don’t know when and how, isn’t that just as exciting as a shocking revelation? I’ve hoped so. I hope the characters haven’t been sacrificed for the sake of a different kind of tension. I wonder how SuperFogeys would read if you took out the two strips linked above and all references to them. I tend to think it would be a frustrating experience.*
Of course, we are quickly headed towards a time when none of this will matter. The cards are edging closer to the table and what is now hidden is about to be cast into a blazing light.
*None of which is to say that the way I’ve told this story is the only way. I absolutely could have followed the rules and only revealed things as the characters found them out. That would have been quite a different experience from the one you’ve had so far, but I made a different choice. All I’m doing is acknowledging that. It’s up to you whether or not it was a good one.
How very Hitchcock of you, Brock. I like the way you’ve told the story so far. I think the tension is a big part of what brings people in to the story, and keeps us coming back for more.
I see you are well-informed. It’s a Hitchcockian trick for building suspense to show the knife before it plunges in. The horror is truly in the anticipation. Hitchcock was very much on my mind as I planned out this story–I’m just stretching out the same idea.
Quite similiar to Kurt Vonnegut’s usually style even though oh so very different mood. (I haven’t watched that much Hitchcock so this kind of dramatic irony in this kind of context is somewhat different to me)
Vonnegut is one of those guys I know I need to read but have never gotten around to.
Be ready. As one who has devoured quite a lot of Douglas Adams, Roald Dahl, and Jonathan Swift with zeal, I’ve found Vonnegut to be very little other than some of the most smug, simplistic, and outright nasty satire I’ve ever read.
Now, I’ve *only* read Slaughterhouse Five, so take the above with a grain of salt. I have seen plenty of authors change radically, and for the better, over the course of decades-long careers. (Stephen King, for example) So, maybe…
Slaughterhouse Five isn’t really good example of Vonnegut’s work in my opinion. Cat’s Craddle, Mother Night, The Sirens of Titan, Jailbird and Bluebeard are so much better works.
I myself found him in 2009 and read all of his books that year. So much love. Even though I started with one of his worst books.
There’s Sam’s calling. He’s the brains of the group. Everyone just took it for granted that the big guy should be fighting instead of thinking things through.
I like the way you think.
I guess what is interesting to me is that with the three pillars of the Third Man trinity the first one to be figured out is always Third Man = Dr. Klein. It’s like somehow that equality is less jealously protected by Dr. Jerry Third Klein than the other two potential equalities.
I get the risk (from a writing standpoint anyways) of someone knowing one of the other two pillars and meeting up with someone who knows the another pillar and then the whole thing is revealed.
But then again maybe I’m accidentally mentally assigning this knowledge to too many of our characters. Spy Gal is working on a hunch, Swifty knows a bit and now these two. Oh and Dr. Rocket is in on it IIRC.
I don’t want to say my feeling is positive or negative because that wouldn’t be an accurate description of how this registers toward the writing if that makes sense. It’s just interesting. Makes me think.
You bring up an interesting question. Who knows? And what do they know? I’ve been very careful and deliberate about who knows what about Jerry, but there’s one character who knows something but everything I’ve read from you guys about this character tells me you haven’t yet figured out what he/she ACTUALLY knows. Even though the clues are all there.
I know that’s cryptic, but I don’t want to spell it out. I have faith you guys can figure it out.
I don’t think it was a bad storytelling. When it was first reveled to the reader it was quite shocking, because nobody had clue. The only thing that changed it was the time of this shock, but I think that when it was first reveled it changed the whole concept of this web comic and started to look more like a super heroes comic than a comic strip. I do, however, approve the shot that you took in experimenting with the storytelling.
In other side-note, It would be very interesting to have a chat between Tangerine and The Thrice Evil, who are the ones that have the widest perspective of everything that it is going on.
Congrats for the excellent job that you do and greetings from Mexico!
Greetings from California! Good to know you.
I’d love to see Tangerine and Thrice have it out. I think that could be stunning. Interesting that you think they have the widest perspective.
Another great example of Marc’s artwork, I particularly like Sam’s expression in panel 4. Champy-kun’s comment made me think of something I’ve wondered about for a while. Thrice Evil seems to have known from the beginning about what Jerry/Dr Klein/Third Man has been up to and I’ve been waiting to find out how that is. Obviously Jerry thought he was enough of a threat to put that brain scrambling implant in his head. I wonder if he came to Valhalla willingly or was he in on the whole scheme and Jerry double crossed him? I’ve also often wondered how Jerry paid for building Valhalla – which I don’t recall ever really being explained – and super villains usually have a fair bit of stolen cash hidden away to pay for basic necessities like henchmen, doomsday weapons and crocodiles for the crocodile pit. As the Third Man he could just walk into a bank vault and take it but that would attract attention. Also, it wouldn’t really fit with Jerry’s behavior. He’s done despicable things but he justifies them to himself with the delusion that in the end its not just because he’s an obsessed lunatic whose’ been stalking Spy Gal for over half a century, but that he’s also making life better for all the Fogies in some way. He forces himself to believe that it balances out and that’s how he lives with himself. I can’t see him robbing a bank because he wouldn’t be able to justify it to himself. On the other hand if a villain, say Thrice Evil, had piles of stolen loot sitting around, stealing/using his money is okay because Thrice is the one who stole it and not him. From the Origins, Thrice seemed like a pretty nasty guy in his own right and I bet he’s itching to get his claws on Jerry after being made a prisoner in his own body. It’s a tremendously horrific thing to do to someone when you think about. I think we may see Thrice Evil take on a bigger role as things progress the way we did with Sam.
Agreed on Marc. He did a great job giving us a Sam we haven’t seen before.
I love all of your thinking here. You’re obviously very in tune with the characters and I think the scenario you’re presenting for the genesis of Valhalla is entirely plausible. Nice work!
Thank you, I’m sure I will turn out to be completely wrong and the real genesis of Valhalla will be one of your diabolically clever patented Brock Heasley plot twists, the clues to which have been carefully peppered throughout the whole series. I just appreciate being able to enjoy something that is so brilliantly written and has characters with such great psychological depth to them that I can speculate something like that.
+1
I have nothing to contribute to the plot discussion, so: an off-topic epiphany.
I just realized that Space Pig and Soviet Sam speak EXACTLY the same way that sixties and seventies comic book sidekicks spoke.
Don’t believe me? Picture old-time Alfred and Robin having this conversation.
I find this splendid.
I love everything about this comment.
I think the key thing isn’t what is ‘proper’ but rather how its presented. Writing a story often involves, as an example, many examples of bad grammar. However, it is the clearest and most efficient way to write out a scene. Does it mean a story is bad because the characters don’t speak perfect grammatically correct English? Not in the least bit.
Had you not given us some of these tidbits, I think there would be a LOT more confusion, and Jerry would be far less interesting of a character.
I really appreciate that perspective, Kent. That’s ultimately why I felt like it was okay to break some rules. Yeah, the story could have been told a different way that followed all the rules… but it would have been as good? Obviously, I’d argue no. Thanks for digging in, being patient, and enjoying the ride!